Why won't my previously enthusiastic DD eat? :(

[emeraldgirl1]

We weaned her at 4m on medical advice (reflux) and she had never been happier. Loved food, loved the whole experience, was just delighted by it all.

She is now 6.5 m and refusing to eat solids for the past week.

She has had a sore throat/cold so I know this could be affecting it but this started before that.

Could be teething? She is really suffering recently.

Have been trying to gently introduce new tastes/textures since the 6m point and maybe she doesn't like that? Mind you, she is even refusing the things she loved before such as plain mushed avocado/sweet potato etc.

I am getting a feeling that she does not want to be fed with a spoon any more... she has always, from day one, 'helped' me feed her by pulling the spoon towards her while I guided it - but now she is refusing to let me do that. She does then grab the spoon herself and have an attempt or three to put it into her mouth herself but maybe she is getting frustrated with this (the spoon gets in but no food on it by that time) as from then on she just gets in more and more of a grizzly state until I give up and take her out of her high chair.

My mum claims me and my siblings all tried to feed ourselves with spoons from 7.5 months so maybe she just wants to do this? But 6m is v different from 7.5m, she can't get anything into her mouth at all.

I am giving her the limited finger foods I can at 6m, she has no teeth and obv can't do much with her fingers but she does enjoy a finger of toast (though if 5% of it actually goes into her that would be surprising). She will eat little cubes of cheese but obv cant pick them up herself to I have to feed them to her which I don't think she likes. A stick of cheese is no good as she has no teeth.

She is getting literally nothing from her solids at the moment and am worried about her being hungry, which I do think she is.

Would be happy to try BLW but does that give them enough??? Having been on solids now for 2 months I am worried that BLW will be giving her much less than she was having before, as she is just too little/toothless to feed herself anything at all.

Am feeling really ground down as feeding her was such a pleasure and now it is miserable. Am trying not to let it show and be jolly throughout! But not sure what to do.

[noblegiraffe]

Babies don't need teeth to eat food, their gums are surprisingly hard and can bite well. A baby could certainly handle a stick of cheese, although I find it easier to give it to them grated. My toothless baby manages e.g. baby sweetcorn quite well. Cooked carrot sticks, slices of pear, oatcakes spread with Philadelphia or peanut butter, rice cakes, bread sticks, pasta, she'll be fine with it all. Hardcore BLW will say just put a spaghetti bolognese in front of her and see what she does.

If she won't let you spoon feed her then letting her feed herself is the way forward. She might get less than when you fed her, but they do pick it up quite quickly. You can load spoons and give them to her too, to let her feed herself. Messy at first!

[emeraldgirl1]

Thanks noblegiraffe!!!

I know they should be fine just gumming away but she seems a bit helpless when I try to give her a stick of cheese... it just falls out of her mouth and she gets even more frustrated...

Gave her the spoon this evening at supper as she just wasn't having any of it when I tried to feed her, she grabbed it and tried a few times ot get it into her mouth but didn't manage, most of it ended up on the floor/walls, I don't mind the mess but I get upset that she seems so frustrated. I know she's hungry as she has had extra milk today in a kind of frenzy, but it's hard to know what to do when she sits in her high chair crying and grizzling, your automatic thought is that she wants to stop, but then she is hungry!

Is it possible that she's hungry but doesn't quite know what to do about it IYSWIM?

Also is 6.5m just not realistic that she wants to feed herself or is it developmentally likely that she might want to give it a try? She seems so cross with me for trying to feed her.

[Bloodsocks]

my dd is just coming up to 6 months. we've been weaning for about 3 weeks now doing a mix of purees and finger foods. from the start she refused to open her mouth for a spoon, but load it up and hand it to her and she gets it in her mouth and eyes and hair.

she has sticks of cheese, bites bits off which are then spat out but some melts which she thgern swallows.

this evening she has been happily gumming bread sticks and cheese with no problem at all. I have to hand things to her so she gets a good grip of them but they are perfectly capable of feeding themselves.

[stella69x]

I remember doing a '3 spoon juggle' t when my DS was like that have 3 spoons on the go so babe can try to feed them selfs and we can sneak spoons in too. Also sometimes had finger food alongside

[emeraldgirl1]

Thanks bloodsocks and Stella!
Will persist with the toast sticks and cheese stics then... It just seems as if she is getting so little, fingers of toast just basically fall apart. She gums them a bit but doesn't really seem to get anywhere... I guess I need to be more patient... Never my forte but a baby teaches you!!

[noblegiraffe]

If she is hungry, crying and grizzy in her high chair, then the best thing to do would be give her some milk. She should have milk maybe an hour before attempting solids, as the solids are about her learning how to eat, not about sating hunger (for now, at least).

When my DD started with finger food at 6 months, I really thought there was nothing going in, every time I looked something was falling out of her mouth. Yet surprisingly there was plenty of evidence in her nappies that not all was lost!

It'll seem like a step back in terms of quantity that she is eating, but if you think about it, now she is actually eating for herself, and it's proper food. She'd have had to make that transition from being spoonfed purées at some point, so it might as well be now.

My DD is nearly 8 months now and is really getting the hang of eating, but not only that, she is choosing what she wants to eat first. Tonight I put some pasta on her tray and she started eating that, then I put some grated cheese down, she dropped the pasta and her hand shot straight to the cheese, her favourite. Only when she had crammed it all into her mouth and scraped her tray for scraps did she go back to the pasta. It's so much fun!

[emeraldgirl1]

Noblegiraffe, thank you, I feel much better :)

Grated cheese is a brilliant idea, much easier for now than sticks I think...

I am paranoid about her choking so am probably restricting what I give her on that basis. Maybe I need to be braver?

[Shatteredmamma1]

Emeraldgirl1 we are having Exactly the same
Issue- in fact I had just logged on in
desperation to post he same thing! DS is
6.5m and we weaned at 5- 6 great weeks
Of purées (with a bit of finger food) and now
nothing - he clamps his mouth shut at the
sight of a spoon. It is so frustrating, especially
as he is EBF so I am now really worried
About iron levels etc. he will eat finger food
but gets virtually nothing and gets annoyed
about being in the highchair. Help!

[Fizzyfuzzy123]

I'm in the same position also. My son has gone off savoury! I've got a freezer full of ice cube savoury! Argh he's just screaming for milk or yogurt! X

[Shatteredmamma1]

I suppose we should be reassured it's not
just us...right???! Any one any advice on
iron? Or getting them to eat more??
Please?!

[flavourforbaby]

If you're feeding your baby formula milk they will be getting enough iron, so you don't need to worry! If it's breast milk then I think you need to speak to your health visitor as I remember being advised to give my 2nd DS vitamin supplements as his weaning was very slow at 6 months (I was breastfeeding at the time).

I found the first month of weaning really hard with my 2nd DS, as he needed lots of milk days (one spate lasted 2 weeks!). He got there in the end. I think it's such a big step for our little babies to move from milk to solids that sometimes they just need a break to have milk for a while and then go back to food......

The best advice one of my friends gave me (which her doctor gave her when she was weaning) is that babies don't know how to starve themselves so as long as they are taking milk it's ok!! And, eventually they'll start eating more solid food.

[Shatteredmamma1]

Yes thanks flavourforbaby- he is BF so I
will try the HV. He is getting an ounce or
two if formula a day ( from a sippy cup as
he is refusing a bottle still-agh) but I suspect
that isn't enough. Thanks.