[mamaniah]

My 8 month old is still mostly breast fed but but he's starting to get really upset at night if I don't feed him at least two good meals in the day. He'll wake up and cry almost every hour and refuse to nurse.
I keep trying to feed him solids, fruits and vegetables, but they come our the same as they go in so he's not digesting them at all.
I had fed him banana and papaya and pumpkin for two days and he got really constipated. There was actually a bit of blood in his stool. I was totally freaked out because we're in India right now and there are no good doctors near where we are staying.
Does anyone have any advice?? I know he needs to eat but I don't want to be damaging his digestive system by feeding him things he's not ready to eat. What can I give him?
thanks
niah

 

[Englishmummy]

Pleased to hear you are breastfeeding lots- that gives him the best nutrition, whatever you feed him (within reason).

Is your son vegetarian? Babies require quite a high amount of protein compared to adults, so some mothers begin with meat and fish with veg and fruit- I did. I gave my son only a little rice (cooked to very mushy in water or best meat stock) and no baby rice. It is normal that lots comes out looking the same as it went in. I did not start offering solids regularly until 10months, because I am a little wary of the advice doctors give

and I waited for the tonguethrust reflex to end and the pincer grip (thumb and first finger) to start). Showing interest in food is no measure. This is not the official La Leche League line though, I should add.

My son is 1y3m and it is only now that the food is appearing a little more digested. Are you sure that your son is crying because of the 2 meals per day. Does he eat a lot? Have you cut back your nursing? Kellymom.com recommends that at one year there is a 25% solids to 75% breastmilk ratio (who knows how you work that one out!). I would say, do not worry too much. Just introduce new foods gently and do not push him to eat.

As for constipation- bananas, oats and eggs are some of the worst!

Good luck

 

[Mallory]

His food isn't digested because he simply doesn't have the levels of digestive jucies needed to digest foods. They won't be at high enough levels to digest everything until 18-24 months.

Keep nursing him, that is all he really needs. I would say it is more likely he is crying at night because of an allergy or sore belly from the solids, not because he didn't have enough.

Ripe papaya should be good, and other ripe fruits-not banana, how about pears, peaches, avacados, and sweet potatoes. Try just one for a week then try something else, don't mix them all up, so if he does cry a lot at night, you know which one is hurting him. Don't feed him close to bed time, make sure he has enough time up and moving around to get those solids digested before he is expected to sleep.

If you have been feeding him lots of solids (espeically if you period has started again) you may be having some supply problems too. Nurse him lots.

 

[sunnysideup]

At this age baby's stomach is not acidic enough to digest everything. Most of his nutrition comes from breastmilk. A small amount of fruits and veggies is what he should be eating at this point, and that's mostly for experimentation. If he has constipation problems avoid rice, bananas, dairy, apples.

Is it possible he's crying at night because of teething? Or it could be a digestive issue.

 

[velcromom]

He may be waking because of hunger but not wanting to nurse because of mouth pain - that is a prime age for teething trouble. Perhaps you could try some teething remedy and see if that helps him be more comfortable nursing. Pain is always worse at night, no matter your age. Or as suggested it could be pain from digestive problems with those solids he is having trouble with.

My ds didn't get truly interested in solids til he could grasp morsels and feed himself, and even then there were still foods he could not digest - they are meant to have breastmilk as the primary source of nutrition still at this age so instead of risking the side effects of introducing solids he clearly isn't ready for, it would probably be more helpful to find ways to get him back to nursing when he is hungry at night.

Kellymom.com has good information about breastfeeding problem solving and about feeding solids, if you don't already have it bookmarked I highly recommend it!

 

[thepeach80]

Fruits will be easier to digest than veggies, especially green ones. We had the undigestion issue w/ sweet potatos for a while, it was horrible! My son does have digestive and allergy issues so I always chalked it up to that. Bananas will cause the constipation so I'd avoid those. Is it the pumpkin you saw in his diaper? I find those orange veggies are crazy when they come out the other end and it's not unusual to see little strings in the poo after bananas. Hope that's not grossing anyone out, but it's normal!

 

[mollyeilis]

I'm pretty sure it's NORMAL for early foods to appear undigested. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

"babies require quite a high amount of protein compared to adults"...actually, the Earthsave foundation cites studies that show that breastmilk (the normal, natural perfect food for babies) comes in at 4% protein. Which is very very LOW compared to what most adults think they need.

 

[mamaniah]

thanks for the advice

he's more then 75% breastfed still and that won't be changing anytime soon

I would give him meat if we were back in canada but not in India, I'll have to find alternative protien sources :/
abd I'll steer clear of te bananas
thankx!

 

[mamaniah]

thanks

I try not to introduce more then one food a week. We're in northern india and there isn't to much variety when it comes to fruit, pretty much apples bananas and papaya. He's still mostly breast fed and I don't have my period yet so hopefully supply is ok.
He only seems to cry if I don't give him any solids or else just one meal so I don't think its allergies :/
thanks for the advice

 

[mamaniah]

I know, I've read in so many places that the first year food is more for experimentation then nutrition which is why I was confused about the crying at night. It's definitly food related I've been watching very carefully. The other day we had a water shortage so I couldn't prepare any soldis for him. I nursed him lots but he was up all night fussing. In the morning when our water was back and I prepared breakfast he ate it with such an intensity. I felt so bad. Maybe it's because his dad is a tibetan nomad he has different genes, I don't know :/
anyway thanks for the advice

 

[thepeach80]

Some babies just want food and aren't happy to just be on milk. My almost 11 mos old is back on a liquid diet and he's generally not happy about it! He has never eaten much in the way of solids, but man is he mad that he can't have any now.

 

[Mallory]

Quote:

The other day we had a water shortage so I couldn't prepare any soldis for him. I nursed him lots but he was up all night fussing. In the morning when our water was back and I prepared breakfast he ate it with such an intensity.

I also think the limited water could have affected your milk supply too.

 

[LorrieJ]

My daughter had/has a lot of food issues. She really didn't start experimenting much until she was almost a year old. She lived on organic rice cereal and avocados with the breastmilk added to it. At 2 1/2 she is just now able to have wheat products once in a while and no green pepper, sweet potato. She couldn't have regular potato, cauliflower...so many things. She doesn't eat meat, soy or dairy or eggs. I don't think I would worry about the meat issue. Check out some veggie/vegan threads here.

DD has also been constipated since birth. They wanted to have me give her a laxitive daily but what has worked for her is prunes once she was willing to eat them every day. She still has a hard time with her bowel movements but they aren't hard. We are still trying to figure that out. She had blood in stool also. I know how hard it is to stay calm and the doctors don't seem to help much.