How to deal with infant food intolerance?

hey J. i know the feeling of that my oldest daughter was the same way, what i did was i started her on rice cereal at first then started the foods but i only gave her fruit at first and i would stick to one fruit at a time for 2-3 days then try new ones just in case she was allergic, then i eventually went to the veggies. i started both my girls on cereal by time they were 6 weeks old and then the foods around 3 1/2 months my youngest is 6 months old now and she eats like a champ. just hang in there it'll get better.

It sounds like my middle son Gabriel. He was always a fuzzy baby and when I started him with baby food I realiezed there was something wrong. To make a very long story short he is highly allergic to a lot foods. Here is the thing doctors don't want to test babies until they are at least 1 for a group of foods and I think it's 2 for the rest of the list. The biggest problem is with the digestion so you may want to wait a little longer for foods. Try Cereal with the last feeding that may help at night. I have to go now but I 'll send you the list of foods my son is allergic to later. Hope this helps.

Hi J., try just a little bit of rice cereal mixed in with her milk, formula, etc. feed it to her w/ a spoon, she'll make a mess - but it's so much better/safer than in a bottle. Hold off giving her any other solids for a while. Just try the rice cereal, it's easier on their little tummies, and applesauce can some times make them gassy anyhow.

Good luck!

I would hold off until 6 months to try foods...

there is no order to start foods (but of course not giving any major allergens, etc, or proteins- I mean you can start w/ fruits or veggies- no order- banana is good, avocado, papaya, etc)& there is no reason to start w/ cereal...

as far as intolerances I happen to know a lot about them- if baby is intolerant to proteins in formula (and takes alimentum or nutrimigen or elecare or neocate) then I would lean toward thinking about intolerances...otherwise, I would just wait until babys digestive system is a bit more mature at 6 months...

I started my son on baby food by mixing it with the cereal. He wouldn't touch the food by itself. His gastroentologist (stomach specialist) said to give him the oatmeal, not rice cereal. He said the rice actually made gas worse. So maybe you could try adding some cereal into it, or make her some cereal with food for flavor. I think starting them on food first is too hard for their little bellies. Good Luck!

Dear J.,

If this is your first attempt to introduce solids to your baby, the rule of thumb is to introduce one food at a time for 2-3 days. If no reaction occurs, then try a new food again for 2-3 days. If you gave her applesauce and sweet potatoes in the same day, you have no idea which one she had the reaction to. Wait until her reaction side effects go away before introducing a new solid...that way you can be reassured that it's out of her system and you have a clean slate, so to speak, to start with again. It's not too early to introduce solids at 6 months...unless your baby is refusing the food altogether. The fact that she took it means that she's ready. Just make certain that you introduce one food at a time and make note of the foods she does have a reaction to so you can avoid them for a couple of months. Good luck and don't rush this food thing...it takes time.

Sweet potato will sometimes produce gas. Applesauce and sweet potato together may be too much for your baby. I would suggest you try baby oatmeal and add just a little applesauce to it. She may be able to digest that more easily.

J.,

How old is your baby? Starting solid foods before 6 months is not always a good idea due to reasons such as what you're going through. I suggest that you speak to your doctor about it but be very careful about what you say as some doctors get kind of mad with parents who do things too early & may lecture you on this. Never take the advice of a "nurse" at a doctor's office as 9 out of 10 times these people are only medical assistants & should NOT give out any advice. Period.

My daughter was born weighing 9 lbs. 6 oz. so our doctor told us to put her on cereal @ a month old due to the fact that she would take in a lot of formula. The idea was to fill her up without too many calories from the formula. I also started my 11 y/o son on cereal at about the same age. This DID get them to sleep through the entire night. Again, ask your doctor what is best. Sometimes it's just not a good idea to start babies on any solids too soon due problems that they can have.

I hope that this has helped you to decide what to do. Just remember that if you do decide to try cereal that you only give rice. If your baby is under 6 months then give her just a little bit mixed with a lot of formula to make it thin & watery. Before 6 months babies are not ready for anything too thick. Good luck!

S.

It sounds like shes too young for foods. I would wait at least another month before you try anything again. Her little body is having a hard time! If anything give her rice cereal. Good Luck

Our Dr. always told us to wait until my children were 6 months to start solids. I may just be that your daughter isn't ready for babyfood. Then again I'm not a dr.
About the waking at night for a bottle. My oldest son did this and around 4 months I was told by his ped. that it was just a habit. She said to let him cry the next time he woke up in the night until he went back to sleep. This took about two nights of him waking and crying himself back to sleep before he was over it and he never woke up in the night again for a bottle. If you try this I would recomend doing so on the weekend.

I feel your pain! Sounds to me like she is simply not ready for solids. Every baby is different, and at 4 months of age, her digestive system may not be ready to tolerate solids. At this age, many babies do not have the necessary digestive enzymes, which leads to intolerance. I realize you are eager for her to sleep through the night on a full stomach, but perhaps it's best to wait until her body is ready for it. Best of luck!!

