I am seeking advice or reassurance about a daycare baby I care for. He is four and half mo. and used to eat approx. 5-6oz every three hours. He has gotten a "cold" (so we think, nothing seems to be helping and he has coughed for almost a month now and been to the doc. twice) and his eating has gotten all weird. He will only take about 2-3oz in the morning and then again at lunch. he just doesn't seem to have an appetite. But come evening her wolfs down the bottles for mom. Could it be the "cold" that is changing this or is it maybe that he just isn't in a growing spurt right now? I haven't had a baby in daycare for almost two years so this is feeling a little foreign to me again! I guess I just need some reassurance that this is normal. Also one doc. said he has GERD. He barely ever spits up though, does this sound right? Anyone have experience with this?
Thoughts appreciated!
I would talk with mom about the temperature of the milk she is serving the baby in the evening. That can make a big difference for some babies too.
hes probably just doing his own thing. the thing about babies is that they know when they are hungry and full, and they arent tainted by any ideas of having to lose weight or gain weight...
colds can make it harder for him to eat because he really can only breathe or eat. :P
but, if he wolfs down for mom, then its likely that he just prefers to eat with her. thats fine.
just go with the flow!
I am a firm believer in children will eat when they need to, so I wouldn't worry too much about it unless they start to lose weight and then I would take them to a doctor. As far as the cough goes my daughter had a cough for a while and even started running a fever with it. I brought her in to the doctor and surprisingly enough he said it was alergies. He gave me samples of singular for her to verify and she stopped coughing after only a day. I know that my alergies are running crazy lately so this might be something to check out. She was not stuffy or anything just a cough.
If the cough doesn't have any other cold-like symptoms with it, it could be a reactive airway issue like asthma. My oldest had a cough for 6 weeks and the dr. kept telling me it was a cold. Finally, out of frustration I think, he gave me albuterol and the cough went away! My second baby started wheezing at 5 months and required a nebulizer. Most of the time, our only tip that something is wrong is a persistent cough. A cough for a month straight is not normal. The mom might need to take him to a different doctor.
sorry, I don't have any advice, but I am in the exact same situation with my daughter. She's the same age, was drinking 5 oz. every 3 hours as well, and for the last couple weeks seems to have lost her appetite...will go 5-6 hours between bottles sometimes, and will rarely finish a normal bottle. We also both happen to have a cough for the last week...hasn't exactly turned into a cold yet, but I'm wondering if it will, the cough is slowly getting worse. Interested to see the responses you get!!
