Little D for a long time is “difficult to eat”, a few sips of milk and then stop drinking, feeding complementary food refused to open their mouths, I spent every day in anxiety that her weight is not growing and angry that she does not eat properly. Every time you eat is a battle, I was singing and dancing and holding toys to coax, I wanted to kneel down, “Auntie, you just eat well, grow weight properly can not?” Many premature babies are more or less feeding super-sensitive, because the concept is not so popular, so many times parents and doctors will ignore, resulting in a vicious circle of eating badly – poor development. Feeding super-sensitive performance: 1, refuse to eat a certain taste or texture of food (for example, some do not like to eat soft food; some do not like to eat warm food, etc.). Little D loves to eat cold, and refuses to eat all food with spices, such as added onion, ginger, garlic, cumin, cinnamon and other complementary foods; 2, often closed mouth, refused to pacifier or spoon into the mouth; 3, for a long time can only eat smooth texture of complementary foods, such as only eat the first stage of the finished puree, can not switch to eat the second stage of coarse particles of complementary foods; 4, very often dry vomiting or even vomiting ( Here you need to rule out that it is not the cause of gastroesophageal reflux). Little D reflux well, there is a period of time as long as a new complementary food, the first will be dry vomiting, this is actually this type of child self-protection behavior Here we need to emphasize that the baby does not eat this phenomenon, the first need to check whether the baby has some pathological symptoms, such as gastroesophageal reflux, such as sucking weak muscle tone, such as anemia resulting in poor appetite. If these are checked and the problem still exists, you can consider whether there is a case of feeding hypersensitivity. Causes of feeding hypersensitivity: There is no definitive answer as to the cause, but most feeding experts tend to believe that there are both congenital and acquired factors. Most of the congenital factors apply to premature babies or full-term babies who are hospitalized at birth. These babies spend too much time in the hospital on an IV or feeding through a feeding tube, causing them to miss the prime time to experience the pleasures of food with their mouths. Imagine yourself, if you were born with a tube in your mouth for food, and one day the tube was removed, you would not be able to adjust to the sudden appearance of liquid or soft food in your mouth, and you might not know how to handle these “foreign invaders”. And if your baby is on an oxygen machine during his hospitalization, the chances of his feeding sensitivity are even higher. Imagine, as soon as he comes into the world, there are countless hands shoving plastic tubes into his mouth whether he agrees or not, whether he is comfortable or not, and unknowingly he forms a bad connection, “Don’t touch my mouth, I’ll be uncomfortable”. This was the case with Little D. She was born without breathing, brought an oxygen machine for almost 80 days, aspirated countless times a day, and had her feeding tube changed several times a week. She is resistant and defensive to anything that enters her mouth. The acquired factor is that we adults do not pay attention to some details when feeding, resulting in feeding that has been somewhat uncomfortable for the baby, and this situation is reinforced with several feedings a day, eventually giving the baby the connection that eating will make me uncomfortable. For example, some parents don’t choose the right pacifier for their baby at first, resulting in too fast a flow rate and the baby choking all the time while drinking milk. Over time, the baby feels that pacifiers are “bad” and make me uncomfortable. There is no good way to feed a super sensitive baby with immediate results. What we parents can do is to be patient, patient, patient again, and insist on giving her some “desensitization” methods to break the link that touching her mouth is unpleasant. The following are some small methods that I have used myself to share with you. 1. Touch Little D’s body numerous times a day, and then touch her cheeks and mouth each time in passing. Remember, for premature babies touch must be with the whole palm of the hand pressure, not with fingers poking or rapping, which will feel painful and uncomfortable for them. 2. Clean Little D’s mouth with gauze or a small toothbrush every morning and evening. The texture of the gauze and toothbrush can stimulate and awaken the tongue and mouth to some extent. 3. Put the bottle, pacifier or cookie among the toys Little D plays with and let her play with it, so that she can slowly get used to and accept it as one of her toys, her good friend, not a “weapon” that mommy forced me to eat. I was too anxious for a while, and the more she didn’t eat, the more I forced her to eat, causing her to cry when she saw the bottle for a long time. Then a week before I started to add complementary food, I gave her the spoon and the Wan bowl to play with, to “get acquainted” first. 4, when eating, singing gently to little D, or discover some only belong to the meal when you and baby games. For example, when I was breastfeeding, Little D especially like to use one hand to scratch my face, I take advantage of this every time to let her scratch like a pig snout, so she will be distracted and temporarily forget that she is doing something she does not like. 5, feeding complementary food, deliberately pretend that it is super delicious (here need very pompous acting skills), and then do not rush to feed her, “seducing” little D want to eat themselves. The more I tried to feed her, the less she wanted to eat. I several times simply so gluttonous her, she will be their own anxiously shouted forward to reach for a spoon. 6, step by step, for children like little D, do not jump directly from the two sections of clay to three sections of clay, the best is to add a little bit of three sections of clay inside most of the two sections of clay first, depending on her adaptation, slowly reduce the proportion of two sections of clay, so “steal the pillar” until the complete transition to three sections of clay. (I use the finished puree as an example here to make it easier for you to understand the grain thickness, if you are making your own supplement at home is also the same reason). Although the packaging of the finished puree will be written for the age of the baby, but this is only for most babies. We can refer to it, but we should adjust it appropriately for our own child’s situation. When Little D was 7 months past orthodontic, he just couldn’t accept the three-stage puree, and I was very anxious at that time. Yes, if the timeline is stretched, there is really no need to dwell on eating a month or two late. 7, first put the food supplement on the table, let little D see and tell her what it is, and then take her along to touch it, so that little D has a warm-up process of adaptation, not too unfamiliar and rejection or dry vomiting. The moms who insist on seeing this are not sighing, oh my God, it’s so hard to raise. Yes, my family is really difficult to raise my little one, she is a highly feeding sensitive baby. Highly feeding sensitive babies can cause long-term feeding difficulties if not handled properly? that will eventually fail to develop in a reasonable manner on the physiological curve. Looking back on that darkest experience, I would like to say to those mothers of babies in similar situations as my family, we must calm ourselves, don’t show anxiety if our baby doesn’t eat; don’t make a fuss if our baby dry vomits. I know this is easier said than done. But parents control their own emotions is very important, so that the baby understands that eating is happy than how much he ate a meal is much more important! Finally, to give you a little positive energy, we insisted on these methods for almost six months, and now little D is a snacker, completely “desensitized”, very much love to eat, and every meal is very happy.