I feel so sad, why won't she eat properly?

[Boymum]

Dr's and her Paed seem to think it's my DD's behaviour and not an issue....

She is on Neocate and is 19 months old, still reacting to cmp and soy aswell.

I offer her so many different foods made and bought and similar type ones each day and some days new ones to try her on incase she likes them. She seems to like a few not many...she only ever eats a few mouthfuls and then resorts to 'Bot Bot' (her neocate).

Maybe she is reliant on her bottles instead of food? Her Big Brother who is 3 eats alright (for a fussy 3 year old ha,ha)....I thought this might help her to eat more.

She seems to vomit after eating too much (more than her usual amount).

Any ideas as to how I can get her eating better and cut down on bottles?

[Poppetfish]

my ds was the same. we just cut all bottles off. he can have solids and that is it.

i dont know what others do but it worked for us.

[Boymum]

Thanks, I do try that but it ends up in tears and tantrums and vomiting...she works herself up big time. It's not nice, she is so happy when she gets a bottle.

I don't know why she won't just eat, she licks off the nutlex and vegemite or jam and leaves the corn cracker...she bites a few pieces of something and walks away.

If she does eat more she seems to vomit later on, maybe she's scared herself off from eating a lot...she's had a lot of trouble with allergies in the past.

Will have to be patient I guess, give it another month or so and try, try, try to offer more and more solids and not bottles...hopefully she will grow out of it. My Son did similar, but not as bad...he didn't throw up like she does.

[Missus S]

Hmmm I've been wondering too if Max has developed an aversion to food due to his past allergy problems.

He hasn't had any reactions for a while but I can't hardly get any food in. He will take apple and suck on a corn cruskit but only when he's in the mood for this.

I've tried so many other foods and he actually cries now if I stick something in his mouth that is not apple.

We too are trying to use less Neocate. I was told to build him up to 3 meals a day and its just not happening :(

[Boymum]

:hugs: Oh that's no good either

So frustrating hey? We just want our bubbas to enjoy their food and fill up their tummies for a good night's sleep. Poor dears.

How old is he?

[TinBee]

Hi

My son was so very similar. He has recently been diagnosed with Esenophillic Oesophagitis (not sure of the spelling exactly) but it is basically like Asthma of the Oesophagus and it swells up so that swallowing solids really hurts and can even close over so that swallowing is impossible. The food can also get stuck so that they vomit.

After many doctors and paeds telling me that children don;t starve themselves and he will eat when he is ready he ended up so bad that he stopped fluids and we ended up in hospital dehydrated and way under weight. 8.4kgs at 15 months.

After many sets of questions that felt like they were checking if I was starving him they thought maybe Celiac so they did a endoscopy and found his Oesophagus swollen ( I saw the pictures too!). After a biopsy, we finally got a diagnosis.

It is a relatively new diagnosis as they used to think it was thrush by just looking at it and did not biopsy. But the biopsy is crucial. Now we have all the doctors attention and are on a short course of strong steroids and then another scope to check if the swelling has gone down. They think soy is the trigger but they can't test the oesophagus so it is a bit of trial and error.

Maybe have a chat to your paed and ask for a referral for a gastro to check. I would not suggest stopping bottles as this might be the only thing that is comfortable eating since she seems to ask for it. And if she is not eating then he is hungry because she is asking for something.

Happy to chat more about this. Message me if you do.

I am thinking about starting up a support group in Australia for Esinophillic disorders as there is only one in the US and I have been in contact with them too.

Good luck. Happy to answer any more question.

T

[Missus S]

Boymum - He is coming up to 11 months old. We have our next appointment at the allergy clinic at the Childrens Hospital tomorrow where our dietician is also meeting us so I'll talk about it with them there.

TinBee - That's great that you want to start up a support group. I've read about all the eosinophilic conditions :hugs:

[reAllytee]

Hey hun :hugs::hugs:

If she has had testing etc & they do believe its a psychological/ behavioural issue then you really do need to look into that further.

Have they offered her seeing a speechie or anything to help ???? They deal with feeding issues because this in turn can come from either physical problems that they can pick up on but also from pyschological issues too.

It wouldnt suprise me if it stems from her vomitting etc because she has been through a lot & they do recognise what causes the problems so it takes little time for them to refuse to eat or the likes.

G had a pretty good eating aversion that still isnt great but is a hell of a lot better & this came through time but also with help from a speechie in regards to feeding issues.

You will have to cut down on her bottles to get her to take more because she will be overfilling with that & then add any food & she will vomit iykwim. They have sensitive tummys so the overfilling will cause as much issue as if she was having a problem with the food itself.

Its going to take time & be hard work etc but if you get the help of a speechie they will help & also come up with ideas in the way to help you & her through it all. More than likely they will want a dietician involved also due to her allergies/ intolerances.

It can be a really slippery slope when getting them to take the amount they need in regards to fluids but you do have to be careful that you then dont have them taking too much or too little especially when its so much easier to drink a bottle than eat.

By the sounds of it she is having too much Neocate & I know it can be hard to cut it out but being that it sounds like she is relying on it too much when she really has no reason to its got to end iykwim.

G is down to having 3 bottles a day that are 200mls sometimes he drinks it sometimes he doesnt but our main thing was to get him to drink water as thats what he needs to keep his bowel working. So he takes about 400mls of water a day now. Does Miss take any water at all ?

