Mommy Minute: Where Did My "Easy Eater" Go?

Hey ya'll!!

Well well well..... Kason sure has been putting me through the ringer these last two weeks. He has been going through some major changes! From his attitude and temperament, to his eating habits, he has been throwing me for a loop and keeping me on my toes. For the most part, these first seven months have been pretty steady, and we've been able to work around changes in feedings and being on a regular daily schedule pretty easily. All that changed about a week and a half-two weeks ago.

Kason has always been a great eater. He's never given me too trouble with feedings and I've always known what he's wanted and how much he's wanted. We've always had a really great, natural feeding schedule going on. I've never forced him to be on any type of schedule, and I've never been strict about sticking to one either. I have always let him lead the way and let me know what he liked and what he didn't like. Once we would get our schedule down, he'd be a creature of habit. If I didn't have his food ready at the same time every day, he had no problems letting me know I was late to the party. He also would eat and drink absolutely everything I'd give him. For some reason, he now has completely flipped the switch and my "Easy Eater" has become extremely difficult and hard to figure out.

He eats his solids no problem at all, but his bottle is a totally different story. He has been fighting his bottles like crazy! The first thing I thought was "Maybe his formula isn't working for him anymore?". When he was diagnosed with Reflux, I switched him to AR and it worked really great. He has been off his Reflux medicine and hasn't had any symptoms in over a month, so I was thinking that maybe the AR was just too heavy for him now. I went ahead and started switching him back to the formula he was previously on. I didn't do an immediate switch and I still haven't. I've been slowly transitioning and he is getting half AR and half Gentlease. When that didn't help, I thought about the bottle nipples. Since the AR is so thick, I had to cut the nipple holes in all my Level 1 and 2 nipples so that the formula would come out, and for months that has worked just fine. I decided to go buy all new Level 3 nipples hoping that was the issue. Nope, still didn't help. Next thing I thought of was "Maybe he's ready for a sippy cup?". I browsed through all the different sippy cups and decided on one by Nuby. It is a no-spill sippy with two handles and a silicone mouth piece. I gave it to him with just a few ounces of water in it, just to see what he would do and if he could get the hang of it. He is more interested in "waving it in the are like he just don't care" and throwing it, than drinking from it. I've been trying to get him to use it for a week now with zero luck. After that I decided I was not going to try and force him to drink a bottle, that I would just try giving it to him and if he refused I would try again in 30 minutes. Literally I have had zero luck with anything I have tried. Sometimes he will take it, sometimes he will drink two ounces and be done with it, and sometimes he will just scream.

I've checked his mouth to make sure he didn't have Thrush or any kind of sore that may be getting irritated by the formula. He still doesn't have any teeth, and his gums aren't swollen or anything, so I've kind of ruled out anything that has to do with being sore from teething. It also can't be an issue with his throat because he eats his solids just fine. I finally decided to call his doctor's office to see if they had any tips or tricks for me. The first thing the nurse asked me was "Well why won't he take his bottle?" I briefly paused and the first thing I wanted to say was "I don't know? Do you want to ask him?" Come on girl! What kind of question is that?! Anyways, I told her everything I had tried and asked if she had any suggestions. I'm sure this is just some sort of weird faze, but when he's going from drinking three 8 ounce bottles a day, to only taking 15 ounces or less a day, and screams bloody murder the minute a bottle comes close to his mouth, I start to get a little worried. She asked about his wet diapers, which he has had plenty of, and she asked if he was eating his solids. She said not to worry about "daily requirements" pertaining to formula ounces as long as he's still having plenty of wet diapers throughout the day. She also told me to try to get him to drink out of a sippy cup, and that I may have to try a few different kinds before I find one that works for him. I've tried working with him on drinking from a straw, but all he does is lick it, so we definitely need more practice in that department. My only other options are ones with the plastic mouth piece, and different shapes and sized mouth piece's. I'm going to go a grab a few different types of sippy's, and keeping my fingers crossed that I find one he likes and will actually drink from. I'm also hoping that this is just some weird faze that he will quickly grow out of, and that there's not a serious underlying issue. I will keep update ya'll on this bottle fiasco on his 8 Month Update.

Did any of your babies ever go through any weird "feeding" stages, or refuse their bottles at all? What kinds of methods did you try? Let me know in the comments below! I'm currently stumped and will basically try anything to get his crazy little butt to drink his formula.


xoxo,
Casey