Spoon refuser :-/

[zombiemeow]

Ds is 8 mo we have been doing blw since around 25 weeks.

He refuses to be spoon fed, he quite likes holding a spoon and feeding himself but it's quite rare there is any food left on it by the time he gets it to his mouth. How can I feed him any foods that he can't hold like cottage pie, lasagne, spag Bol, curry etc? It seems like all he has atm is toast, chicken, cucumber and carrots!

He has recently not really been interested in food any more so I wanted to introduce more things to try and get him eating again.

[Ludways]

My dd refused spoons, it was great, I'd just put out some soft foods and she'd happily pick them up herself. She's nearly 10 now and a great eater.

[Ludways]

Sorry, list of things she'd eat.

All veggies, steamed or boiled till soft
All soft fruits
Bread
Pasta
Small bits of meat

I found it so much easier than my spoon fed ds.

[sophie150]

I have a spoon refuser too. i just let him pick up chunks of spag Bol from the tray ( don't break up the mince too much in the pan and you get some nice big chunks to pick up). With curry I would just pick out the meat/ veg and put them on the tray and not worry about the sauce.
The only things I haven't had much success with are porridge and rice, but other than that he eats anything. I do sometimes help him by putting a chunk of something in his hand but try to avoid this.
I buy thick natural Greek yogurt which sticks to the spoon so he has some success eating this.
Ultimately self feeding is easier - you can get on and eat whilst they are eating so I'd embrace it!
Have a look at the blog 'my lovely little lunchbox' - she has lots of food recipes for finger foods. lots of them can be made in bulk and frozen so you can just pull something out of the freezer each morning for lunch. Eg the sweet potato and tuna patties. They have enough 'adult' flavours (lemon, herbs etc) to make them suitable for the grown ups too!

[Laquila]

The beauty of BLW is that you don't need to worry about using cutlery just yet! I did the same as PPs and gave stuff that could be picked up or dipped, so we just avoided things like soup until he was closer to 12mths, when he was holding a spoon. Actually I was probably spoon-feeding him myself with some stuff by about 10 months, once I was confident that he'd learnt that he had to feed himself the majority of his food. As someone else said, Greek yog is great as it's very thick. My son ate a lot of fresh fruit, cheese, roasted veg, egg in various forms, chicken, bits of h etc. Breakfasts were usually egg, fruit and toasted teacake/crumpet, and I used to make and freeze little veg muffins.

[peppapigonaloop]

Make sushi or pudding rice so that it sticks together or risotto balls.
Just give them the spag Bol/curry/lasagne and watch them go! Seriously messy but they get better at it..
Fish cakes, any kind of pattie, pancakes with spinach/chicken/cheese/anything really..
Gil rapley blw book has good recipes and clear guidance on finger foods..

[HeadDreamer]

I have two spoon refusers.

My advice is to keep eating the same stuff you got and let him get on with it with his hands. They can eat spag bol with their hands and lasagne. Maybe switch to a spiral pasta instead of spaghetti. At the moment it might seem he can't pick up mince. Pincer grip comes around 8-9 mo and he will be picking up the beans, mince and peas.

As for curries, I don't see what the problem is. Surely the lumps in the curry is fairly large?

[HeadDreamer]

Both DDs haven't got much problem with rice actually. I just dump them on the try with everything else.

I don't give yoghurt, but give cheese slices instead. Those lunch ones that are pre sliced.

I also don't do porridge but bite sized cereals. Shredded wheat is my go to as it is low in salt and sugar. There are also corn flakes and similar if you look on the supermarket shelves.

[zombiemeow]

Thanks everyone, will look at the blog too.
Will dump some lasagne infront of him tonight and see how he goes

Stupid but I never even thought about just putting the spag Bol infront of him!

He can't have Greek yog as he has cmpi, could try pouring some soya yoghurt infront of him though and seeing what happens

[dannydyerismydad]

You can as

[dannydyerismydad]

You could also try smearing runnier stuff on a rice cake, or giving bread sticks to dip into sauces.

[Ludways]

Oh yes, rice. We used to watch dd trying to pick up a single grain, there was much jollity when she first managed, lol!

[NormaStits]

Was just coming in to post the same thing! Similar age, also spoon refusing. She did take spoons, we were having porrige, yoghurt, weetabix, I was making lovely dinners and mashing them a bit, mixing it all up with finger foods and then she just point blank refused to take a spoon.

She loves most vegetables and fruit. I chop strawberries into quarters, that's a firm favourite and she's getting pincer grip so things like raisins can be given now, and peas. I give her toast and cubes of cheese too.

