Expert: ruth kraft - 7/29/2009

Question
Hello, My daughter is 7 months old and is breastfed.At her 6 months check up she weighed 16.1 pounds and at her 7 month checkup she weighed 17.8 pounds. She is really fussy when it comes to solids.Cereal I have no problem with, but everything else I have to try her with an empty spoon first to see if she is in the mood. For 3 days in a row she ate sweet peas with no problem..then other days she will not want any solids at all. She is still not sleeping through the night , so she cosleeps with me so  that I can feed her, she will feed like 3 times at night. Recently I noticed she will, only nurse for a couple of minutes then want to play, then when I pump milk to store I only get like 2 ounces from each breast. I tried feeding her from a bottle last 3 days and she only drank 1-2 ounces at a time, stops play, so it takes like an hour for her to drink 4 ounces.I spoke to her doctor she told me that for her age she should be drinking at least 7 ounces. when she was younger she would drink more from the bottle without stopping...I am still at home with her , but plan to return to work in a month and I am concerned that she is not getting enough milk,and about her lack of interests in solids..Is this normal or should I be concerned. Most babies by now are eating so much more than she is, her doctor says she is is gaining weight though so I should not be worried, it's just that I've seen babies younger than her sleep through the night and drink much more than she does...I need some reassurance because I am beginning to wonder if I made the right decision in exclusively breastfeeding her.

Answer
you make the right choice by exclusivly nursing her. she doesnt seem to drink as much as other babies because formula is half waste product.  so 8 ounces of formula is nutrionally the same as 4 ounces of breastmilk. the rest is hard to digest waste in formula.  plus breastmilk has immunities and other great things about it.  So try not to compare he to other kids.  

It is also developmentally normal for her to resist eating, when her brain is growing at such a rapid rate to learn about life. Babies spend the first 6 months gaining weight and packing on fat so that the next 6 months while they learn, their weight plateus some and they thin out and learn to crawl, walk, start to talk etc.  This helps them burn a little baby fat and have the energy to do so. Feed her when she is ready to eat solid foods. give her food right off your plate like bananas or potatoes or peas etc... not the pureed stuff. real food is flavored better. but if she refuses thats ok, you can nurse her until she is a year old with no supplimenting of any kind and shell be fine. usually by a year babies have a little interest in food.

Your doctor is right, as long as shes gaining weight and developmentally where she needs to be then shes doing great and so are you :)

good luck!

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