Solids for a 7 month old

[Corky]

My dd when it comes to food is a nightmare, at the moment I can only really get her to eat fruit, and am making progress with porridge or yoghurts for breakfast, but it takes a lot of perseverence. She loves her fruit and can eat an entire jar in 5 mins flat. I have a battle when it comes to anything savoury as we always have to put food on her lips before she'll eat anything (this applies to fruit as well) - if she's not familiar with the food she winges and sucks her thumb, needless to say it gets very messy and we end up trying to force the food down her. Have been told I should introduce red meat, but I can't get that down either. She is underweight for her age, and doesn't have a big appetite as it takes me half an hour to get milk down her. I keep hearing from people that she will suddenly 'take' to solids, but I do wonder when this will happen as I don't seem to see any progress with savoury food and don't want to give in and permanently feed her sweet food all the time.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can get her to eat the savoury foods? - and should I just give up when she gets upset, it's such a disappointment every time and I can't help but get annoyed with her, which makes me feel bad. Her milk intake is around 20-25oz a day, so I suppose that's the most important thing, but when she's underweight I just want her to get bigger and if she doesn't eat food how will that happen?

[stilo]

Not sure if my advice is right but my ds who is 7 months old, recently had a cold and went off his food and refused to eat anything but fruit puree, I cooked his favourite dish (parsnip,carrot and potato) but he still was not interested, the next time I tried him with savoury mince and potato but added in some fruit puree (about two tablespoons) and he had the whole lot!! I don't know if this would work for you but its worth a try, then gradually add less fruit puree. It sounds yucky but I was just glad that he was getting the protein and goodness in him. Good luck!

[Corky]

Thanks, I'll give anything a try!

[morocco]

hi stilo and corky - well I'm glad I'm not alone! our ds needs the food put on his lips first as well and I've started mixing food with fromage frais or banana for the first few mouthfuls and then spooning in a couple of veggies while he's not looking. If it's something new he rejects it quite often but if I try again an hour or so later he seems OK about it. Everyone tells me to just relax about it so I do try but it;s hard to step back from sometimes. I think it's good not to force it.
We are just awful - I feel ashamed to admit all our little tricks. He loves eating in front of the telly with tellitubbies on or when he's standing up. right now I humour him but hope it doesn't end up a permanent habit!

[ThomCat]

Hi Corky, don't dispair. My DD loves a particular dish one day and then acts as if it were the foulest thing in the world a few days later. Don't give up. How about butternut squash and sweet potato, they are incredibly good for them but taste really sweet. Parsnip too and maybe even carrot. I made a butternut squash, cut in 1/2, seeds scopped out and dotted it with butter and poured over the juice of an orange which DD loved. You can do the same with s.potato. There is a great receipe in Annabel Karmel for sweet pots with lamb or beef. You bung it all in a casserole dish with stock and orange juice and it's so scrummy I have trouble giving it to DD but only because I keep eating it!! let me know if you'd like me to type out the receipe for any of the things I've said.
Also boil chicken breasts, cut into chunks with apple juice and puree with some purred apple. My DD loved it.

[Corky]

Thanks Morocco and Thomcat, it does get me down from time to time, but I don't want to just stop -anything I can get down is progress! I've got the Annabel Karmel book, so will give it a go. I do sometimes resent slaving over the cooker, when she doesn't eat it, but I can but try!

[Gini]

Thomcat - sorry to jump in but I would any recipees that you may have, took my ds to get weighed to day and he's dropping weight (born at 6lb 14oz - now 13lb 11oz) - again! I explained to hv what I give him and she told me to add lots of butter and cheese to everything to boost up his calories (he's just over 5m).
Didn't sound right to me? Any ideas?

[SimonHoward]

Corky

I agree with Stilo, my DD had a short phase of only wanting sweet stuff so we just mixed it all in together and she gulped it down fast.

[ThomCat]

Gini - I shall come in armed with our favourite receipes nent week. I'll pick out the easy ones to make as well becasue it's Ok to spend the odd 4 hours in the kitchen making 1 dish but lets face it it's much better if the preperation only takes 10 minutes! have you seen the receipe I put up for Hana, the beef & pasta one? Oh on second thought your bubs is only 5 months, might be a bit much. Leave it with me, will be back next week with some receipes (don't work Friday's so....) i'm no expert though mate but it would be my pleaseure to type out a few calorific receipes, xx

[Gini]

thanks, thats very kind! Just off now to get him smothered in food and needing a bath again, oh the joys! He always seems to get some up his nose?!!

[eidsvold]

corky not sure how old your dd is but have you thought about the organic breakfast cereals?? just something different - somewhat sweet but okay. pureed carrots are very sweet and usually go down well with babies.

Heinz do a good range of pureed veges and fruits called simply fruit and simply veges..

The organix range has a fruity chicken recipe which might be something worth trying - sweet...

My dd loved most things although as Thom said - she might not like it at first and then when I tried it a few days or weeks later - she would love it

[LIZS]

Corky,
have you tried adding a little pureed apple to savoury/veggie purees ? Sounds odd but only really because of our own preconceptions. Also agree with sweet potato and parsnip as they are sweeter flavours. When you say she is "underweight" do you simply mean that HV is remarking that she is at lower end of scale - our dd is now practically off the bottom of the scale but is petite and in proportion to her height so noone is especially worried at 18 months she weighed 9kg! Please don't force feed her -she will eat when hungry and if that means keeping her portions small for the time being so be it, and she will put on weight st her own pace.

Gini,
Thought the butter/cheese thing went out of vogue some time ago and didn't think dairy was recommended so young these days, but could be wrong. At this age surely most of the calories come from milk still ? Your ds doesn't sound that underweight to me - ours progressed at about the same rate!

hth

[Corky]

Thanks Gini, SimonHoward, Eidsvold & Lizs, my DD is 7 months old - have managed to get a couple of meat jars down her since I posted my message, perhaps she's just going to be really fussy and not eat much, as only got 1/2 jar down - but I'm not complaining! Will just have to try and be more chilled about things, she's not underweight, just below average on the graph. Everyone says her weights fine for her size, she'll just be petite. You can't help but worry though can you - probably will do for the next 18 years! Thanks for the tips, will keep trying!

[emwi]

I'm mixing meals made out of home-made purees with meals from jars and found my dd didn't like boots organic range but did like Hipp ones which seemed to be more mushy - if you're feeding jars you could try different brands. Home cooked Butternut squash and parsnips also taste very sweet and go down well as do carrots. I mix them with purees of broccoli, green beans, peas. I also find mixing with baby rice and formula to make things more creamy can make things more palatable. DD always ate stuff but left a lot until this week. She is now wolfing down virtually anything put infront of her (at just over 6 months)

[LIZS]

At the risk of repeating what I'm sure I've said on an earlier thread, ds particularly enjoyed savouries with fennel included - in fact at 16 months he would only eat these or fruit. Fennel seems to aid digestion so may also be good when introducing new flavours and meat.

[SamboM]

My dd is just 8 months and loves crumpets spread with cream cheese.