4 month old not eating | ExpatWoman.com
 

4 month old not eating

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Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 11:35
Sorry I didnt add that he has reflux and that was more the reason that the dr suggested starting a bit of baby rice to see if that stays down more. It was more me thinking that as he is a big boy I may need to start earlier but thanks I agree with you regarding the formula. In my experience starting solids actually worsened the reflux, as the solid food sits in the stomach longer (a lot of the anti-reflux meds are for moving things through faster). Especially with a reflux baby, I wouldn't recommend starting with baby rice, its too starchy. Lots of tummy time is the best as the sooner they start crawling the better the reflux gets (for us anyway)
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 10:46
She was taking feeds around every 3-4 hours. I've tried to offer her little and often feeds, but with no luck! I forgot to mention she is also fully formula fed since just over two months of age and has been kept on the same brand (Novolac AC). Her usual routine (for the past few months at least) when she wakes up is feed, play/activity and sleep. Last night she slept the whole night without waking but then only had 120mls when she woke up. She is still only small, but now weighs 6kgs. But she has more than double her birth weight. She just woke up from her nap and took 20mls and won't take more. So will offer it to her again soon. She doesn't seem to get hungry anymore. I guess I will keep offering it to her and see if she will take it. She is not showing any hunger cues either. After reading the threads about the four month sleep regression and the dummy (DD has one but only uses it when I first put her down in her cot) it has been very interesting and helpful! She is generally pretty good when she goes down to sleep but if she does wake up during the night, I won't give her back the dummy. She is also learning to go to sleep without it as when she spits it out, I will leave it (but the afternoon nap is the most difficult to get her to settle so sometimes I revert back. I must stop that soon!!). She is normally sucking on her hands anyway! If she wakes during the night, which is not often (touch wood, but have probably just jinxed myself now!), I will let her be and have her talk away. She doesn't normally wake and cry at night so that's why I thoought that she must have been hungry (after checking if there could be other factors). I'm thinking to whether or not to start getting rid of the dummy now. Thanks for your replies and help Edited to add: She was a bit grizzly while rolling over (she sometimes gets one arm stuck!) so offered her bottle again and she took 80ml. So I think I will have to keep offering it to her and see if she will take it. <em>edited by suznz on 10/10/2011</em>
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 09:44
Sorry I didnt add that he has reflux and that was more the reason that the dr suggested starting a bit of baby rice to see if that stays down more. It was more me thinking that as he is a big boy I may need to start earlier but thanks I agree with you regarding the formula.
2782
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 09:39
Being large is not a reason to start on solids early, I'm surprised your Dr said it was. If he got to 8kg already on formula, then formula is clearly enough.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 09:23
My 4 month old ds is pretty much the same, his feeds are not consistent although when I moved them from 3 hourly to 4 hourly he did drink more and sometimes will finish 210ml now. There are times though when he will just cry and completly refuse the bottle even though he hasn't eaten for 4 hours, the dr said just leave him and feed him when he demands it. Sometimes that can be up to 8 hours later. He is fully formula fed. He does get a dream feed at around 10.30 and last night he woke up at 3 and I couldn't get him back to sleep (we have taken away the dummy as it was resulting in excessive night waking) so after checking everything I figured he may be hungry and at 4am he drank 180ml and very quickly! Our dr did suggest starting on baby rice at about 4.5 months but I haven't tried that yet, I was wanting to wait until 6 months. he is a big boy though 8kg at 4 months so we might need to start earlier. There is another post on here that I started regarding our ds waking up at 3am and it was suggested I look up 4 months sleep regression which was very interesting.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 10 October 2011 - 09:14
Is she on 5 scheduled feeds or is that as often as you were able to get her to eat? Some babies prefer to switch to eating little and often, so if they are scheduled feeds then try offering her smaller amounts (60-100 mL at a time) every 90 minutes or whenever she seems hungry and see what happens. This pretty much exactly what happened with my BF baby, of course I have no idea how many mLs he was taking but he went from long feeds to very short feeds at exactly that age and frequent feeding sorted it nicely. The night waking is not necc connected as it is also common for that to happen at the 4 month mark due to developmental changes.
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Latest post on 09 October 2011 - 23:33
My 4 month old DD has started to be really fussy this past week with her eating. She went from drinking approx 150-160mls to 70mls or 100mls, if I'm lucky, 5 times a day. The morning feeds are generally good where she will have 160mls but things just get worse from there throughout the day. I'm not sure what to do or when to start really worrying. She still has wet diapers, however in the afternoon it starts to become slightly less (as expected as her intake is less) And I don't think she has lost weight. She usually sleeps through from 8pm to 6.30am but this past week has been waking at 3 or 4 for a feed as she isn't getting enough before bedtime. She amazed me two days ago, when she was drinking 160-180mls at every feed (she even had 6 feeds that day!) and I was thinking that things were good again! Haha... she lured me into a false sense of security that she was going to eat!! I don't want to force it as I don't want her to get a phobia of the bottle/food (if it's possible at this age?) but am starting to get concerned. She's also just had her vaccinations at the beginning of the month. Has anyone else experienced this at this age? Should I take her to the dr or wait it out? My main concern is about her becoming dehydrated... Your help is much appreciated as now I'm starting to worry! Edited to say: She is a very happy baby and reaching her milestones (it was actually today that she rolled from back to tummy and vice versa on both sides and won't stop!) I'm a very proud mummy! <em>edited by suznz on 09/10/2011</em>
 
 

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