That could be another thing is that she needs to take more water rather than the formula.

But if you feel they arent doing enough to help her & that they are missing something then keep on at them especially if this continues because they may need to do an endoscopy to see whether something is really going on !

[Missus S]

:hair: Just got a call from Max's Gastroenterologist....................he tested positive to fructose malabsorption from his breath test. So now he needs a low fructose diet............apple was the only thing he was eating well :hair:

[reAllytee]

:hair: Just got a call from Max's Gastroenterologist....................he tested positive to fructose malabsorption from his breath test. So now he needs a low fructose diet............apple was the only thing he was eating well :hair:

We have that drama too :hugs:

Apple isnt good for the GI tract anyways im suprised it wasnt one that your GI warned you about .... Hrmmmm.

Anyways I really hope that things start getting on track now that your little guy has this diagnosis :hugs:

[Boymum]

Hi

My son was so very similar. He has recently been diagnosed with Esenophillic Oesophagitis (not sure of the spelling exactly) but it is basically like Asthma of the Oesophagus and it swells up so that swallowing solids really hurts and can even close over so that swallowing is impossible. The food can also get stuck so that they vomit.

After many doctors and paeds telling me that children don;t starve themselves and he will eat when he is ready he ended up so bad that he stopped fluids and we ended up in hospital dehydrated and way under weight. 8.4kgs at 15 months.

After many sets of questions that felt like they were checking if I was starving him they thought maybe Celiac so they did a endoscopy and found his Oesophagus swollen ( I saw the pictures too!). After a biopsy, we finally got a diagnosis.

It is a relatively new diagnosis as they used to think it was thrush by just looking at it and did not biopsy. But the biopsy is crucial. Now we have all the doctors attention and are on a short course of strong steroids and then another scope to check if the swelling has gone down. They think soy is the trigger but they can't test the oesophagus so it is a bit of trial and error.

Maybe have a chat to your paed and ask for a referral for a gastro to check. I would not suggest stopping bottles as this might be the only thing that is comfortable eating since she seems to ask for it. And if she is not eating then he is hungry because she is asking for something.

Happy to chat more about this. Message me if you do.

I am thinking about starting up a support group in Australia for Esinophillic disorders as there is only one in the US and I have been in contact with them too.

Good luck. Happy to answer any more question.

T
THanks so much for this reply, what a huge lot to go through...so glad you have found answers and can work from there.

I will certainly talk to her Paed next visit and ask about other disorders that might be stopping her from eating properly.

[Boymum]

Hey hun :hugs::hugs:

If she has had testing etc & they do believe its a psychological/ behavioural issue then you really do need to look into that further.

Have they offered her seeing a speechie or anything to help ???? They deal with feeding issues because this in turn can come from either physical problems that they can pick up on but also from pyschological issues too.

It wouldnt suprise me if it stems from her vomitting etc because she has been through a lot & they do recognise what causes the problems so it takes little time for them to refuse to eat or the likes.

G had a pretty good eating aversion that still isnt great but is a hell of a lot better & this came through time but also with help from a speechie in regards to feeding issues.

You will have to cut down on her bottles to get her to take more because she will be overfilling with that & then add any food & she will vomit iykwim. They have sensitive tummys so the overfilling will cause as much issue as if she was having a problem with the food itself.

Its going to take time & be hard work etc but if you get the help of a speechie they will help & also come up with ideas in the way to help you & her through it all. More than likely they will want a dietician involved also due to her allergies/ intolerances.

It can be a really slippery slope when getting them to take the amount they need in regards to fluids but you do have to be careful that you then dont have them taking too much or too little especially when its so much easier to drink a bottle than eat.

By the sounds of it she is having too much Neocate & I know it can be hard to cut it out but being that it sounds like she is relying on it too much when she really has no reason to its got to end iykwim.

G is down to having 3 bottles a day that are 200mls sometimes he drinks it sometimes he doesnt but our main thing was to get him to drink water as thats what he needs to keep his bowel working. So he takes about 400mls of water a day now. Does Miss take any water at all ?

That could be another thing is that she needs to take more water rather than the formula.

But if you feel they arent doing enough to help her & that they are missing something then keep on at them especially if this continues because they may need to do an endoscopy to see whether something is really going on !
Thanks Ally,

I knew I could rely on a reply from you and you would help me with your experiences, thanks so much.

No she hasn't had any testing done whatsoever....just talking about it that's all. Maybe I will see how she goes with cutting down her Neocate (which we've done in the last two days and dropped a bottle already, yay) and offering more and more food that she can tolerate. Still she isn't eating much at all and seems scared too, she points to her tummy and says 'Sick' a lot lately too...she has been extra grumpy and sooky with it all. Poor baby, she still gets runny and mucky nappies and foul smelling bottom end wind. I will talk to her Paed about it all next visit for sure. In the meantime I will try what I said and see how it goes, cross fingers she doesn't vomit too much. If she starts vomiting and saying sick a lot more I will know if there's a real problem I guess. Now that she's over 18 months old I am thinking there are problems that should be resolving by now and if not then by the time she's 2 she should be eating a Lot better as she'll have to stop Neocate (the Paed says by 2 she should be drinking other milk for her age then). Scared for her that's all, want her to sleep well and eat well, breaks my heart when she vomits after enjoying a meal and has troubles with allergies etc...really does.