DS refuses to open his mouth

[B52s]

Trying to wean DS, tried baby rice and purees and lumpier stuff, after first mouthful he doesn't open his mouth anymore and gets upset, pretends to be tired. Is 7 months now and loves the breast still, but I want to get him onto food! Is it just perseverance? I know he won't starve but keep giving in and give breast to keep him happy. Help - new to MN.

[WanderingTrolley]

I don't think 7 months is quite old enough to understand pretending

Give him a lump of cooked brocolli and see what he makes of it. (search 'Aitch' - I think she's the expert here)

You might want to think about when you try him with food - sounds odd, but don't do it when he's really hungry. I'd give it a go between breastfeeds to begin with. Keep offering him food, give him a spoon to play with.

But you may have an anti-spoon baby - search BLW (baby led weaning)

It doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about - milk is his major source of nutrition for the first year anyway. There's no rush to get him onto three meals a day just yet - he'll get there in his own time.

[neolara]

That's exactly like my DS. He's now nearly 8 months and has only very recently begun to eat more than a teaspoon or so of food. He would shut his eyes, put his thumb firmly in his mouth and turn away. After about 6 weeks of trying purees I gave up and tried finger foods such as bread, bagels, sticks of carrot and courgette etc. I've been a bit of a convert to the whole baby led weaning business. However, and this may not be the case for your DS, my DS was pretty unco-ordinated about actually getting food into his mouth. He would generally get only a small mouthful or so and then throw the food in the air or onto the floor. He liked having the control, but he ended up not getting very much into his tummy. The other thing I found that REALLY helped him get the idea of eating, was peaches. He absolutely loves them and even when he refuses everything else, he will generally eat a whole peach. Also mangos. After a few weeks of this, I think he got the idea of eating. I tried to then introduce lumpy purees and he will now sometimes take some. Some days he still eats virtually nothing but other days he eats quite a lot. I'm hoping that eventually there will be fewer and fewer food strike days. Good luck with it all. I know that it can feel like banging your head against a brick wall!

[B52s]

Thankyou!
Have just managed to feed him 9 whole blueberries which he seemed enthusiastic about - even made 'oooh' and 'mmmm' noises! Blue dribble now though but at least it's solid food. Will try broccoli. Not been keen on nectarines so far though.
Nice to know I'm not the only one - this has been the first major struggle with DS so I guess I've been pretty lucky.

[Habbibu]

Just to warn you - blueberries lead to spookily dark (but perfectly normal and healthy) nappies...