I started my daugther out at 6 months and she did the same thing with the sweet potatoes so I didnt give them to her again. I stopped the baby food all together and just did the cerceal with very little fruit. When we started up the food again I started her on one thing at a time. I would do the green beans for a week then with no reaction to that I would then change it to carrots and again if no reaction give her something else but with each one it would be a week because if you give the baby more then one thing at a time and has a reaction you wont know to which one.Try it and see if it makes a difference. My little also wakes at night she is almost 11 months. I did the baby cerceal at night as well and still to this day wakes up. It didnt matter so I just stopped giving her the food at night all together. We still get up at night and feed. I guess some babies are sleepers and some are not. Good Luck

I couldn't wait to start my daughter on solids as I was breastfeeding and she too would wake oh so often throughout the night. I started at 4 months. She gagged! She hated it! I didn't force it. As much as I would have liked her to sleep through the night, I figured it wasn't worth it, she'll wake you up anyway due to the gasses and what not.
Don't worry though it is unbelievable the difference a couple of months make. It could be that her little digestive system isn't quite ready just yet. But it will be.
My daughter is now 9 months old and she can eat me out of house and home! My suggestion, just be patient, don't force food, she may develop allergies later on. I don't know if you have time, but maybe on the weekends instead of purchasing baby food, you might try steaming your own food i.e. pears, apples etc. Have a look at this website, I love it: www.wholesomebabyfood.com Good luck

It seems like your trying to many diferent items, sweet potatoes give me gas. Start gradually with blanner foods pears, apples and mix with rice cerel. Then a nice warm bath around 11 and I bet Teagan will sleep much longer. Also introduce some musical box for night time drifting off. If he awaites check his diaper turn on the music and go back to sleep. The music sooth and triger sleep. Good Luck. A.

I would have started her on rice cereal, thickening either the breast milk or the formula first, not on the heavy stuff like sweet potato or acidic like apple sauce. I highly doubt she has food intolerance, that's a serious disorder if true, accompanied by other congenital conditions and does not occur in healthy children. She is simply too young! You might have given her too much for her to handle. Go back to just milk or formula for a couple of weeks, let her little tummy settle down, then try again. Start with rice cereal, then with pears (they don't cause loose stool, at least in my experience, just like bananas). Make sure you puree it very finely if you do it yourself or buy the right stage food for her age, if you go the store-bought route. When you start the purees, do only one food each 2-3 days to make sure that's the one she tolerates or does not tolerate. If you do two at a time, you'll be confused. Keep a food diary. Only give one spoon at a time; your baby is 4 months old! Now, you may have done all this, but your post does not indicate. If you have, take her off the purees entirely and try rice cereal only, and only small bits at a time. She simply needs to get used to it! My daughter had reflux, so we kept a detailed diary of tolerances and intolerances, and that's how I became well familiar with all this. Good luck!

Hi
When my son was fussy and full of gas he couldn't seam to release, we gave him something called Grip Water....you can get it @ any health food store or ____@____.com can have quite a bit and quite often right after finishing a meal....it helps sooth the tummy naturally....w/ginger, fennel and camomile. IT'S WONDERFUL!!!! Good luck. J. j

I'm in agreement that you should might want wait a little longer to introduce the foods. My kids were both so interested in foods (reaching for our stuff at the table) before six months that I started them around 5 months.
However, since it seems like your baby wants more food than she's getting I would suggest rice cereal. It is the best way to go to avoid allergies. You should start on rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula because rice is a food that rarely produces an allergic reaction. From there you can go to the barley and the oat cereals. After that you can try stage one veggies and fruits. A good way to notice if a food is causing an allergic reaction is to wait at least 24 hours after giving her a new food before introducing another one. That way you will know what, if anything is producing a reaction. Good luck. Hope you start getting some sleep.

My daughter had the exact same thing happen to her with squash. We stopped feeding her squash and continued with other foods. We only did one kind of NEW food every two days so we would know for sure what exactly made her sick. She is 18 months and still can't eat squash! Hopefully sweet potatoes is the only food that disagrees with her! Good luck!

Try rice cereal with a little bit of formula or breast milk and then eventually mixing in a little bit of applesauce or banana so she can get used to the taste without the overwhelming sweetness.

