Food refusal in 7 month old.

[Recharging]

Oh help! I've been in tears this morning because of this.

My DS has stopped being even remotely interested in food. He will happily ignore finger food whether he's in the high chair or on the floor, whether we are eating with him or not. If he sees us eating he just watches us, hands playing with each other.

If we put food in his hand he looks at it and drops it again. It might as well be concrete for all the interest he has in food. He started off a month ago with interest, mushing, playing with it in his mouth and spitting out etc, all what you expect for a beginner, but there is only regression now.

I started trying spoonfeeding purees but he is a total spoon refuser so its like force-feeding.

I feel like we are in a vicious cycle that ends up in him just breastfeeding so he doesn't starve, and then not interested in the next food because he's full?

Its ridiculous, I ended up in tears this morning because both banana on toast and mushed up weetabix were refused. he's had both before and managed ok (for a 6ish month old anyway)

I thought BLW was going to be great, but my husband doesnt trust it and now i'm starting to feel its wrong. But spoonfeeding isn't working either!

How the hell do we move forward?

[RuthChan]

I am sorry to hear about this.
It's such a shame that you have got into this cycle.
You need to realise that as long as your DS is breastfeeding ok, he is not going to starve by missing a meal or two.
Try not to get worked up about it or make a big deal about it.
Just let him eat as much as he wants when he wants.
If that includes not eating few a meal or two, so be it. Making a fuss about it is likely to stop him eating rather than encouraging him.
Keep offering foods of different types and give him the chance to enjoy them.
Try to eat with him as often as possible so that he can see how you eat and see that you enjoy it. If possible, try to eat similar foods to him (within reason!) so that he can see that he is sharing with you rather than missing out on what you're having.
It could be that his teeth are giving him jip, maybe he went off those particular foods on those days or maybe he genuinely wasn't hungry.
Whatever, the reason, don't dwell on it and don't worry about it. Just carry on.
I'm sure you're doing great and he will eat again.

[BikeRunSki]

DS did this when he was about 10 months old. He picked up again after about 3 weeks "off" solids (also spoon refuser, we did BLW).

[Recharging]

Its no better.

Thanks for your replies, sorry I didn't come back.

Its very hard not to get worked up, I try to stay cheerful at mealtimes, he has access to my own plate, we eat much the same things during the day. I've tried encouragement with smiles and singing and exaggerated eating of my own which he looks interested in, and interacts very well. i've also resorted to ignoring him and getting on with my own meal, but the pile of food under his hands stays untouched unless I put something into his hand.

If i do this he does automatically bring it up to his mouth, but his dexterity is rubbish so it mostly ends up down his bib instead. And then its forgotten.

When does out of sight out of mind change? When will he start to look for food, even to play with?

I know hes only 7 months old, but I cant see any progress at all from 6 weeks ago. Shouldn't there be some form of improvement by now? even if its just the ability to hold food long enough to make it to his mouth?

he has no such problems with toys, my laptop, the cats etc and is very keen on exploring away from food.

He just doesn't seem to 'get the point' with food!

Sorry this is just a massive rant now, i'm getting it all out of my system. Feel free to ignore...

[ladybirdsinmyeyes]

My nephew wasn't interested in food until nearly 8 months and my sister and DH were similarly anxious, but he got interested in his own sweet time and is now the only 2 year old I know who has never been funny about food and eats anything, to the astonishment of every other parent with young children. Please don't worry, he will eat when he's ready. Just keep offering, stay relaxed - he will be getting all his nutrition from milk, food is for exploring and he's just not ready.

[Recharging]

That makes me feel a little better, thanks. (Watery tearstained )

I will try to relax about it, and just keep on offering. He'll get it in the end wont he?

[lunafire]

My DS started solids (blw) at 29 weeks with gusto. He chomped away happily on the carrot we offered him and accepted most of the other things we offered over the next few weeks. Then he just completely lost interest. Didn't want to eat anything and tbh for a month I didn't offer him anything as it was just a waste of food. He was BF on demand so I knew he was fine and getting all that he needed from me. Then he showed a renewed interest in food so we offered him some every time he was awake at our mealtimes and he never looked back. He went completely the other way very quickly having a massive growth spurt at 10 months where he started eating 3 meals a day plus snacks and not much BM. That completely scared me into thinking he was weaning early...but after 2 weeks he calmed down, went back to just eating a supper of solids food and loads of BM.

I learnt after that to just go along with him and trust that he knew what he wanted. As long as I offered BM and solids I knew he would be fine

[cardamomginger]

we're spoonfeeding and started weaning at 5 months. dd was incredibly enthusiastic about everything that came her way to start with and really loved her food. 6 weeks on and she's started getting all arsey about it and refusing even those foods that she seemed to love. also getting stroppy about her bottles. have no advice to give really, just to say that we are going through something a bit similar! she has plenty of wet nappies and seems happy so i'm just trying to reassure myself that when she is actually thirsty/hungry she'll have what i'm offering her. little sods, aren't they??

