Why does a four-month-old baby not like to eat milk?

Every child will always encounter various problems in the process of growing up. We all know that when the baby is young, he needs to provide the nutrients needed by the body through breast milk or formula. However, when the baby is four months old, there will be a period of milk aversion. During this period, the baby is particularly unwilling to drink milk, which often makes parents very anxious. They don’t know what to do because they can’t provide the nutrition needed for the baby’s body growth if they don’t like to drink milk. It is also very bad for the baby’s health. Let’s understand why a four-month-old baby doesn’t like to drink milk.

Why does a four-month-old baby not like to eat milk?

One is physiological milk aversion. The second is pathological milk aversion. The clinical features of these two conditions and the coping methods of parents are described in detail below.

Physiological milk aversion

Normal newborns are usually very focused on feeding in the first two months after birth. He cries when he is hungry and sleeps when he is full, and his weight increases rapidly. Parents feel a great sense of accomplishment when they see their beloved baby grow an inch bigger as he sleeps, like a balloon!

Who would have thought that after three months of age, most babies would no longer feed in one go, but would eat intermittently, sometimes even making chirping and cooing sounds. There are also some curious babies who stop sucking milk as long as there is a sound or people walking around. Obviously, other things are much more interesting to them than sucking milk.

Therefore, in medicine, this temporary aversion to milk in babies aged four to five months is called the "physiological anorexia period." Its characteristics are that the child develops normally and is very energetic, but the amount of milk is temporarily reduced. Usually the child's appetite recovers naturally in about a month.

Although babies at this stage eat less, most are still able to maintain their normal growth, and there is no evidence that this will affect their intellectual development. Therefore, parents can evaluate their baby's growth based on the growth curve. If the baby does not deviate from the normal growth curve, they can just let nature take its course.

However, for some babies, the milk aversion period lasts too long, and you cannot simply wait for them to recover naturally. Because the human stomach is an elastic bag, if you don't stretch it often, you will gradually get used to not feeling hungry. Some children initially have physiological anorexia, and gradually their weight stops increasing appropriately. On the growth curve, their weight percentile drops by two curves, or falls below the third percentile. This is called "growth retardation" and is considered pathological anorexia. It must be evaluated by a doctor and actively supplement nutrition.

Pathological milk aversion

We often say that the seven necessities of a housewife are "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea". The life style of babies is "eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sleeping, moving and playing". If a child has health problems, these seven things will be affected, manifested as eating less, sleeping poorly, and having low energy. Milk aversion is a sign that often accompanies acute and chronic diseases.

Chronic diseases

Congenital heart disease, metabolic diseases and tumors consume more calories over a long period of time, but the patients have a decreased appetite due to anemia or lack of blood oxygen. Such babies cannot tell where they are uncomfortable, and all their parents can observe is a bad complexion, decreased energy and loss of appetite. These children require long-term medical care, not only for underlying diseases, but also for improved nutrition so that they can develop normally.

Acute infection

Acute pharyngitis and thrush cause oral pain, which can cause the baby to suddenly eat less. Acute respiratory tract infection can cause nasal congestion, which makes it difficult for babies to breathe while sucking milk and causes them to dislike milk. There is also acute gastroenteritis and urinary tract infection causing abdominal pain and fever, and the child will cry and be restless.

septicemia

The most serious case of milk aversion is in infants with sepsis. Before the age of two, the human immune system is not yet mature. If there is an infection in any part of the body, such as the lungs, middle ear or kidneys, the white blood cells cannot confine the bacteria to the primary site. The bacteria may spread through the blood circulation and cause a systemic infection, which is called sepsis.

At this time, the child will be irritable, drowsy, unwilling to move, breathing rapidly or wheezing, the body temperature may be feverish or even lower than normal, the milk supply may drop sharply or the child may vomit or have abdominal distension.

If it is a pathological milk aversion period, you should seek medical attention immediately and ask the doctor to diagnose and treat you.

The above is an introduction to why a four-month-old baby does not like to drink milk. When encountering this symptom, parents should not always think that the baby has reached the milk aversion period. This is a normal phenomenon. First of all, you must understand the reason to see if the baby has a disease. If it is caused by illness, you should consult a doctor in time. In addition, if it is a psychological milk aversion period, you can add some complementary foods to the baby appropriately, such as adding some rice noodles or millet porridge to the baby, but don’t feed the baby too much.