How old is your baby? Maybe you should start her out on cereal first. If I remember I started mine on rice. It will not be as harsh on her tummy. Phil

My son had the EXACT same reaction. I ended up having to put him on an only bottle diet for a week and he did so much better! He is 14 months old and still will only eat Stage 2 baby food. My Ped. just keeps reminding me that every baby is different and some tolerate food really easy and some don't. If she is gaining weight well there might be another reason that she is waking up in the night other than being hungry. Could she be teething? This is going to sound really silly but my son was having issues staying asleep at night and an older women suggested I turn him the opposite way in his crib at night. It actually worked until he started teething, then it was teething tablets that helped.
Not to sound depressing but every baby sleeps so different. My son has really only slept thru the night about 30 time in his whole 14 months of life. I am lucky that I get to stay home and not go to work but some babies really never sleep all thru the night, I just had to try and teach my son that if he wakes up to play in his crib until he goes back to sleep on his own.

HOw old is Teagan?
Try a couple of spoonfulls first and increase the quantity at each meal.
At the same time reduce the milk slightly each time.

As for sleeping through the night you're just going to have to wait but there are some things you can try:
1. white noise inside the nursery (a fan worked for us) make sure you position it away from the baby.

2. You can try rice cereal at night. You mix it in her milk bottle but make sure you start with small increaments again. You have to get her digestive system used to solids. GO SLOW.

3. Make sure you don't feed her too much too late as she may have indigestion and the laying down position does not help. Feed her dinner at least 2.5 hrs before bedtime and right before bedtime you can give her a small botlle of milk with rice cereal.

I hope this helped,
Good luck and patience...

MG

J. - I would stop the food. Food will not help a baby sleep. They will sleep when they need to. I am on my third baby who is 5 months old and I have done both. I refuse to give my current daughter anything other then breast milk because of what has happened with my other 2 by giving it early. They were fussy and did not sleep any better. She sleeps through the night but lately is waking up twice to nurse. Doctor said she is either growing and needs the extra calories or possibly teething. With food, you are giving the body things it is not quite ready for. There is a reason that they say we should wait till they are at least 6 months old. The body is not ready. If you really want to give food, try just the cereal with some fruit in it. I would not count on getting more sleep though. Hope this helps some!

Definitely take her off the baby food and let her stomach rest for ATLEAST a few days (1 wk is recommended). If she is like my son she has a very sensitive tummy. My first recommendation is to take her off the baby food until at least 6 months. Add cereal to her formula or if she is a good spoon eater try baby oatmeal - The oatmeal makes them feel full faster than the cereal.

If you want to try the baby food again in a week. You have to introduce one food at a time and that is the only food they can have for one week. Then introduce another food and they can only have those two types of food that week and so forth. This will not only help her stomach to adjust to the food but will allow you to see if she develops any allergy's to certain jar foods.

I see you have an older child so you probably know this but, make sure you are only using Stage 1 foods. Many moms want to buy in bulk so they buy the larger jars which are actually not broken down as much and are harder for their little tummy's to break down the nutrients at this early stage. Apple sauce is not recommended by many doctors at this stage because it is too difficult for them to break down. Although we do not see the food as needing to be "broken down" it is actually the body processing the nutrients, fats, etc in the food so the body can turn it into fuel (energy).

It felt like my son had gas from birth til he turned 1 1/2 years old. It didn't matter - formula, cereal, oatmeal, baby food. I highly recommend using "INFANT Gas Relief Drops" from Walgreens. Having used the name brand originally I can tell you this generic Walgreens brand works just as good as the name brand.

Put half a jar of Step one baby food in with the milk.
The baby will sleep all night. Bananna - Applesauce etc
make sure you use step one.

Hey J.,

I was so excited when my little guy turned 4 months to start foods, but I ended up with some of the same problems. My nurse said to wait til 6 months because they are finding through research that most babies really aren't that ready for solids at 4 months. Or maybe just do cereal a couple of times a day, if you want to fill your baby up more. without any fruits and veggies until 6 months. Most babies can digest cereal fine, from my understanding.

Good luck!
J.

I'd certainly recommend talking to your doctor if there are ever any concerns regarding your child. As a mom of three, the first food I started my kids on was rice cereal. Then oatmeal. I didn't introduce anything other than rice or oatmeal until they were six months. Then I started w/ the yellow veggies (like sweet potatoes). The recommendation shared w/ me that I followed was to introduce a new food only every three days in case of an adverse reaction. That way you would know the source of adversity. If you haven't given your child rice, I'd do that. And try sweet potatoes again at six months. Best of luck!

Hi J.,
I'm a dietitan and mother of two small children. Usually, it is recommended to start a baby on cereal first. Once the baby can tolerate cereal then you can try fruits and vegetables but one at a time, wait 3-5 days between new foods to see if there is a reaction, this way you will be able to easily identify the food that your child is having a reaction to. I would start with a single grain cereal mixed with formula or breastmilk for a few weeks and see if your child can tolerate that, then move on to other foods. If the problem persists talk to your pediatrician about it. Your doctor will either tell you to wait a few months and try again or send you to a dietitian, if your baby does have food intolerances. Hope this helps!
A.

