Has anyone ever had to go see a nutritionist for their baby?

Has anyone ever had to go see a nutritionist for their baby?  Eva went in for her 15 month check up and she is 30" tall and only 20lbs 9oz.  She is going down on that little scale they have and he is making me take her to a nutritionist.  I told her she does not eat what the heck that is why she is small I cannot force feed her.  So she has to go to a gastro doctor too.  Which I know she is fine with - she already takes prevacid and she will eat pizza so she is just picky.  I am going to blend veggies and put them on her pizza next time see if that works.

Anyway, he also said she was incredibly smart for her age - she would not shut up while we were there and saying her ABC's so that made me feel good since she is starving to death at least he knows I teach her.  But she also threw a fit and he said boy she thinks she is the boss.  Yes, doctor I know but seeing as it is illegal to beat your babies how do I change that.  JOKE!  She is babysat at grandmom's so she is spoiled.

Anyway - What will a nutritionist do?  make me a menu that I will learn how to cook and she will throw on the floor?

[GNicole]

Poor little Eva and you Kim, more appointments to go to! They will make suggestions as to what she should be eating and help develop a meal plan.  I am assuming that Eva Is taking the Prevacid for reflux. Maybe she doesn't eat very much because of the reflux. The Prevacid might not be controlling it.  This is such a hard age. Avery has days when she doesn't want anything I give her.  Good luck and keep me posted.

[jenstam]

UGH...I feel your pain. Brody throws nearly EVERYTHING except goldfish and cheez its on the floor. Oh, and grapes and mandarin oranges. He is about 23 lbs at 13 months though, so I think the whole milk he is getting is helping with weight gain, but the kid can't survive on the just whole milk. He will not eat ANY vegetables other than potatoes! I haven't gotten creative with cooking yet. He LOVES meat though.

Let us know what you come up with when you see the nutritionist. That should be interesting. You cannot force a child to eat. Trust me, I have tried. It's very frustrating when everything gets thrown on the floor!!

[DollChina]

my son is small as well, about the same weight or less at that age , but he's always been in the 5th percentile.....doc said not to worry and give him whatever he wants to eat....they said to try shake and I put cheese in things he would eat.  

[mum2beagain]

We saw a nutritionalist with James. Not only did he not eat very much he had real problems with texture too (still does infact) and ate little more than baby food/ mashed foods and formula until he was 2.
First off they had me keep a diary of everything he ate and drank, so I had to weigh food before I gave it too him and afterwards to see how much he had eaten, same with liquids, then they worked out his calorie intake over the week and averaged it out for each day, turns out he wasn't far off eating all the calories he needed too but he was still so skinny!
Then they had me introduce pediasue and high calorie smoothies to his diet, all in all that didn't make much difference to his calorie intake as when he had these he just ate even less food.
Since then we have slowly introduced new things. First of all we started just to new things on a plate on their own, he didn't have to do anything with them, just accept they were going to be on the table, then after weeks of this we had to insist he had one bit, even if he spat it out that was okay, so long as he took a bite. Then we progressed to taking one bit and eating it...you get the idea.
At 4 1/2 years things are better, he has put weight on now and eats way more foods. He still is real fussy about trying new things and has on going problems with texture but things are generally much better.

Good luck with the nutritionalist!

[cantwait4baby]

See I feel like mum - once she is old enough and knows throwing food on the floor is wrong and she will not get up until she eats I am sure I will be better off.  It is just so hard because nomatter what I put on her tray she throws it.  ARGH!

[mum2beagain]

You just have to do the best you can, I really understand your frustrations. With James we got to the point were he was borderline failure to thrive, at that point I just had to put him in his highchair and spoon feed him myself, I gave him lots of things like potatoes, vegetables and ground meats, all cooked really soft and mashed together. I was adding a teaspoon of olive oil to every hot meal to increase the calorie intake, I was making cheese sauces with butter and whole milk to put into stuff again to increase the calorie content. I added a tablespoon of wheatgerm to yoghurt to increase the protien and fibre.
I would say 75% of his meals were things like this until he was 3 years old and for the most part I was feeding him (James has other issues that contributed to me having to feed him, you have a smart little girl, I'm sure you won't be feeding her yourself when she is 3!). When he started to gain weight we began each meal with some self feed finger foods and then I spoon fed him something else if necessary to ensure he got enough calories from every meal.
I make batches of the things he will eat and freeze them, that way there is always something to hand I know he will eat, it makes life less frustrating.

Funny thing is my second child will eat anything and everything (although he did have a stage where he didn't eat fruit or veggies for a few months but that has passed now), at 20 months old it is easier to fix him dinner and have him eat it than is still is for James who is 4 1/2 now. Thank goodness; if I had had another picky eater I may have just gone mad!

At this point in time all you can do is keep offering her foods to try, she will come round eventually, in the meantime do what you have to to ensure she gets enough calories and nutrition. That may mean extra formula, pediasure, sneaking things into the foods she will eat or even feeding her yourself sometimes if you have to.

Hang in there!