I Thought It Would Be Better By Now

[Anonymous]

Boo Hooing is EXACTLY what I am doing right now. Andy is just so out-of-sorts that I honestly feel like I’m back at the infancy stage. He doesn’t nap, sleep at night, or eat. He is still taking about 22-24 oz. of Alimentum a day (which is really his only calories). He barely naps for 45 minutes and wakes up screaming…only to be extrmemly cranky the rest of the day and evening and then NOT wanting to go to bed without a fit. He screams and cries unless we rock him and then – the minute he is placed in the crib – he screams! After what seems like an endless nighttime routine, he only sleeps until 3-3:30a.m. and wakes screeching again and wants his bottle. We give him one and then he won’t let us put him back into the crib….he only will sleep on DH on the couch…..just like when he was super little!!

Does anyone have any tips for me? Andy has been like this for weeks….so it’s not the time change (daylight savings time). He has also been cutting his two lower eye teeth for what seem like months…..at least since Feb.

His eating is a whole other story! He exists on air……his diet for the past month or more………a bite of cinnamon toast…a goldfish cracker here and there…..a bite of tater tot…….bite of chicken nugget…….a few strands of spaghetti…..a spoonful of Gerber graduate pears…..a bite of a Vienna finger cookie and that’s his day! Why won’t this child eat? I can’t figure out if it’s a picky toddler or it hurts him to eat?

It takes the ped. GI soooooooooooooooo long to get an appointment that I just want to ask my ped. for something. Do you think I should? He seemed “afraid” of prescribing prevacid in the past and “pushed” that off the the ped. GI. Any tips on how to “convince” him to prescribe this???????? So that I don’t have to wait another 2 months?

I give Andy Mylanta Cherry Supreme, Pepcid 10mg 2x’s daily and Tylenol for teething pain. What else can I do?

Andrea

Matthew – no reflux

Andrew 10/18/04 – silent reflux and MSPI?

[Anonymous]

My doctor told me she actually had to admit a child to the hospital who was cutting eye teeth and wouldn’t eat or drink anything. So, it can get that bad. Have you tried Motrin? Tylenol does nothing for my baby when he is teething. I also use Hyland’s Teething tablets with some success. Some mom’s say they rub Benadryl on the gums. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve seen it mentioned here many times.

If you think it’s his reflux, I would definitely reccommend printing the information from Marci-kids. com and taking it with you to the doctor, or sending it/faxing it to him. That’s how I convinced my doctor to prescribe Prevacid at the correct dose for my son (30mg 3X’s per day), and he is so much better now. Many doctors are not aware of the research into PPI dosing for infants. Once my doctor saw that the research was legitimate, she was more comfortable giving my son the rx he needed.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

The molars and the eye teeth literally took months to come in. The eye teeth were the worst, I think Hailey’s top ones took about 3 months before I saw the tooth pop through. Even after that they are still moving and can cause pain. Try giving regular doses of Motrin (every 6-8 hours). It can sometimes take up to the 3rd or 4th dosing before it really gives the baby some relief and that is because it takes that regular dosing to really get down into the tissues. I’m being very serious when I say that Hailey gets NO teething pain relief from Tylenol.

The eating sounds normal. Hailey goes through phases like that too. When she was really bad, I started letting her graze (with healthy foods of course) throughout the day which really helped get the food in her.

Hang in there. I hope things improve soon!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to let you know that you just described Owen’s exact diet to a T! This morning breakfast was about 3 bites of waffle, 5 pieces of small shredded wheat, and 1/2 a fish stick. I’ve ended up doing what Stacey says, and just let him graze so he’ll actually get enough calories in him. Sadly enough, my husband and I thought this was a pretty good breakfast! So just know that you’re not alone.

[Anonymous]

i echo what everyone says above, but want to add some suggestions. i find that when my daughter is going through a picky phase, or should i say everyday, that changing things up really helps in some really simple ways…and i don’t mean to oversimplify the situation with these suggestions:

• concentrate on favorites. if he will eat noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that’s great. i like that laura’s owen ate a fish stick for breakfast. and as annoyed as i used to be at my own mother for giving me cheese fro breakfast, this has become one of hannah’s favorites. she will also have a hot dog with each meal.
• let him get messy. my daughter loves almond butter, but hates toast. so she licks all of the almond butter off and demands more, and i give her spoonfuls. we change her clothes at least three times a day.
• now this next one is controversial, but i will share anyway: we find that elmo and some of our other toddler pals have a positive influence. some days we have watched the elmo about bananas 3 times to get hannah to eat a banana. for us, reading books helps too — we just read a few books that feature “milk” and she is yelling for more. examples: kitten’s first full moon and in the night kitchen seem to work well. sesame street marketing for earth’s best also works well in our house cereal bars are “big bird bars” and grape juice is “grover juice, tastes like grapes”
• cut it differently. for months hannah would refuse grilled cheese. what kid hates grilled cheese? mine, until you cut it in tiny pieces or use a cookie cutter (pref. dinosaur or car).
• finally, never underestimate the power of enthusiasm. you know how they say it takes 20 times for an infant/ toddler to truely decide if they like a food? on the 21rst try, hannah decided brocolli is ok. after singing brocolli songs, making her animals eat brocolli “dinosaurs love brocolli…” i nearly fell off my chair when she said “more brocolli…” i called all of my family to tell them

i am not really aware of your story with andy, but have you had him allergy tested, etc? feeding evaluation? also, be aware that i am not just blowing smoke when i make these suggestions. my daughter did not touch table foods until she was over 15 months old, she had many texture aversions that still rear their head when teething or sick (hate to tell you but the 2nd year molars are badddddddd too). we did feeding therapy for 5 months to get her to where she is now, which as you can probably tell is still pretty weird. but i think all toddlers are weird eaters. really.

please let me know if i can help you in any way. in the meantime, i just hope he wakes up hungrier everyday.

[Author]

Posts