[ladybirdsinmyeyes]

Yes he will absolutely get there in the end and in a few weeks when you're up to your ears in banana you will think this seems like a long time ago! It goes so fast and they are all different and yours will get there - he's definitly not the only one, it just doesn't fasinate him yet but it will. It will all be fine, enjoy it!!

[SolarPanel]

Would he go for something with a drier texture? Rice cakes, grated cheese, fish fingers, ham, lightly-cooked broccoli (not soggy), oatcakes?

[sanam2010]

Why do you worry? 7 months is very young and there is no problem if he doesn't get anything other than bm for a while. My one is 6.5months and BLW and taking very little other than vm, maybe half a cucumber stick and a few breadcrumbs and a few crumbs of rice cake, annd there are days when she has no interest, esp when in teething pain she just wants to be on the breast.

Just trust your DS to know what he needs, don't worry at that age. Just bc a lot of people feed purees to their kids at 5 months doesn't mean it's healthy.

[Recharging]

Its been a while, sorry.

Oh goodness I feel so miserable about all this. I find weaning incredibly stressful, mealtimes take an hour sometimes just to get a few bites in. I'm considering going right down to puree now as anything with even slight lumps, like weetabix and banana, stresses him.

Rice cakes are chewed and spat back out.

He just doesnt know what to do with a lump, it sits there, sometimes for minutes and minutes, on the centre of his tongue, neither getting chewed, or falling out, or swallowed. In the end I remove it so I can safely leave him to get on with other things.

I realise he's got to learn it but 8 weeks or so in and the progress is nil. I never thought I'd say this but going on the evidence at hand I will not recommend BLW or any version of finger foods to my friends, its just too hard.

[Recharging]

To everyone who has replied a couple of weeks ago: Thank you all very much for the encouragement and advice. I am trying every combination of every suggestion. I feel very low about this. (as you can probably tell).

This forum is a godsend for me, I can just let go about all the weaning problems without making a pigs ear of myself in real life.

[Purpleprickles]

Recharging are you the same poster as the original OP? I'm sorry to hear your are having such a hard time weaning but I just thought I'd post a similar story that might reassure you. My Ds refused to be spoon fed with puree so we ended up going down the blw route. It took a very long time for him to actually eat anything, we had months of sucking on sticks of cucumber, spitting out food and really very little actually going in. I used to feel so upset listening to friends with puree fed dcs chatting about how many ice cubes portions of carrot they'd eaten. However I relied on the blw weaning book by Gill Rapley for support and reassurance and adopted the mantra "in the first year milk is food, everything else is experimenting". Around 8-9 months ds began to eat a bit and I began to relax a bit. I am now incredibly proud to have a 2.6yr old boy who eats everything and anything, steak, chicken and rice, an array of fruit and veg etc. He is open to trying new foods and is more than capable of coming out for dinner and eating with us at family friendly restaurants. For me weaning was stressful and frustrating but it did get better and having such a happy, confident eater now makes it all worth it.

[Recharging]

Yes I am Purpleprickles, I think i'm using this thread as a place to let off steam. Thanks for your story. Each time I come on MN I go away feeling a little bit better about it all, I really hope my son turns out as yours has.

[Purpleprickles]

I'm sure he will Do you have the Gill Rapley book? I heard about it on here and really recommend it if only to have something to reassure yourself that everything will work out.

[mousesma]

My DD hardly ate anything until she was 9 months old. I remember how frustrating it was making her food every day that she would hardly touch. In the early days I force fed her but this resulted in her crying whenever she was put in her high chair so I backed off and just kept offering food 3 times a day and accepted that most days she wouldn't eat it.
Now at nearly 10 months she normally eats 3 meals a day plus desserts and a snack. Keep perserving he will get there in the end.

[Recharging]

I've flicked through the book but I don't own a copy. I've been winging it TBH. I might go and order it now though.

9 months does seem to be the magic number Mousema, lots of posters on other threads have mentioned this age.

Its all just so hard to get there.

[Purpleprickles]

I always think it's reassuring to look back at each stage and remember how hard it felt and then how easy it seems now. To me each stage has been a bit of an emotional struggle. For example as a new mum the first two weeks of ds life seemed like an uphill battle, then getting my head round bf and then having to change to bottle feeding, etc oh and don't even get me started on settling ds into Nursey and me going back to work! One thing I have learnt as a mum is that each stage is a challenge because it's new and scary but then once it's over it seemed so easy. Hey just imagine what we'll be posting when they are starting school or learning to drive

[Georgiesmam]

Hi, I appreciate this is a really old thread but I’m having exactly the same trouble with my DD at the moment and was wondering if and when things improved?