Baby won't eat when mama's away - help!

[lalemma]

We have a nine-month-old boy. He's almost entirely still EBF: at mealtime he sits with us and plays with whatever food we're eating that is baby-appropriate - he gets maybe a teaspoon per day? (that may be generous - I just mean to say, most of his nutrition definitely still comes from milk.)

I've just this week gone back to work, and his dad has become the at-home parent. My schedule is blessedly ultra-flexible, so I'm mostly only out of the house for 5 hours at a stretch. I try to pump twice while I'm away and then he eats immediately before I leave and immediately after I get home.

Okay, that's the backstory. Here's the problem: he is not that interested in eating pumped milk. He won't eat from a bottle, so his dad has worked out how to feed him from a cup (goes okay - a lot goes down his shirt, but oh well). And he'll eat a milk "slushie" (half-defrosted milk, fed with a spoon). The milk slushie seems to be the most successful way to get milk into him so far.

BUT. Over the course of a day, he'll eat about two ounces! That's it. No amount of his dad offering him milk will get him to take more.

Any ideas? I know this is only the first week, but it's hard not to worry.

[emilysmama]

Is your baby otherwise fine? Good tempered when you're not home? Enough wet diapers? Feeding when you are home? When my dd was your baby's age, she did the same thing, right down to the no solids thing and the messy cup feed thing, except that I was at work longer than 5 hrs (15 hrs at a stretch).

She reverse cycled. She refused milk at daycare, or drank barely enough to get by. Never fussed at day care. When I came home, she drank lots straight from the tap. Many babies by this age are sleeping through the night (i.e. more than 4 hours) so having your baby go without milk for a 5 hour stretch is the same, except it's in the day. I think if the baby seems otherwise happy and healthy, it's not necessary to do anything. I did co-sleep so that baby could nurse at night whenever she wanted and I wouldn't have to disturb my sleep much.

P.S. I think the milk slushy is a neat idea!

[mrs.t]

Supposedly, according to kellymom, 2.5 ounces of expressed milk is about how much a baby should get per feeding. So if your DS is only missing one feeding, and getting about 2 oz plus some solids, it shouldn't be a big deal. I'm sure he is reverse cycling like pp mentioned. As long as weight gain and wet diapers haven't changed significantly, it's probably fine.

[Knitting Mama]

If you're still really worried, can you try another method? Does he like sippy cups?

[aramat]

Any chance he just doesn't like that particular bottle or nipple? Sippy cup is a good idea. Could try a straw, too. But five hours isn't too big a stretch anyway.

[lalemma]

Thanks for the reassurance, everyone! He's also going through the phase where he's becoming super-active and leaning out from his ultra fat tiny baby stage, so of course that just makes me think that he's starving to death, sigh.

We've tried him on a sippy, but it seems mostly interesting for pouring liquids out of, not so much for drinking from.

His dad has been wondering if maybe he could teach him to drink from a straw, so maybe if we can find one of the cups with a built-in straw we'll try that next?

[slimkins]

Maybe play with the temp, too (just incase). My husband was having an easier time with my son taking a bottle when I first went back to work. However, the babysitter- not so much. I noticed that my husband heated the milk up warmer and once the babysitter followed suit, everyone was on the same page.