Worried about my 9 mo and need advice

[MadameOvary]

DD is 9 months and only really likes sweet tasting purses such as Ellas organics/yogurt/banana porridge. she doesn't like savoury foods apart from toast and organix sweetcorn rings. trying to give any kind of savoury mush is difficult.
She neither swallows or spits out the food but holds it in her mouth and gets upset so I don't push it.

Today as an experiment I gave her a sweet purée for breakfast and a new dish for lunch, which she refused. She won't take water either.

She gets all the milk she needs from me and usually feeds several times a night which I am beginning to suspect is because tonight she has only woken once for v brief feed and is sleeping better than she has for ages!

So I am confused at how little she seems to need/want. Do I just let her carry on BF plus whatever food she will eat or should I try harder with the savoury food? I am also concerned that she is not digesting wheat and dairy too well, hence the night wakings, but she has not had either today.

I hope this makes sense. It's 2.30 am and I have mastitis

[misscathcart]

At 9m she doesn't really need pureed food. Perhaps more finger food would create some interest for her?
Maybe take a look at some of the Baby-led weaning threads to get some ideas.
There really is no reason why, at this age, she can't be having the same meals as the rest of your family. This would help her follow your lead too

[TisTheSeasonToBeSunny]

Message withdrawn

[galen]

Hi!((((hugs))) I really hope your mastitis heals up soon. It is horrible and makes you feel like rubbish.
All babies are different and are ready for solids at different ages. With my last baby (dd4) we did baby led weaning. She seemed ready for solids at 6 months. We used to give her pieces of cooked vegetables like carrot and brocolli and she would chomp away on them. Gradually we increased what we would offer her. She was rarely spoon fed, except a bit later on a bit of porridge in the morning and yogurts sometimes. She probably didn't actually "eat " that much to begin with as a lot of it ended up on the floor! They do say though that for the first 12 months their main source of nutrition should be milk, and foods are more for experimenting with tastes/textures at this stage.She was also breastfed at this stage- and did feed a lot - about every couple of hours day AND night, so it was exhuasting. On the other hand she eats really well now(nearly 3) and loves vegetables!Her sleep didn't improve though till about 15 months!
With ds2 ( now 8 1/2 months) he showed no interest in solids at 6 months .We tried giving him pieces of vegeatble and he would just look at them! So we left it till he was nearly 7 1/2 months and tried again - still not much interest. He was still BF a LOT - especially at night, and with 5 other children to look after I felt I was too exhausted so we tried some purees. He was a bit unsure at first but now he loves them! And it has definately helped his sleep a LOT. I make my own purees. Started with simple things like pureed carrot or parsnip ( both quite sweet vegeatble which babys usually love!) then gradually introduced more ( potato, brocolli, sweet potato, sweede etc..) and then started blending up the things we were having like homemade chicken casserole, cottage pie etc...
I have started introducing more foods for him to eat himself as well now like cooked carots, pieces of pear and banana and he is doing better - although a lot still ends up on the floor!
So you could go the baby led weaning way and just let your LO decide how much she eats and when - great for avpiding stress and "battles" over food, and I feel really helps develop healthy food habbits. Or if you feel the frequent night feedings are too much why not try making some of your own purees? You could start with carrot or parsnip as they are fairly sweet, then gradually add new vegetables then new foods. You could do that whilst stil adding in some food for her to feed herself.
Hope you come up with a solution.

[gagarin]

Mix a spoonful of your own veg puree with her usual fruit? And then slowly alter the ratio of savoury to sweet until there is more savoury than sweet. It might work.

Use sweet potato, parnips (cut out the middle woody bit if they're big ones) and carrots.

Plus do the finger food thing and make sure that is mainly savoury.

[galen]

Oh just remembered with DD 2 (who was super fussy eater!) I used to blend the veg with a bit of apple juice ( pure unsweetened juice) instead of just water. Made it a little bit sweeter, then gradually decreased the ammount of juice as she got used to the veg taste. Not sure it was a good idea though cause she is still to this day the worlds fussiest eater - she is 6 now LOL Still at least it got her to eat something!

[MadameOvary]

All good sound advice everyone - thank you!
Sunny - its good to hear that you had similar issues and your DD was OK.
I do think DD can cope with finger foods, she will eat broccoli for example - I was just concerned that she wasnt eating the equivalent of a jar of babyfood at every meal and getting the right nourishment, but I hope that she getting that from my milk?
There are certainly no concerns about her weight

[galen]

Your milk IS exactly the right nourishment for your DD's age. Like I said the most nutrition SHOULD still come from milk for the first year. Food at this stage is really just about exploring tastes and textures, more than nourishment.There is such a pressure in todays society to be shovelling copious ammounts of baby food down babies of this age, and it is seen as some sort of competition to get baby to "eat" more solids and less milk. If you can cope with her BF as often as she needs then definately relax, and be proud of yourself. Your baby is getting the absolute BEST nourishment!
Oh and DD4 really didn't "eat " a significant ammount of food till well over 12 months - but is now a super lively almost 3 yr old that will eat anything, although her favourite foods are carrots and brocolli!