Your six-month-old baby was eating like a pro, but all of a sudden, baby is not eating as much anymore. At first, you think maybe he is just teething or probably not that hungry. Your little one was doing so well on their growth chart, but all of a sudden the growth percentile starts going down, and the pediatrician seems concerned that baby is not gaining weight. Baby’s height gain has also slowed down and you notice your baby appetite decreased. Arrrrgh! I know that feeling of a worried mama so well.
On top of lack of sleep, breastfeeding, and taking care of a toddler at home, now this!
Breathe, mama. This is something many mothers go through, and it can be very stressful. At least it was for me, but it doesn’t have to be for you. So, read on to get all the tips for getting your baby to eat more during the day.
At this stage, babies are very active, and they are probably rolling, sitting up, or maybe even crawling or learning how to. A six-month-old baby at this stage needs more calories per day than was needed when they were a newborn baby. They are using up calories faster during the day now than as newborns because of how active they’ve become.
So, it is very important that they are drinking the amount of breastmilk or formula needed for their age and that you are tracking the volume intake, especially if they are not progressing well on the growth chart.
In this post, I list everything I did to help my 6-month-old gain weight fast and all the other stuff I was doing that was not helping.
20 things you can do to help get your baby to eat more
1 Talk to your pediatrician about your concerns regarding your baby’s weight gain
So the first thing to do when you are concerned about your baby not eating as much is to talk to your pediatrician and see what they recommend. Also, ask your pediatrician how many ounces of milk your baby should be drinking per day and how often they should be feeding.
2 Start pumping to increase breast milk production
I started pumping to increase my breast milk production. I would pump for 15 minutes every 3 hours after I had breastfed my baby, and I usually produced about 2–3 ounces of breast milk. I would save the pumped breast milk in the fridge for him to drink later on. Waking up several times at night to tend to babies can be very stressful on your body, and in turn, that stress can cause your breast milk supply to drop. If your breastmilk supply is good, then please skip the pumping. You only need to pump if your supply is down. The easiest way to know if your supply is down is to pump for 15 minutes and see how much milk your body produces.
3 Start using an app to track breastfeeding times
Since I was breastfeeding, it was very hard to track the volume of milk that my baby was eating. So I started using the Huckleberry app to track the time he fed on each breast. I noticed he would feed for 5 minutes on the right side and then under 5 minutes on the left. I truly believe that every baby is different, and some can gulp a lot of milk in 5 minutes, but I just knew by eating for less than 10 minutes total for every feeding that my baby was not eating enough. My baby’s weight gain has slowed down. So when you breast-feed your baby, time it and make sure baby is latching for at least 10 minutes on each breast.
4 Pay attention and listen for gulping/clicking sounds while your baby breastfeeds
I also started paying attention to the gulping or clicking sound babies make when they swallow milk. He would make that noise at the start of feeding, but after a few minutes, I would hear it less and less, and eventually, I knew he was just nibbling. So, listen for those sounds so you know baby is still taking in milk while breastfeeding.
5 Encourage baby to eat more during each breastfeeding session
Every time I noticed that my baby was no longer making the gulping sound while breastfeeding, I would pull him off and put him back on the breast to encourage him to feed for a longer time.
The same thing happens when he feeds for five minutes and pulls away from the breast. I would put him right back on, to make sure he was getting a proper feed and not just snacking. I tried my best to aim for 10 minutes on each side of the breast while paying attention to the gulping sounds baby was making. It’s okay if, after trying baby feeds for less than 20 minutes total, the point is just to try and encourage your baby to get full feeds during each breastfeeding session.
6 Start supplementing with Formula
I breastfed my baby exclusively for the first 6 months until baby was having difficulty gaining weight and I started supplementing with formula.
This made introducing formula a little tricky for my 6 month old because he was so used to breastfeeding that offering him a bottle seemed foreign to him. He gladly rejected bottles every time. More on that later on. Supplementing after breastfeeding can be a great way to get the baby to drink more and get more calories. At the start, I’ll aim for 1-2 ounces of formula milk after each breastfeeding session.
7 Take note of the time intervals between feeds to ensure the baby is hungry
Again, this is something you would want to discuss with your pediatrician and see what they recommend based on your baby’s age. I did feed my baby every 3 hours, but when I started keeping track of milk intake and realized how little baby was eating at a time, I decided to feed him more frequently.
8 Implement the wake, eat, play sleep cycle for baby
I need to mention that I have been breastfeeding him to sleep since he was a newborn, and I never transitioned him to the eat, play, sleep cycle. I believe he got used to breastfeeding to sleep so much that when it was time to eat, he was just snacking. I highly recommend not feeding to sleep once the baby is out of the newborn stage. It is easier at first, but once they get used to it, it can be more problematic down the road. This was the main reason why my baby was not hungry during the day because he was constantly snacking. If you want to read more about the eat, play, sleep schedule then read this article.
9 Make sure baby is getting well fed during the day to avoid constant night wakings
My baby was also constantly waking up at night to feed, just for him to go to sleep shortly after. This went on for weeks before I realized that babies that age hardly wake up that many times if they are not sick and are fully fed. We were out of the newborn stage, and my baby was waking up every hour to 2 hours. I knew something was not right. I would check his diapers and body temperature, feel his gums for signs of teething, check his bed, check his room temperature, and everything seemed fine. And then it dawned on me: he is just hungry!
