Solids and Nursing challenges

[zacksmom]

Hello, my son is almost 9 months old.A little background might be helpful. We have had our ups and downs nursing (took 4+ months for latching and pain issues to go away). Per my doctors instructions I tried giving him solids at 4 months old. He wasn't interested at all. I kept trying here and there. Around 6.5 months he became more interested and I really enjoyed making fresh food for him. I kept nursing on demand  as well and have never really scheduled him on the food. He has never really slept all night long. He will do long stretches but wakes at least once to nurse. He has had a lot of ear infections so whenever he would wake up I would nurse since just trying to soothe him wouldn't cut it. Doc said it probably helps his ears. Needless to say I am not getting much sleep. He is in daycare during the day and gets pumped milk in a bottle. When he gets sick or doesnt feel well he eats less during the day, but then more at night. Part of it is being distracted but I have noticed lately that he isn't as interested in nursing at least during the day.

This past monday he had tubes put in his ears. I was hoping this would make it better at night and he wouldnt need to exercise his jaw as much for ear pain. However, it seems worse. He has been tough to feed at daycare though he will eat his solids. I also feel like he is eating every 2 hours. Bottle, solids, bottle, solids, etc..so while he is going 4 hours inbetween bottles he is only going two hours in between eating. If he had a later bedtime (currently down around 6:30) I could maybe stretch out the solids better. He will nurse to go to bed, and then 2-3 more times during the night. I'm not sure we will every break the newborn pattern of nursing every 2-3 hours at night....but he seems to be getting a ton of food during the day so can he really be that hungry?  He never takes more than 6 ounces in a bottle and when at daycare he has two bottles and sometimes takes only 3 ounces......but that could be because he nursed A LOT the night before. Ugh. I had thought I got him eating more during the day but we have reverted back it seems.

Any thoughts? Is he eating too many solids? Note, he only does purees. He will not eat anything with texture, or little finger foods. Thats a concern of mine as well. I saw a suggestion in another post to use finger foods and nursing which I think would be a great idea but when I put finger foods in front of him and he just plays with them. If I put them in his mouth, he spits them out. If something has chucks too it he gags. I'd hate to eliminate the solids or even some since he is hungry and does eat them and I am not sure he would nurse more/take the bottle more even if I did. I don't think he wants to wean since he eats at night happily and in the early am, plus, he does the same thing with the bottles!

Thanks!

[Llyra]

I'm going to move this out to the main forum, since I think you'll get more responses, and this is a common situation.

[CheriK]

Sounds like a pretty typical 9-month old to me.  It's very common for babies of this age to be distractable during the day and make up for it by nursing frequently at night.  It's also very typical for babies to want to nurse more at night when Mom is not available during the day.  Partially this may be hunger but it's also how he reconnects with you.  "Reverse cycling" can be a blessing because it ensures baby gets plenty of your milk, but can also be hard w/ getting enough sleep.

He's also healing from surgery.  Even if he seems fine, he may be waking more at night right now because any discomfort or odd sensations he's experiencing will be more troublesome and noticeable at night.  It's probably to be expected while he's healing.  And it may be uncomfortable for him to take a bottle while he's healing, too. 

4 months is really early to start solids.  It's not supported by research nor recommended by most pediatric associations.  Was there any reason why your doctor recommended this, or is it just what he tells every mom?  Your DS started showing interest in solids at the expected age - around 6 months.

Solids don't add calories to the diet, they replace milk.  So the more solids a baby consumes, the fewer milk calories they take in.  Most solids are less nutritionally dense (less nutrients, i.e. vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, calories for the same quantity of food) than breastmilk.  Until he's about a year old, your milk should make up the majority of his diet.

Continuing to offer finger-foods is a great idea.  He'll become more interested and he needs the practice feeding himself and getting used to different textures even if he eats very little.  At this age, nursing before offering solids is still a good idea.  He doesn't have to have 3 meals a day, either.  If it's easier, just let the daycare feed him any solids and concentrate on nursing when he's at home.  When you're spoon-feeding, really pay attention to his cues.  There's no benefit in encouraging him to finish a portion  of something or eat just a little more.  Some babies have really subtle "full" cues and will continue taking spoonfuls as long as you offer.

[MamaofLiam]

At 9 months DS wanted to nurse constantly at night and not so much during the day. Nights were not fun or restful during that time period. It did pass. I also want to mention that my DS did not become interested AT ALL in food until 12 months, so don't feel bad about your LO not being interested at 4 months. Like the pp said I think 4 months is pretty young to be starting solids anyways. I don't really have anything else to add on top of what CheriK already said. She gave a lot of good advice IMO. :)

I want to let you know that I completely empathize with you about the nights. As someone who has just recently been there I know how tough it is! Sleep is so important. It's probably not much consolation to you right now, but this phase will pass - I promise!

[zacksmom]

Thanks for the responses! Doctor said to start at 4 months. I won't do that with the next one! He really only became interested around 7.5 months. I think I'm going to scale back on the solids and try to get him drinking more during the day and keep up nursing at night for now!