OT: How much formula does your 9 month old drink?

[mhm]

I have a little peanut, too, who will be 9 months next week and is only 17 lbs. She has been on higher calorie formula most of her life. She was hospitalized for 5 days when she was a month old because she had not regained her birth weight. After tons of needles, chest xray, cat scan, and being poked and prodded endlessly, they decided she wasn't eating enough. I was bf'ing at the time, so since she wasn't complaining, we didn't know she wasn't eating enough. She spent a month on 24-cal/ounce ebm/formula mixture, then gradually reduced it over the next month. Ever since, she's had formula that is measured as slightly heaping rather than level scoops, and we practically force feed her a few extra bites at meals (although she pretty much resists any additional now). Even with all this, she barely follows a consistent weight curve. She is extremely active (crawled at 6 months, and already taking a few independent steps), and her ped warned us that we may have a hard time keeping her weight gain constant, but since she is very advanced, and is growing consistently in height (95th percentile) and head circumference, he's not worried, even though she's below 3rd percentile weight for length. It took alot of months for him to reach this point, though. Once she started solids (at 6 months), she finally gained some interest in eating (particularly now that she can feed herself a few things), but still not much interest in the bottle. We work to get 24 ounces into her every day. She gets 2-3 tbsp of rice or oatmeal cereal (made with formula) twice a day, 2 fruits & 2 veggies (stage 2 jar or equivalent amount, and a couple tablespoons full of either O's or crispy rice cereal (organic due to corn sensitivity). We tried cutting back on solids, but she didn't take any more formula then. We try to make sure she gets avocado regularly, since it's higher in calories, but mostly we just try to make sure she gets nutrient-dense food.

Be careful going to high-calorie formula. They introduced dd to it slowly (22 cal first, then 24 cal) while she was hospitalized, checking her stools for signs that it was upsetting her tummy. Don't do it without specific direction from the pediatrician.

 

[delilah]

Perhaps he just doesn't like the way nutramigen tastes. When we were doing our pediatrics rotation in medical school, one teaching activity we had was trying sips of all the different formulas, so that we could experience what we would be prescribing for our patients. Nutramigen is some nasty tasting stuff. I know that your son needs it for dietary issues, but, it would be nice if your pediatrician could think of a way to make it more acceptable to your son. As he gets older, and he starts trying other foods, it will become more apparent to him that Nutramigen just doesn't taste that good.

 

[laughinplace199]

Perhaps he just doesn't like the way nutramigen tastes. When we were doing our pediatrics rotation in medical school, one teaching activity we had was trying sips of all the different formulas, so that we could experience what we would be prescribing for our patients. Nutramigen is some nasty tasting stuff. I know that your son needs it for dietary issues, but, it would be nice if your pediatrician could think of a way to make it more acceptable to your son. As he gets older, and he starts trying other foods, it will become more apparent to him that Nutramigen just doesn't taste that good.

I think this is the problem. He's been on Nutramigen for several months and he never seemed to mind the taste. His most recent feeding issues seem to have started right around the same time that he started on solids. I think he now knows that there's better tasting stuff out there and Nutramigen isn't it! We go to the pediatrician on Tuesday for a weight check. Hopefully, he will have gained enough weight and we can stop worrying about how many ounces he takes in. Originally, the plan was to try regular formula at 9 mos and see if he tolerated it. However, when his weight was lower than expected, the dr didn't want to introduce a new formula at that time, especially since we don't know if he can tolerate it.

Thanks for the advice and wish us luck on Tuesday!

 

[thepeach80]

Just from experience, my kids have never had problems taking solids and nasty formula at the same time. Evan was on Elecare till 2 and took it just fine (as long as it came from a bottle) and I expect Ilana to do the same. I hope he's gained some weight! If weight gain is still a problem I think I would ask to try Neocate or Elecare just to see.