Baby needs to gain weight but won't eat

[jahncrish]

Hi! So, my baby brother is 8 months old and weights less than what is expected, besides that, everything is fine with him according to the pediatrician. Almost everyone in my house has tried to feed him with no avail, he won't eat more than small portions and even then he makes a fuss about it. For breakfast, he usually has a bit of passion fruit juice, half of a mashed banana, and some scrambled eggs, then some milk after; for lunch he eats a small plate of liquified soup, then his milk at like 3 or 4; at 6 he has more soup, and finally at 8 some milk.
This has been causing a lot of tension in the house, since my mom tends to "lose it" quite often and screams at everyone out of frustration. I just want my brother to be OK, so could you please share some of your tips to get him to eat more? Just now he's crying because he only had 2 ounces of soup for lunch and he still doesn't want to drink his formula.
UPDATE: Thanks so much to everyone who gave kind advice! Baby is thriving and has grown and gained quite a lot of weight in the past few weeks

 

[greggkj]

@jahncrish Are you guys only offering soup? At 8 months I think he could handle other soft foods like various fruits (blueberries and raspberries mashed). He should still get most of his nutrition from formula.

When you say milk- do you mean cows milk, breast milk, or formula?

 

[jahncrish]

@greggkj Formula! He was never breast fed. About the soup-- no, we give him fish, some chicken, lentils, and more. He just genuenly doesn't want to eat unless we show him youtube videos or TV, and that's IF he's in a good mood.

 

[greggkj]

@jahncrish Offer the formula BEFORE the food. He’s filling up on things that don’t have much nutrition. He will drink more formula if it’s an empty stomach.

At one year old you switch and offer milk after food.

 

[darcy74k]

@jahncrish and don't let a 8 months old watch tv or yt. they can't even comprehend whats happening on the screen.

 

[lamb7]

@jahncrish Why do parents do the whole YouTube thing? It wasn't around when we were younger. How do you think our parents coped?

 

[jahncrish]

@lamb7 Ugh, I wish I could tell you. Sometimes we manage with only toys so that he's distracted, but it never ocurred to me that his major nutrient source was still the milk because the ped only ever talked about giving him food.

 

[lamb7]

@jahncrish I've had so many arguments with them. The whole peanut thing...

 

[jahncrish]

@lamb7 Yeaaah it seems a bit risky, I don't want him to develop a nut allergy or get too much sugar in his body. I'm peruvian, so I honestly have no idea how american babies work though lol

 

[lamb7]

@jahncrish If you and your partner are not allergic it's more of a risk to not let babies of 16 month old have peanut products as they are more likely to develop an allergy as they have no been acclimated.
American babies hahaha, I don't know how the work either, Gatorade was it?

 

[jahncrish]

@lamb7 Thank you for the feedback! Actually i'm his sister lol, but I do care a lot about him since i'm practically helping to raise him as well.

 

[dawn4311]

@jahncrish All babies work the same.

 

[badexample]

@greggkj This. Where is the breast milk of formula? At 8 months you're still weaning, and a lot, if not most, of the calories come from breast milk/formula.

 

[creekwalker]

@jahncrish At 8-months breastmilk/formula is still your baby's main source of energy and nutrients, but solid foods should be added but not as a replacement.

 

[greggkj]

@creekwalker Adding: which means you should offer the formula before the food, so he isn’t filling up on empty nutrients.

The phrase is “food before one is just for fun” because all of his nutrition is basically from the formula. Don’t focus on food.

 

[creekwalker]

@greggkj Exactly, food at that age is basically practice.

 

[chriscomplex]

@jahncrish Stop filling his tummy and satiating his thirst with watery soup! He should still be having 4 (or more) bottles of formula a day, 6-8 oz each. So maybe 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 8 pm. Then the meals come after or in between these times and are less important than the formula e.g. breakfast at 8 am, lunch at noon, dinner at 6 pm.

I’m not sure what this “soup” is, but it should be more like mashed food with only a little water added, or more like oatmeal/porridge/stew and not so watery as to be considered soup. Half a banana and eggs for breakfast sound great, but maybe served an hour after a bottle of formula, and limit the juice.

 

[jahncrish]

@chriscomplex Thank you!! And yeah, the soup is more like a porridge of different vegetables and meat, just all mixed together – sorry, english isn't my first lenguage so I didn't know how to word it well i'll definitely follow your advice, many people seem to be saying that he's supposed to drink more formula than food, but won't that make him lose even more weight?

 

[chriscomplex]

@jahncrish https://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/babyfoodcalories/

You can see from this table that breastmilk and formula generally have more calories per oz than any jarred baby food or prepared oatmeal. Only more solid stuff like banana or avocado are more calorie-dense. And most babies can chug 6 oz of formula way faster and with less effort than spoon-feeding 6 oz of porridge or purée.

 

[leaderturk]

@jahncrish No, formula is a full meal. It's specifically formulated to have everything a baby needs to grow and thrive.