Eating Issues

I think I alluded to feeding issues in a recent post. It finally came to a point I needed to consult with the pediatrician. It started right before her four month appointment back in November. She took a drop in number of ounces per day and starting refusing to take her bottle sometimes. She had been consistently taking 30 ounces per day no problem but it started becoming 24 ounces or so. I tried not to fret and told myself she was probably just in a slower growth period. She also had a week-long period where it was really bad and she was spitting up a lot. But that passed. At her four month appointment we brought it up but since it was so recent I knew no problem would show up in terms of weight. She is a chub and came in at 70% for weight at that appointment.

So we carried on and feeding has become more and more of a struggle. Sometimes she eats her whole bottle no problem (6 oz) and other times it is a fight to get 3 oz in her. More often than not, it is a fight and she just doesn't want to eat. A lot of days she is getting between 26 and 29 oz but that just isn't enough for her size anymore. And some days it's only 21 or 22. Not okay. It was coming up as a topic of conversation among hubby, my mom, and I enough that I decided it was time to check up on it. Plus, it had been long enough that maybe we could notice something with her weight.

When they plotted her weight Tuesday, it appeared to be just fine. But when we talked about everything that had been going on finally it was suggested that we switch to soy formula because maybe she has a milk sensitivity. Oh, also she hasn't been pooping totally normally and we have been giving her prune juice almost every day for a month and I don't feel like we should have to do that if everything is hunky dory. Soy formula was brought up at the last appointment too, but I had wanted to avoid it and we decided at that time to try the prune juice (1/4 strength) and see if constipation was keeping her from eating.

Well, I guess it is time to try the soy. I had been averse because, well, it isn't dairy and babies are designed to eat dairy proteins and dairy sugars. And soy formula contains corn syrup! I am really unhappy about that. Formula companies want to be able to say "no table sugar" apparently, even though I would much rather it contain table sugar (sucrose) than corn syrup. But in any case, I want to do what's best for her and we will try the soy and see how she reacts. This could be like back when we switched from regular formula to the gentle kind and we met a new baby overnight. Baby Girl is happy most of the time but I would say she is definitely not as easy going as some babies. She gets fussy easily and I have always felt it takes a little extra effort to keep her happy. But maybe that is just her. But if the soy helps I will be all for it. She obviously doesn't have a full-on allergy or we would know by now but maybe the dairy just isn't quite agreeing with her. We are supposed to try it for five days and see. The doc did say that babies have softer poo on soy, so that will be helpful. Poor girl still has quite firm ones some days.

Sigh. If only I could have breastfed. Although that's obviously dairy so who knows if that would have been any better...

Oh, and P.S., when I checked her weight online the percentage was only 55%. So from 70th % to 55th % is not serious but to me it seems to be confirmation that while her weight is acceptable, she's not gaining like she could be. We'll give it a go and see where it gets us! Any experience with soy or an issue like this??