Y didn't I think of that earlier?

Reese had her 11 month weight and iron level check yesterday.  She barely gained any weight in the last month and is hovering at the 13th percentile, and she is still anemic even after being on iron supplements. That was not the part that concerned me, it was the constant battle we have been having trying to get this little girl to eat. A baby her age (according to all the research) is supposed to be consuming 24-30 ounces of formula a day and eating a lot more solids. In the last month, but mainly the last 2 weeks, 18-20 ounces in a day was a good day and that came with a struggle. She would constantly push the bottle away and we would have to sing, dance, rock, walk, and distract for her to take that much. Same way with her baby food and table food. She has to be distracted and almost tricked to eat food.  

So our plan was to not focus on the numbers, and just assume she was making that transition from baby food/formula to table foods, even though she wasn't eating much of that either. So I left with a better feeling, and a stronger iron supplement to try.

In my gut, though, I knew there was something wrong, and I was just praying that it was a simple fix and not something serious or medical. I have been telling my mom now for weeks that my instinct was telling me something just wasn't right. I should have known.

So, I got to thinking...she has been on lactose free formula and iron supplements for a little over a month now, which is when our battle with bottle feeding started.  For those of you who don't know (me being one of those until recently), lactose free formula has a more powdery texture to it, which makes it a tad bit thicker. If you add the liquid vitamin supplement to the bottle too, it makes it even thicker. So....if you put thicker formula and a thicker vitamin supplement to a bottle with the same nipple you have been using, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, it took me a month to figure this out. Well, not really. In the last week I have been messing around with her other nipples, poking extra holes in them and adding slits, but it still didn't make a difference. No wonder the girl would cry, arch, push the bottle away, and just all out fight us for the couple of ounces she was getting. It was too much work for too little reward.

Today, I meandered to Babies R Us and bought the Dr. Brown's bottle with a Y cut nipple designed for thicker liquids. Voila! Little girl downed 6 ounces without a fuss, fight, or fidget. It brought tears to my eyes. For two reasons, I didn't realize how much her bottle battle had stressed me out and then I thought that poor thing was trying to tell us there WAS something wrong, her bottle. So we'll see tomorrow how much formula she takes and then see if she can gain a little more weight in the long run.

My instinct was right, there was something wrong, and wouldn't you know it at least part of it is a simple fix. Now we will just check on her iron levels again next month.

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And now just for funzies. Here's a video of little girl herself in her high chair. She loves to growl at us and can contort into some interesting positions (note the upside down watching the TV while in her high chair piece).