But like you, I was concerned about the variety so reading the tips on here is a big help. I was mostly concerned that she's not getting enough protein and fat because she favours fruit and veg. I don't want to discourage that at all (she cried for more fruit when I gave her a rusk, want to embrace that for as long as possible!) but I have been trying to look for ways to get more high calorie food in too.

My suggestions to add would be - eggy bread and scrambled egg. Also, try making vegetable fritters, I have made courgette ones, sweetcorn ones and bean ones so far. You can batch make, have them in the freezer and just defrost a few at a time.

Also, things like parsnip, carrots, potato, sweet potato cut into chip size and boiled or roasted go down well here.

I've read that you can cook chicken breast and cut it into small portions and they can eat that too. Other meats are apparently good - slow cooked beef pulled into small pieces is meant to be easy for them to eat.

[zombiemeow]

Ds loves chicken! Tried the lasagne, he picked it up and started rubbing it round his neck like it was aftershave

I saw his dietitian the other day. She said that he is having way too much milk (having around 43oz a day and need to get to 20) she told me I need to cut it down asap so he gets hungry for food.

She said if he's not eating properly in the next 4 weeks (by the time he's 9mo) it will be very difficult to wean him.

I thought weaning would be easy!

[BakingBunty]

Have you tried mini burgers? You can make them out of all types of mince really... Beef, chicken, pork, lamb... Just add some chopped onion, garlic, herbs and an egg to bind. I add grated apple to the chicken and pork ones, cheese and tomato purée to the beef ones and mint and cumin to the lamb ones. Nice and easy to hold, freeze brilliantly either cooked or raw, and you can easily make different sizes for all the family . Great way to get protein and fat into the diet. Lentil patties also good, and fish cakes. Yep, there isn't much I won't make into a burger!!

[chandelierswinger]

DC used hands! DH hated it at first (mess!) but soon got used to it Larger chunks, bread for dipping/mopping up and just getting stuck in with hands all worked for us. We tried mini forks too, which were a great success.

[chandelierswinger]

Just read your comment about the dietician and "eating properly in the next 4 weeks" and all I have to day is bollocks. Weaning is a gradual process, not a race. Milk should form the basis of a baby's diet, with food complementing it, until they are 12months!!! Food playing (like the lasagne as aftershave) is hugely important! The Gill Rapley book (mentioned above) was my "go to" book when
I wobbling about BLW.

[zombiemeow]

Sorry I vanished!

I'm so glad you said that chandelier.

This weekend I have been so worried I have felt physically sick. I have cut down his milk and he hates it. He went to bed and has woke every 10 minutes since. On the brink of tears I have give him another bottle.

I feel so confused! I have seen two dieticians who told me I have to have him eating by 9 months or I'm fucked basically all he does is gum at food at most but apparently that's not good enough.

From here I always thought food is for fun under 1 but they're saying not I was just about to start a thread asking for opinions because I'm getting so stressed

Sorry to change the thread all together!

[chandelierswinger]

My BLW baby was breastfed, so I had no idea how many ozs were being consumed every day. DC dropped the feeds as/when and certainly not to a schedule. It scares me how many dieticians are still happy to push the "feed purée on a spoon" style weaning as the only way to wean and really don't understand or support BLW. I'd be tempted to fabricate the diet sheets a bit just to placate them... Or tell them you know what you're doing, so back off! What are they going to do come 9 months? Force feed?!

[zombiemeow]

They told me to do blw but said 'there's a window in which you can get them to eat' and she said 'if he's not eating properly by 9 months we will struggle'

I've been panicking ever since! Apparently he should be having around 20oz a day but he has anything up to 43 but I have always been told feed on demand. If he's screaming for a bottle at his high chair he won't eat anyway so I don't know what she expects me to do

[squizita]

That's incorrect. Babies are fine to not eat much until one, and should not cut down on milk too early.
AK and a few of the weaning "experts" who sell stuff talk about 9 months etc but it makes no sense from an evolution standpoint where food might be less abundant at times - it's all flexible till over 12 months.

[squizita]

... sorry just saw 40+ oz milk! The norm is 28-34 in an older baby who hasn't started cutting down yet.

However it is common for babies to "pick" until 12 months and be just fine.

[museumum]

Do you offer food before milk?
Maybe if you offer more variety of filling food hell naturally take less milk? But I'd be reluctant to deny him milk he wants.
The Gill Rapely book is great. I blw but I couldn't be bothered with spaghetti or mash or risotto so I used spiral or bow pasta with bolognese, made mash into fishcakes and risotto into arancini.
Pretty much everything can be made into a finger food somehow :)