5 Month Old Barely Eating

Try again to give him a bottle of his formula with the cereal in it. Sometimes babies will take it like this when they won't take it regularly. It's okay to put the cereal in the formula if you have a baby who is refusing a bottle.

I think that if he won't take it, there is a chance that he'll stop being hungry, and that's frightening. Sometimes you need to get something in his stomach so that he will try. Use an eye dropper and stroke his throat to get him to swallow.

Good luck, mom!

I would take him to a pediatric gastroenterologist. I have a feeling there's more going on than the pediatrician can handle.

I personally wouldn't keep him on the rice cereal, at least not for every single meal. I would only give him a very small amount of rice during his worst acid reflux meal of the day. It's very possible that the rice is making his problems worse instead of better with whatever digestion issues he's having AND that the rice is filling him up far too much AND that he's having problems digesting the rice.

I've been through this, and your post could have been me and one of my daughters. If only someone had recommended to me that I take her to a gastroenterologist far sooner than I took her.

Since he will take rice cereal, I would start making the cereal more and more thin so that it's only a little bit of cereal in a lot of formula, and feed it to him on a spoon.

I would also see a new doctor, especially a ped GI doctor. There are babies that don't eat even when they are hungry, as you know since it looks like you have one. A friend's baby had severe reflux and in time he associated the bottle with pain, because every time he ate, his tummy hurt. And so he became averse to eating. She had to aggressively treat the reflux with a ped GI doc AND take him to a pediatric occupational therapist who found ways to get him to eat.

I hope it doesn't go this far for you, but if your baby is losing weight, I don't think your ped is taking this seriously enough.

That stinks! I'm so sorry you're having this go on. A baby should be easy!

I think that the pediatrician might need some help in this area. Did you do a swallow test to determine the reflux?

We did one and it didn't show very much. But one thing that I did find was that our guy was not physically ready for any food at all except straight up formula until a bit later than the 6 month standard.

He would scream and cry after eating anything. It just sat in his tummy and basically rotted. Thereby giving him terrible gas.

I do think it's time to see someone else. A baby should be eating straight up formula. Adding stuff to it isn't always a good idea and since it's not working in this case I think a gastro doc is needed. Perhaps changing the formula will work so he will eat more. Losing weight isn't a good thing in any case for a baby.

Did the doctor prescribe any meds for reflux? Could your baby be swallowing wrong and aspirating into his lungs? I would suggest reflux meds and also a swallow study. It will help pinpoint if he has damage from the reflux and also see how much formula is going into his tummy. Hope he feels better soon!

I might try a Pediatric gastroenterologist. DD had slight reflux as a baby that kept her from sleeping through the night until she was fully TWO years old. We found out later (as in, when she was 8) from a Pediatric Gastroenterologist that she could have been helped had we known enough to bring her to him when she was an infant. Pretty sure new doctor will advise holding off on solids for a while. At the very least, you'll be seeing someone who specializes in babies with this type of problem. Best of luck to you.

Can you ask your pediatrician for a referal to a feeding specialist? This is basically a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding issues - mouth movement, swallowing, etc. S/he might have ideas. Good luck!

It sounds to me like his reflux is acting up again, which makes sense given his age. Is he sleeping on an angle, like on a reflux wedge? If not, try that too. It worked wonders for my daughter.

Sometimes these kids have a more serious problem that requires more intervention, as others have suggested. Sometimes, they are reacting to the taste and to all the additives and even irritants from the medicines and special formulas in their stomachs, and they just want a pure food that is heavily nutrient-laden. I consult for a food science company that gives a nutrient rich supplement to severely compromised kids in feeding stations, to preemies (through feeding tubes) and other kids with a lot of digestive problems (reflux, constipation, etc.) or failure-to-thrive. It's high on absorption (so even a little bit ingested actually gets absorbed rather than eliminated) and the balance of nutrients is even better than formula. You wouldn't believe how these kids turn around in 30 days. Better brain development too, and they can continue supplementing with it long after they go on solid foods.

I would go to a different doctor, to get more ideas.

Something to consider is if there's more going on. My friend's son had problems eating. Turned out he had something called http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/intussuscept... that took three visits to the ER to diagnose.

I would also push for more options. Could the mucous have been something else? Is there another formula? Pushing something that is not working seems to be a dead-end street and I would push back on the doctor for a better solution.