The boy won't eat anything!

[jellipidy]

My ds is now 6 and a half months and has been bf since birth - I've now started to try to wean him. I'm keen to go down the BLW route but have also tried baby rice and rusks. Problem is, what ever goes in his mouth, he looks like I'm trying to poison him! This has been going on for a month now and with the 'same' food - i.e. carrot sticks both raw and cooked, apple slices etc. Getting to the point where I'm worried he'll never eat anything - any advice?

[EscapeFrom]

give him something a bit softer, like porridge pancakes? Or something a bit more flavoursome, like grated cheese?

[ruddynorah]

he's only 6 and a half months so you've been weaning for what 2 weeks? have you read the info about blw or are you just doing it via word of mouth? i mean, if you're doing blw cos you like the idea of him learning to eat through exploring and playing then you just have to go with it. trying baby rice won't help.

[dissle]

If he has been breast fed then why not try to mix something in with breast milk?
Or do you already do this?
Sorry if you do, silly suggestion.

[jellipidy]

I went to a talk about blw - and have seen Gill Rapley's dvd so would like to think I know what I'm doing - I tried baby rice twice because I got worried about his weight - he's 'underweight' according to red book figures. I understand that the blw process is all about exploring and playing with food and that it should be a fun experience but, as I said, I do worry about his weight. I know that after breast milk, anything is going to have a taste explosion in his mouth! but was just wondering if anyone had any favourite foods that I haven't thought of?

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Solid food won't make him gain weight as quickly as milk will.

Have you checked out Aitch's blog - there's tonnes of info and suggestions on there which should help.

It is quite common for blw babies not to start eating well until nearer a year.

[LaDiDaDi]

Persist with blw... he will eat eventually, just when he is ready.

Ideas..
Sweet potato wedges
Pear wedges
Courgettes sticks
Parsnip
Broccoli florets with long stems left on
Weetabix in smoothie or breast milk, soft enough to eat but still whole and firm enough to hold (watch salt content)
Bread dipped in soup, my dd loves this though it is very messy
Stick of cheese
Cream cheese on toast
Banana
Satsuma segments

These are some of dd's favourites though she also loves meat and fish.

[dissle]

I used baby rice at first mixed with breast milk. Poached pears with a bit of breast milk.
I must admit that i didnt try any thing hard like carrot for a long time.
Crumpets chopped up with butter on cut into fingers.
mostly stuck with stewed fruits.
Did one thing for a week then introduced some thing else the following week.
Did allot of stewing and ic cube freezing with worked well for a weeks worth of grub.
Just chill out about it because your baby is still getting every thing from your milk.
My boy was and still is below the line on the centile chart, however both me and dh are not big people and so i never took much notice of it.
He was little but healthy, happy and thriving. That is how i gauge his health really.

[bookthief]

Have you tried fruit? Ds loves banana and it's fairly easy to hold (I cheated and held it for him for the first wee while). Other winners were chunks of pear, apricots & peaches. Not particularly calorie rich but it's a start. I also had moderate success with half a Babybel.

If you're ok with wheat then bits of pita bread stuffed with Philadelphia are also popular.

Ds has only really been able to reliably hold things for the last couple of weeks though so it's still early days for you.

[bookthief]

Oh, also avocado either in chunks (slippy) or mashed and wrapped in a piece of tortilla or pita (messy!) - big favourite in the bookthief highchair.

[jellipidy]

That's given me more ideas - thanks for that!! So far - everything i've tried has been greeted with the same reaction " errgghh! get it out, get it out!! she's trying to poison me again!" but I will persevere. At this stage, i guess it's ok for me to leave it and have a couple of days break from it all? Don't want ds to associate high chair / bib + sofa with unpleasant experiences and literally put him off food for life!!

[tassis]

obviously you should persist with BLW if that's what you want...

or you could try pear puree?

ds did that "baby rice you've got to be kidding" face but loved pureed anything...pear first, then carrot etc etc

with dd I went straight to puree pear

neither could do finger food until nearer 8 months

[ruddynorah]

that's great then, you're armed with all the gill rapley info, you just need to have the confidence to do it. if you understand blw then you'll understand why baby rice is not needed. he needs more bf to put weight on, the solids are just for playing. he may not 'eat' much til he's 7 or even 8 months old.

[jellipidy]

To be honest tassis, i tried pureed carrot once when I was giving him carrot sticks and it got exactly the same reaction! Same with pureed apple and apple slices - this was when I had a bee in my bonnet about his weight - it just seems that everything goes in his mouth except food- well it goes in, it just doesn't stay there! He likes eating paper though, when he gets a chance (wondering when I'm gonna grow 'mum's own eyes in the back of my head!!!)

[OfficialMNWIJudge]

my best advice would be to RELAX about the food thing. My DS barely ate anything (other than boob!) until he was 20mo. ONe day it;ll all just click into place.

[jellipidy]

Cheers everyone! Thanks for all your advice

[claireybee]

My dd was the same. I found she was generally better with stronger flavours, for example mature cheddar rather than mild. The first thing she ate was actually a gerkin! Also i didn't stress about introducing veggies first-if she wouldnt eat carrot but would eat grapes then i let her eat grapes. She wouldn't eat anything off a spoon but would play with finger foods and chew on them a little bit. TBH she hardly ate anything until a few weeks ago(is now almost 14 months), but has been exposed to a wide range of flavours through blw and will now tackle everything (although she got VERY CROSS with the cooked red pepper in her savoury rice earlier!). I found toast was always a good one if all else failed, bananas usually went down well although she found them difficlt to hold so i sometimes used to help her by breaking off a bit and putting it in her mouth for her, also once she got her pincer grip cheerios and peas were both well received.

[Aitch]

lol, if only you'd done a search for 'the you've poisoned me face' on the blog... here it's not uncommon.