From sealed lips to screaming for more food

The war of feeding between me and my little one started when for the first time nurse handed her to me for feeding. She was just not willing to open her mouth (root reflux and mommy instincts jumped out of the window for us), and to make things worse I kept force feeding her.

 Since the doctor made it clear that she should not go without  milk for more than three hours, I made it my religious duty to force fed her every three hours.  And what was the outcome? Well she wouldn’t open her mouth, lips tightly sealed,  there used to be a negative energy around as soon as I used to hold the bottle, she would push nipple outside with her tongue, puke , scream, stress out and bottles of milk w wasted every time.

Frustrating sight of wasted milk

It was a mayhem, I rushed to emergency room several times, visited pediatricians, prayed , googled for all possible diseases, changed formulas , bottles , nipples and what not but nothing worked. Then finally a pediatrician suggested to just ‘LET HER BE ‘.

She suggested not to worry about ‘ml or oz’ because babies don’t starve themselves, just like us sometimes they want to have more milk and sometimes less.

From that day onwards I have just let her be; never force fed and only fed on demand.  Initially when she started feeling hungry she would scream murder, as the feeling of hunger was so new to her. Gradually she herself started demanding milk every three hours.

Even though she started demanding milk but the negative feelings she had developed with milk time were still there and I did not want them to be transferred to solids too.

Snatched mommy's food

At 5 months I introduced stage 1 food, started with potato, rice cereal, banana and then kept adding other fruits and vegetables. Started with 1 meal a day and just let her play with the food initially. She would throw rub it all over and just have fun, and started associating positive feelings with meal time. I kept introducing new flavors; there were good days, bad days and teething days.

Now at 8 months she is having three to four meals a day plus milk and we are now working on self feeding. She loves fruits, some vegetables and wants to eat everything that mommy and daddy eat.

• Never force feed.
• Babies don’t starve themselves.
• Make meal time a happy time.
• Don’t distract and feed, let baby focus on food.
• Keep introducing new flavors; there will be something your baby will like.
• Even though it’s very frustrating, when baby rejects the meal you prepared but still be patient don’t force feed or distract and feed. Let the baby ask for it.
• You might be spitted on, scratched, kicked screamed at, slapped but its OK. It’s a stage that will pass; juts do not develop bad habits.
• Since day one, make baby sit on the chair and then feed. Once she develops the habit of moving around while you are running after her, it will be difficult to make her sit and eat.  
• Gradually but develop a routine, certainty keeps babies comfortable.  
• Do not compare your baby’s food intake with others.