Baby Refusing Solids and Won't Take a Bottle - 7 Solutions

Is your baby refusing solids and it doesn't matter what you present to them?

Your baby won't take a well either and you are concerned about weight and lack of nutrients?

Here are 7 things you can do

👉First, are you watching the weight with your pediatrician?

👉Second, your pediatrician can’t do much if they don’t have data. For my special needs kids, I, Erin Fulks, weigh them daily and keep it in a log. That way, I can keep track of any trends.

👉Third, if your doctor isn’t doing anything now, ask them at what point they will be concerned about your child’s weight and then keep the data so you can let them know that the point of their concern has been reached.

👉Forth, you can ask for a consult for a g-tube. That can be a scary option for some parents. Some kids can eventually graduate off a G-tube but some not. G-tube can be a daunting option for parents, and they put it off. But it’s a huge stress relief to be able to give a child some calories and nutrients when they won’t or can’t eat on their own, if your child isn’t eating well and not sick. Things get more concerning when they are sick, and their weight seems to drop fast. A G-tube is especially useful in those situations. You can ask for an nJ or gj (I get the terms mixed up - it’s a nose tube), but that is not a good long-term feeding and development solution. It puts strain on your child’s developmental movements when they are already struggling. The g-tube does too but movement in the belly or the face is something you will want to work with if you go either of those routes.

👉Fifth. Do you have a Dietician on your medical team for your child? Regardless that should be someone on your team, and you should be asking them more diet-specific questions because that is their specialty. Unfortunately, your doctor is not a diet and food specialist, so he/she may not be having concerns about your daughter when the Dietician would because they, the dietician, would be looking at more factors that would indicate feeding concerns. A dietician can also help you look for formulas or food that packs in more calories with less quantity, allowing growth. Yes, the challenge is if your child will eat those things, but at least you are getting ideas for other things to try. (Side note, if you are not doing it already, sometimes insurance will pay for your kid's food, so that’s something worth asking about to help you out financially a little. You can ask the dietician or your pediatrician about this)

👉Sixth, have you done a swallow study to see if your child is having discomfort eating. If there is aspiration or a weak swallow, that would create an aversion to eating. Your doctor may push back on getting one of those if your child doesn’t seem “that bad,” but that’s a great baseline to get, and you may have to be pushy if your concern grows, but no one is doing anything.

👉Seventh, OT and Speech Therapy can help, but if you find those are not working and you are tapped out of therapy services and you are in a state of desperation for something, Movement Lesson has a swallow course that has been a game changer for my kids. Their eating is not perfect, but ML give me tools to support their feeding needs and see progress when nothing else has worked. CLICK HERE to get started with the course. 

Be warned that the swallow course by Movement Lesson is not for the faint-hearted. If therapy is working for you, this will be too hard for your to try. It's only when you have exhausted all options and nothing else is working will you put in the effort to learn and do what the course shows you to do. This is a self-education course on movement and development focused on swallowing, pre-feeding, and pre-speech. For best results, you want to practice each exercise for a half hour up to two hours a day every day for the next 7 days. This course will not prevent any medical interventions for feeding that you might need for your child, it can, but that is dependent on the child and their movement needs. Even if medical interventions are needed for your child, your child can still get the experience of eating and therefore continue on in their development as if they had developed that skill.

If you are a proactive, intentional, and determined parent to do anything to help your child thrive, then this course is for you. Click on the link to get started today. CLICK HERE to get started with the course.