from day one, avery's been a difficult little girl to feed. she's very squirmy. she shakes her head all around like she doesn't want to eat. her feeding has been a source of confusion for us since day one. it took us awhile to figure out that she didn't need to be fed as often as we were feeding her at first. next, we figured out that if she's very tired, she can't always handle eating. i remember asking my doctor at her first week appointment, at her two month appointment, and again at her 4 month - "she feeds really frantically - is there something wrong with her?" but here we are at 7.5months, she's growing and happy yet avery's feeding is still as crazy as ever. once in awhile, she'll have a calm bottle and you think, "maybe this is it! she's going to start drinking from her bottle normally now!" but so far it's always turned out to have been a one time thing.
she's super super disractable. when we try to cradle her in our arm (classic baby hold), she thinks there must be something to see behind her so she's constantly rolling, arching her back and cranking her neck back to see what she's missing. we've started holding her facing away from us - sitting on our laps but facing out. she can see more and this definitely helps the process but doesn't always do the trick if there truly IS something to see (which, since Ben is in the house, there usually IS something to see). she does okay if she's sitting in her carseat (which is totally ridiculous - i'm not going to put my kid in her carseat to feed her but it DOES help when we go out places). overall, she feeds best in the rocking chair in her room with the lights off. and only if it's totally quiet. if we can hear ben yelling or crashing out in the house, she stops drinking to listen then cranks her head towards the bedroom door. but a good bottle is her drinking without stopping but her legs are in constant motion and her arms are usually flailing about, hitting herself in the head and such while she drink. yes. that's a GOOD bottle.
the strangest thing about this frantic feeding is that in the morning, you would think she would be the hungriest. she's just slept 12 hours. she lays on my pillow next to me and i give her her bottle. she can never finish more than a couple ounces. i've tried holding her differently. i've tried taking her to the living room. never eats the whole bottle. really? you're NOT hungry?
so at the moment, i'm looking forward to leaving the bottle behind...now if we could just get her to eat solids...that would really help. ;)
4 comments:
Becca - Lila is EXACTLY the same! I'm so glad I read your post because I thought there was something wrong with her. She will go 10 hours without eating and will take three ounces and then start arching her back and turning her head to look around....so annoying! She only eats calmly in the rocking chair with lights dim. She also chokes and cries if she is too tired and eating...even though she is starving. She also acts ravenous at the beginning of the feed but then gets distracted after a few ounces...ridic! Anyways, I totally understand and I cannot wait until we can move to solids. I try to put Lila on a feeding schedule but it never works and she would rather snack every two hours during the day - I hate it. She does sleep 10-12 hours at night without eating though, so I can't complain.
Carrie G.
Sounds like Jacob. He isn't good at sinking his bottles either. If we are out or anyone else is around he barely eats. He hasn't been finishing his bottles lately. We used I be ble to get him to finish if we waited 15-30 mins after he refused to eat and he woul finish the last couple ozs. Not any more. He does eat solids but won't drink water so I always worry that he will get dehydrated. It sucks doesn't it? I hope Avery start to eat solids for you soon!!
Oh my! Should have proof read...sry!
Just read a review this morning in the Edmonton Journal about a new book called French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen La Billon. Sounds like a great strategy for getting kids started on solid food and not developing picky habits. Could be a help in the next stage??
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