Hello J. It sounds like you need to find out if there is food allgergies and sugar allergies. and it is true you may have to slow down on starting some foods.After you find out if you child has allergies you can pick what your child does best on and if fruits and veg arent taken well you have time to see what foods will digest best.And your baby can have fun finding out what what is best for her. My son has problems I found yogert to help. But ask your doctor. Hang in there things will get better.

Hi J.,

Babies digestive systems are very sensitive, and not really complete until 6 months, so this might be the reason. Check with the doctor to verify. Good luck! Jen

Hi J.,

I have a 3 month old daughter and i've already started her on babyfood from she was early 2 months. I live in the islands and trust me, older folks her feed baby food early. I've been giving her banana, papaya, sweet potato, and strawberry baby and find that she like the sweet ones better. She is sleeping earlier and longer in the nights. She gets up when she's hungry and when she's done feeding she goes back to sleep. I don't feel her baby food all day but I also give her cereal. So I try to rotate the baby food, cereal and plain milk where as I don't feed her to heavy all the time. Try changing the baby food flavor and maybe she will like them. Your baby stool could be loose because of the change of food that you are giving, my baby did the same thing but after a while her stomach got use to the change. I hope all works of for you, so you can get you sleep night time.

take care

Hi J.,
I am a Raw Food Chef and pH Coach and I actually live in New Smyrna myself (how is that for having the resources right in you back yard ), and my husband and I coach others on the effects of food on the human body, we work with individuals of all ages. A great book to read would be "Baby Greens" by Micheaela Lynn and Michael Chrismer, N.C., it is a great resource to go to in understanding how and why Teagan might be reacting the way she is, as it focuses on babies and transitioning to solids (Love her name by the way!! I am in the process of shopping for cool baby names, we are due in May).
As far as the pH Balance in the body goes that is a big issue. Both of the things you are giving her to eat are very high in sugar and starchy, especially if you are adding extra sugar to the sweet potato. Sugar is very hard for a little body like hers to deal with as it causes fermentation in the digestive system(causing cramping and gas) and it is also very mucus forming (what you could be seeing in the stool). Sugar also leads to the overgrowth of yeast/fungus in the body and causes excess lactic acid. Apples in general are very high in sugar and even more so after it has been processed, cooked and packaged into an apple sauce. The other thing to take into consideration is the preservatives. And yes, you are right on, food allergies are just an intolerance that the body is trying to tell us about, the only problem is we tend to ignore the signals that the body gives us.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you would like some more clear information on all of this. It is a lot to write, and we can certainly have a phone conversation if you would like and I can explain more to you regarding this.
You are welcome to email me directly at ____@____.com or call me are ###-###-####. I look forward to assisting you in making the transition smooth and painless for her.
Nandi Menapace

Some kids just wake up and some dont. My 1st one didnt sleep through the night until she was like 2 years old.

She may also be waking up because the food is too heavy for her and her stomach is not adjusting to it. You may want to instead of giving her food - try baby cereal mixed with milk/formula. If you feed her too much she will want to wake up to feed all the time. Its had to say exactly what the situation is but it will get better.

Good luck!

P.S. AT first I boiled light veggies and blended them so there would be no other ingredients.

Hi J.,

My daughter had a similar reaction, i just put her on a couple of tablespoons of plain ole baby cereal at dinnertime mixed with her formula/breastmilk. Try that and see what happens. Good luck.
C. M

Well, it's been awhile since my kids were infants..but I do remember that fruits were first..one each week before switching. Applesauce was 1st, then pears, then peaches, then bananas..all waiting one week in between before starting vegetables...maybe the switch was too quick for Teagan, not especially an intolerance...just start over again.

Hi how are you?? I also live in the Lox area. I started my little girl on baby food at 4 months because she was not sleeping through the night and also not satisfied with the milk. Her stools changed everytime i fed her something different. Sometimes runny, sometimes weird colors, or even clumpy. You know let me tell you one thing she is a year and still does not sleep fully through the night. I think that sometimes some children do but, others just do not care for it. LOL!!! It is very stressful. I can only give you one suggestion. Ask the hubby to help out with one of the feedings at night if at all possible. And in a personal opinion you are not starting out too early. You are a mother you have the instinct so go with what you feel is right. I do not feel that the baby has a food intolerance. It is normal and natural for the stools to be different frequently.

I started giving cereal to my first son at 4 months and he slept like a champ.
After getting a new Dr. for my newest son I was told to wait until 6 months to feed baby food since their tummies are not REALLY ready for the food; they can't digest it properly. It could also cause allergies later in life.

I think you should start with baby cereal. Rice preferablly. Mix it with breast milk or formula and spoon feed it before bedtime. Try this now but wait until veggies and fruits until later. I also have used organic cereal and baby foods since they are readily available and only a few dimes more.
Let me know how it goes....
:)

Try giving her rice cereal with her formula. She may tolerate that better.