Speaking of appointments, we were just at the doctor last week. Not for a well check though. It was to check out a mysterious rash and a decrease in appetite. Why don't I start at the beginning.....
About a month ago, around the middle of January (7 1/2 months), Dominic got a cold. I think that I talked about this in an earlier post. It was tough, but we got through it. Before his cold set in he was eating one entire jar of oatmeal and fruit with his "breakfast" bottle and two jars (a fruit jar and a protein and vegetable jar) at his dinner feeding. This was very consistent.....day in and day out he eat three whole jars. Once the cold really set in he refused to eat solid foods all together. The control freak in me really had to take a chill pill!
Once the cold passed he slowly started to eat the solids, but was not eating anywhere near the same amount. I assumed he would pick up speed as the days passed, but he really never did. As a matter of fact, he started getting worse. It got so bad that he refused to even sit in his highchair.
We thought the problem might be his highchair.
::she runs to Babies R Us::
After test driving every model in the store and even considering the ridiculously overpriced models, we picked a mid-priced one that had a little more padding than the one we had at home.....$150 later he was only a little happier.
My next thought was that maybe, at almost 9 months, he is over the baby food and ready to move on to table food. I purchased a "Baby Bullet" and starting making my own baby food, in an effort to make the food chunkier and of course, more nutritious.
I have been persistent and have tried feeding him before his bottle, after is bottle, an hour later.....the strategies are endless. He will now eat a little bit if I feed him before his bottle. He really enjoys pancakes, blueberries and bananas. I can usually get him to eat a small amount of oatmeal too, but the vegetables are just out of the question right now. I wonder if all the chatter about introducing babies to veggies first really holds true. Right now I don't really care, as long as he is eating SOMETHING.
We go to the doctor this Wednesday for his 9 month check up and plan to discuss this with him at length, so.....more to come.
So that describes the loss of appetite....now on to the rash. I started to notice a few weeks ago that Dominic had dry raised spots on his back. They became very red and noticeable in the bathtub. I thought at first that he might be allergic to the baby soap, so I switched to a very gentle brand. There was no change. While my mom was visiting she mentioned that it could be a food allergy, so I checked out the baby food I had in my cabinet. It turns out I was feeding him strawberries in his oatmeal every morning. Strawberries are a very common food allergy for babies, so I decided to remove them from his diet. A few days later....no more rash. So, without testing him for anything, I can confidently say that I think he is allergic to strawberries. Which is a real shame because they are delish!
Anyway, this was my long drawn out complaint about my struggles with baby food. I am sorry for the rambling, but hopefully it will help someone sleep better when this happens to them.
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