I mean, he was waking up to eat several times throughout the night, but he would fall asleep in less than 5 minutes, so he was not getting the full feeds he needed to stretch out his wake times. So I started making some changes to get the baby to eat more during the day and drink more milk. My baby was not drinking the amount of milk the pediatrician said he needed in a day, and I knew I had to change up some things. Baby was eating less than usual
10 Take note of how many wet diaper changes your baby has in a day
Ask your pediatrician how many wet diapers your baby should be having in a day, and keep track of how many your baby has.
11 Weighing baby after breastfeeding
I did not try this, but when I went into the doctor’s office, they weighed the baby first, then had me breastfeed the baby, and then weighed him again to get an estimate of how much he was eating during feeds.
So, if you have a scale at home, this is something you can try to see how much your baby is eating since it is very hard to measure milk intake if you are exclusively breastfeeding.
12 Upgrade the nipple size of your baby’s bottles
I also changed his bottle nipple size from 1 to 3 to increase milk flow, which was appropriate for his age range. This chart helps determine what nipple size to get based on your baby’s age.
13 Pour out small amounts of formula at a time to avoid wasting it
I wasted a lot of formula at the start because I would make 4 ounces and he would only drink the most one ounce and I had to discard the rest after an hour. I was so focused on his eating that I didn’t think to prepare four ounces and pour out one ounce at a time in another bottle to avoid wasting the formula milk. So, please don’t make the same mistake I made when preparing the formula.
14 Experiment with different feeding bottles
I also tried different feeding bottles to see if he had a preference that would encourage him to eat more. I tried Dr. Bronner’s bottle and then switched to the Nuk small learner cup and then the OXO tot transition straw, and now we are back to using Dr. Bronner’s.
15 Only fill bottle nipple 50% during feeds
When bottle feeding, I made sure to tilt the bottle at an angle where the nipple was only filled to 50%. I noticed he does better drinking milk that way than having it tilted all the way.
16 Switch Formulas to see which one baby tolerates if baby is rejecting bottles
I started supplementing with baby formula at first, but my sweet baby rejected bottle so many times that I almost gave up. I am talking about rejecting it after trying for like 2-3 weeks constantly. I decided to switch formulas. I tried Similac, Enfamil, Bobbie, and Kendamil organic infant formula. He seemed to like Kendamil but would only drink half an ounce to one ounce every time. Seriously, I was happy if he took one ounce; most times I offered it, it was mostly sips.
But I was determined to make him eat, so I stayed consistent with the Kendamil formula.
Some breastfed babies will reject formula if they have been exclusively breastfed formula for much of their lives, but that does not mean you should stop offering it. It will take a while, but you have to keep offering the bottle, and eventually, they will drink it. Don’t force it, though. I recommend just having them hold the bottle to play with so they get familiar with it.
Kendamil is not made in the USA, so its mixing ratio is different from all the other US-based formulas I have tried. If you decide to switch formulas, please read the preparation instructions carefully.
17 Stay consistent on serving solids
I started him on solids, but he didn’t seem that interested. Most of the food ended up on the floor. It was a pain in the butt, but I stayed consistent and only offered a little on his plate at a time.
We ate three meals a day, at the dinner table as a family. He needed to see other people eating next to him to encourage him to eat as well. So if baby is not eating solids and has siblings, encourage them to sit together for meals.
Most of the meals we gave him were just the same ones we were eating too, or a baby pouch or yogurt I got from the store.
I chose pouches that were high in calories and the ones I knew he would like. If you want to read more about baby food ideas, check out my blog post on it here.
I also started giving him water after he had solids or purees. I had a separate cup of water for him, and he loved the cup.
Giving him water after every meal helps move the food along, lowering the chances of constipation.
If your baby is not gaining weight after starting solid, speak to your pediatrician about it as it may be related to constipation.
18 Talk to your pediatrician if you notice your baby is not pooping
Constipation in babies is very common and can be a pain to deal with. It not only makes the baby very fussy but also gets in the way of how the body is supposed to move food to clear it out so that baby can have space for more food.
A constipated baby is more likely to reject food because their tiny belly just does not have space for more. I give my baby prunes and pear pouches every time I notice he’s struggling to poop. I also offer him 1 ounce of apple or pear juice. Soft peaches and kiwis are also great for helping with constipation.
19 Talk to your pediatrician about appetite medicines for babies
We were also referred to a Gastroenterologist to make sure his food was being absorbed by his body, but the doctor didn’t think that was the problem and prescribed him an appetite medicine.
As much as everything else that I did helped improve the amount of food he consumed, the medicine was a game changer and made him more hungry to eat more. This is coming from someone who usually resorts to medication as a last resort.
So talk to your pediatrician if, after trying all the stuff I did, and nothing improves to see if your baby can get an appetite medicine that will be helpful.
My baby was prescribed a baby appetite syrup called Cyproheptadine. A baby appetite stimulant that helps with emptying of the stomach.
20 Give daily vitamin D liquid supplement
I also started giving him vitamin D drops daily in the morning. I would put the vitamin D drop directly on my breast before breastfeeding him in the morning. You can also add the drop to your baby’s milk bottle if that’s easier for you.
Final thoughts
Okay, you have reached the end of this blog post, and I hope you found it helpful. I know it’s a lot, but just take what works for you and your baby and leave the rest. We are not aiming for an overwhelmed mama, but a happy and relaxed mama ready to tackle one problem at a time. May I dare to say Happy mama, happy baby? lol
Feel free to talk to your pediatrician before implementing any of the things I mentioned above. Check out my blog post about avoiding diaper rash on babies, . Until then, mama, I shall see you in my next post.
