Let’s just add ANOTHER complication to Hannah’s life, shall we? (Yes, note the sarcasm).
We just met with Hannah’s occupational therapist, and it seems as if my Little Miss Hannah has possibly developed an aversion to baby food. It doesn’t matter what flavor, peas, pears, sweet potatoes, applesauce, etc. It has gotten to the point where she will even clench her little lips so tight just so we can’t get the spoon in there. She will even start crying out if we continue to try for more than a couple minutes or so. If we get the baby food in with a spoon and immediately chase it with a bottle of formula, she has no problems.
So, I’m not convinced it is even a swallowing issue because she doesn’t even want to get it in her mouth. When she does get it in her mouth and is forced to swallow it, we don’t know if she is trying not to swallow it by fighting it or if she actually is having swallowing issues. Honestly, I don’ t think it is swallowing-related because her formula is pretty thick because of the rice cereal. Also, the amount of baby food that we could actually get in her mouth isn’t even enough for her to choke on.
She will be 8 months old tomorrow. We really only have a couple of months left to get her to start liking food! Her OT and I came up with some other tricks to try, and we have to be more diligent about a schedule of trying to feed her twice a day.
Is this GD23 related? Honestly, I don’t think so. But you know, until we get the results of the swallow study next month, we won’t know for sure.
have you tried putting a big glob on her highchair tray and seeing if she will “grab” some and put it in her mouth? maybe she just doesn’t like the spoon? or wants to do it herself? maybe if she gets some on her hands then puts her hands in her mouth she would lick it off? worth a try I guess…
I was going to suggest the same thing – put a spoonful on her tray and let her play with it, put her hands in her mouth and see how she reacts.
I don’t know about Hanna, but Bertrand can’t use his hands–the tray thing won’t work. We used to be able to feed him baby food just fine (we started @ 2 months due to his feeding issues) but now he acts as if we’re murdering him. I have to trick him with the bottle too. (His next OT is 3/31.)
My husband and I are wondering whether torturing him with food is *really* worth it? My compromise is that when his diagnosis comes back, if we’ve got extra time together he’ll learn to eat then. If he’s only got a few more months left, then our boy gets to call the shots. OT be damned. 😉
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Don’t worry too much !!! I have three Children and neither one of them ever was EVER very fond of babyfood ! My firstborn went straight from breastmilk to tablefood. Never took a liking to babyfood ! So don’t worry. It might just be Hannah’s Personality ! Now my firstborn wouldn’t miss a meal LOL. If anything, my third was most likely to eat a tiny bit of babyfood. With the first ones, I eventually stopped bothering dealing with babyfood. And guess what , they are just ! So give Hannah just some time ! It might just be as simple as that !
Best wishes !!!! And good Luck !
Hey Carrie, try not to feel so pressured to getting her to take baby food. Josslyn has had a lot of feeding issues; one of them being with baby food and the spoon. She arch her back, pinch her lips together, scream, spit it out, ect just at the SIGHT of the spoon. Every child is different so what works for one child may not work for Hannah, you know her best! With Josslyn, I worked on desensitizing her mouth. Before every bottle I would rub the finger brush all around her mouth. My goodness that girl would just SCREAM!! After a while she just got used to it pretty much and then a few months later she was doing much better with the spoon and baby foods. Try not to stress about it. She will do it on her own time with some help and encouragement from you 🙂
My Little Bit was born at 28 weeks (she is 3 now). Her food aversion issues weren’t major, but she hated baby food. She still won’t eat anything of that consistency. We wound up giving her any table food from our plates that she showed an interest in as long as it wasn’t a choking hazard. She ate a lot of soft vegetables, and soup.
Hi Carrie,
Have you tasted baby food. Yuck. When my daughter first started to go on solid food, I made her food from what we had for dinner. Basically out of necessity because I wasn’t working, and baby food never was cheap. I would feed her carrots, or any vegetable I had, just run it through a blender or food processor. Mashed potatoes and gravy, pudding and yogurt, any soup you can blend. Its pretty easy and I think they like the food better. If I was adding salt or butter, I would take hers out first, cook ours the way I always did and then blended hers separate in a blender. I never had a problem with my daughter eating, so I am not sure how to help you, but I am suggesting what I did when my daughter was little. GOOD LUCK!!
That must be so frustrating. I think you are probably right about it being a baby thing and not a swallow thing, but I know that it has to be verified to make sure. I do really hope it’s just a baby thing. What kinds of tricks did the OT say to use? Little Miss Hannah is definitely a fighter and that fight is coming out in all kinds of areas.
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