baby biting herself

[calamity22]

My just turned 11 mo old granddaughter has started biting herself. I take care of her 9 plus hours Mon-Fri. She is doing this at home too. I don't know if she's too young for fits of temper, but she seems to get angry lately when getting her diaper changed, or trying to put her in high chair or "down at all". She will begin biting her own arm and making growling mumm mmm noises, sometimes crying. When her parents come to pick her up and put her in the carrier she begins serious crying, kicking and biting herself (really looks like temper tantrum to me.) She recently had two more bottom teeth come in but you can pretty much tell when it's teething pain. Oh yeah, she grinds her teeth really loud all the time. She's been doing this since teeth first starting coming in at about 5 mo......She also has gotten very hard to feed, but thats probably a question I should probably pose to another area of pediatrics.

[calamity22]

Thanks for your last comment. That helps a lot. And I do think she's strong willed. Gonna take after her daddy that way, haha. The silent reflux just doesn't seem to fit, though I'll still watch for it. Since I've had some success with small pieces of grilled cheese and hot dogs, I'll try the mac and cheese next and what ever other kind of finger foods I can think up.....I do think her having a fit when put in her carrier to go home is either she hates the carrier or she's upset at suddenly being taking away from nana's house where she was contently playing or sleeping or on bottle, etc. She IS here 9 plus hours five days a week after all.

[mamawith2girls]

Margypops has a valid point, in that, what you could be seeing is an expression of independence....don't change my diaper, I was playing!!! Hey, don't put me in the carrier, I'm trying to walk here!!! Don't feed me, I can do it myself! This is very normal behaviour, if she is a strong-willed child.

The main reason I mentioned reflux is because many of the behaviours you describe, I saw in my own daughter, who had reflux. Reflux can be silent, in that you don't see any spit up or vomiting. Rather, they just swallow it back down. Burns coming up....burns going down. Coupled with the fact that she is small and a fussy eater, that is what came to mind, because my daughter was also small. I was told to add oils and butter, which I only did occassionally because she didn't like the additives. Other foods that are GREAT for weight gain are proteins (peanut butter, beans, blended meat), dairy (whole fat yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, pudding). If she likes mac n' cheese, for instance, you can add lots of butter, melted cheese, cottage cheese, and high fat blend cream instead of milk. High fat blend cream or whipped cream has oodles of calories, and can be added to almost anything (provided she tolerates dairy), also, avocado is a very high fat fruit, hummus is high fat, but these are all foods that have allergen potential, so you'd have to trial slowly. Also, if she likes grilled cheese, a trick is to butter both sides of each slice of bread!! Kids love to dip stuff, so that would encourage independent eating as well. As long as she is on formula, the most important thing for her is learning new skills, because she is getting adequate nutrition from the formula. If she takes less off the spoon, it's no big deal. Let her make a mess and get used to new textures. This was what I was told by a behavioral psychologist and nutritionist at a feeding clinic for my daughter. She was only 17.5lbs at 18 months old and they were not worried about her not eating off the spoon. They said her learning to feed herself was more important. Formula was enough.

The things you would watch for with reflux would be loud swallows, sour faces, throat grabbing, food refusal, poor weight gain, spitting up or vomiting, bad breath, etc.

I'm sure she is just a strong-willed child, but was just giving you something else to consider. Many people do not know about "silent" reflux and believe that it is outgrown by 6 months to a year, and that generally is not true. Good luck!!

[margypops]

She is old enough for finger foods and probably likes feeding her self, so why not do that a lot of children prefer it rather than be spoon fed ...

[calamity22]

reflux? I don't know. She does stick her fingers in her mouth and kind of gag herself a lot. But she's been doing that forever. This biting and anger is kind of a new thing. She just the past week or so has gotten really picky about eating. She used to eat a good breakfast of gerber oatmeal mixed with formula and a little stage 2 fruit, and stage 2 stuff like ham and pineapple, sweet potatoes, peas, etc. for lunch and was eating fine.  Shes very small but healthy, active and in proportion. The doc just had her mom put her on canola oil with her food to add calories, and to try some stage 3 stuff. She absolutely hates the stage 3. Don't blame her. Nasty! A couple of days after adding the oil she got tummy ache and very gassy (this info from my son) and they're taking away the oil. I only tried it once, thought it was a pretty nasty thing to do to her food.....Any way now I can't get her to take breakfast or lunch. I've gotten desperate and started giving her tiny pieces of my grilled cheese, which she likes, some pinches of shredded cheese, and I even gave her tiny pieces of a hot dog which she also liked, and she also took some chunks of gerber diced apples. She takes her formula as usual. How do I mention reflux to her parents? My daughter in law is great but very laid back and all I'll get is a "she's fine" and a "mama you're just thinking up something else to worry about" from my son. What's the mere baby sitter (albeit worried grandmother) to do?

[mamawith2girls]

Does she have reflux? Does she put her fingers down her throat? Sounds like a reaction to pain. Something worth considering and discussing with her pediatrician for sure. Reflux babies would react angrily to being laid down flat for diaper changes, being put in high chair to feed, which can be painful, as well as being put in a carrier which can cause pressure on her tummy, increasing reflux.