7 month old REFUSING to eat!

[snowfallinthesahara]

7 month old ds is refusing to eat!!
a complete battleground is what im going thru at the moment!whats especially worrying me is that ds who is now 7 mnths old never gave me any trouble at ALL during mealtimes and till about 3 weeks ago,was on 3 proper meals a day.
then the resistance started where he would just Not open his mouth!!

we then had to leave on hol for dubai,where i am now, and he is still refusing to eat.my family and i have tried Everything here from singing to him to staying calm,nothing works!!
im not introducing too many new tastes to help keep things familiar,doesnt help.when i gave him babyfood out of the jar,he'd finish a whole one--now hw just throws up if it goes beyond half a jar.he does sleep thru the night tho,but im on my wit's end and is feeding.but food has become an absolute no-no even before we left for holiday!
what do i do???plzz help.

[donnacb]

Hi I was just going to place a message with exactly the same thing. My ds is sleeping through the night and still taking breast feeds but doesnt seem to want even his favourite foods. Wondered if it was because he was teething but have given bonjela and no difference. He has eaten 3 meals a day from 4 1/2 months. I cant offer any help but we will hopefully get some advice from peeps soon. Our only salvation i suppose is that milk is supossed to be there main food still. Let me knoe how you get on and if anything works and i'll do the same. have fun in dubai lovely place. donna

[snowfallinthesahara]

absolutely no luck.dont know What has gotten into him!im tryign all his usual faves,same way i used to feed him,giving him his teethign powders..but just doesnt open his mouth or screams and cries and squirms away!
my big worry is that im startign work june end and what if this still continues?

[louloubelle]

I've been through many times when my dd refused to eat...she is now 17 months. As long as she is taking milk, I would just not offer food for a day or so. It is nearly always linked to an impending bug...tummy, or cold. The doctor always said that as long as they were drinking fluids (and even recommended a little very dilute ribena...this to a mother who only ever gave water or milk!!) and producing a wet nappy a few times a day then periods without food did not matter. However you have my sympathy...I have sat on the floor crying with frustration may a time!!

[maddyd]

I know this will sound harsh but it does work. if they miss a meal or two they wont starve.

Dont subsitute a meal with milk, yoghurts or fruit like i used to on the grounds that something is better than nothing.

Honestly the little minxs know they can get bettter and will try it on even as young as 7 months. Rule out any illnesses or teething and then stick to your guns, it is a battle of wills and you must be the winner.

My daughter gave up eating around 9 months, she is 3 today and only started eating when i had super nanny round to show me where i was going wrong. She ditched the bottle and gave her two choices of meals or nothing. They soon learn believe me.

The worst thing is to turn mealtimes into a battle ground.

[donnacb]

hiya snow i gave ds some calpol an hour before feeding time and left him 1 hour later than normalfor his feed. took him for a walk ( distraction). When we got back gave him plain carrot and he ate some of it actually opening his mouth as if he was hungry. great i thought until he decided to help me with his spoon and shoved it hard down his throat. Hence big tears and breast feed. wonder if lou lou is right and it might be a bug as calpol seemed to work. we ll see. let me know how it goes. will check 2moro

[hunkermunker]

Maddyd - super nanny?

[charlie72]

Hi

I had exactly the same problem with my son at around 2 yrs old - all of a sudden, he wouldn't eat anything that he used to, nothing that I tried worked.

Like a fool, I tried allsorts, even at one point cooking about 3 different meals for just one sitting to try & get something down him. HV didn't seem to interested - just said as long as he was putting on weight, drinking & peeing etc, there was nothing they could do.

They got me to write down a list of exactly what he ate & when he ate it to see if there was any kind of pattern (there wasn't but I remember to this day one days food listing consisting of 4oz milk, 2 spoons cereal, 6 pasta shells & fruit!!!). He wasn't quite as bad as this with the childminder but not much better.

This went on for at least 9 months partly because my dh kept letting him have things like yoghurt & fruit when he didn't eat his meals. It eventually came to a head when dh was off work just before xmas. We were out shopping & ds actually said he was hungry & could he go to the cafe - we couldn't get there quick enough!!!

He said he wanted sausages - great, we ordered them & would he eat them???? No chance. No amount of dh pleading would get him to eat even the tiniest morsel.

Dh works really long hours so doesn't really see much of ds at mealtimes and he says he thought I exaggerated how little ds ate. Anyway, we agreed there and then that if he didn't eat his normal meals, he had absolutely nothing till the next mealtime. I didn't think dh would stick to this because he can be a right softie and sometimes finds it hard to say no to darling ds (not like me!!) but he did and I was so proud - it took less than a week before ds was eating everything off his plate and he still does so now!!!!!!

Now, I'm not saying you be this harsh with yours seeing as he's only 7 mths but they're clever beggars and soon realise they have us like headless chickens running around after them.

its only now I can see that the HV was right - he was healthy & obviously taking in enough calories because he was gaining weight but at the time I thought they didn't care one jot about whether he starved to death or not (OK, a bit dramatic but you get my drift)

If he's taking his milk ok, don't stress too much - he'll eat when he's good and ready. Obviously, if he starts losing weight then professional help should be sought

Lots of luck (and no, I'm not jealous you're in Dubai and I'm stuck here!!!)

[snowfallinthesahara]

hi all thank u so much for all the help!

ok he's eating a little bit better now,just persisting.BUT-he wont eat if anyone else feeds him!!!
my vacation in dubai is coming to an end in about 10 days and now im a tiny bit FRANTIC as to how ds is going to cope at nursery-or rather how theyre going to cope with him!
Bcoz hes g8 with the b/feeds,but So fussy with the bottle-and ive been trying it during the day for a month now.
they have minds of their own ,dont they??and i just feel like an awful mother,not being able to organize myself better/train him earlier.

its only going to be for 2 days a week..but i genuinely feel hes going to starve at nursery!!

[snowfallinthesahara]

post script to the message below:
'vacation' to be read in Ultra sarcastic note!
i guess holidays will never be the same again!(sigh)

[TracyK]

Don't worry about a thing! Up to 12 mo milk is still to be their main source of nutrition. Food is for getting used to various tastes and textures. Try finger foods - little raisins or bits of cheese or bits of salmon - he'll be getting independent and want to feed himself now - not boring old mummy with spoon. or his teeth/gums will be hurting and spoon will be sore.
I used to spend an hour or more with my ds and end up giving up with a sore head!
Plus he'll eat better at nursery - he'll see the other babies eating and he'll copy - and the staff will be more used to getting babies to feed and won't be so stressed as a mummy iykwim.
My ds still eats like a horse one day and virtually nothing the next. I try to get him to eat as much as poss and then if I offer fruit and he leaves some of it then I know he's full!
If he hasn't eaten much before bed - I give him a banana or bread and jam to fill him up before finishing him off with milk.