7.5 month old eats next to nothing, anyone experiences similar please?

[maltatheterrible]

my dd just doesn't have any interest in food, and has cut down on milk so she's dropped from the 25th to the 9th thingywotsit and my HV is glowering at me (and I am glowering back, don't worry on that account)

i've tried finger foods, she mashes it into the high chair or chokes on it, so i went back to purees - i can get her to take a few spoonfuls, but petit filou is the only thing she eats with anything like enthusiasm.

anyone had a similar experience with a baby surviving on thin air please? for what its worth she is awake all day smiling and shrieking and kicking like a loony so I don't think she's really in a bad way I'm just looking to be molified i think

[Tapster]

Quick question FF or BF? Very common for BF to eat little before one year old. Great book by La Leche League "my child won't eat". My DD now nearly 11 months still doesn't eat much solids but BF 5/6 times a day (despite my best efforts sometimes). Children eat as much solids as they need, they self regulate, but tend to not eat as much as their parents want!

Trick is to try and put as many calories sin the food as possible. Cream cheese and pitta bread, cheese sauces etc...

Would stop the petit filou - so full of sugar, it could be filling her up. Would add fruit puree to greek yohurt or give the yoghurt straight. Rice pudding is good too.

[WeaselMum]

My ds was like this - he dropped from 25th to 9th at about 7 months, cut right back on his milk, didn't eat much of anything etc. By about 9 or 10 months though both his milk and food intake had picked up a bit. I gave him some mashed and some finger food at each meal and just let him have what he wanted.He has always liked yoghurt.

He is 16 months now and eats loads some days, hardly anything on others but he seems absolutely happy with that so I just figure he knows what he wants.

[snoozer]

My ds is 9 mo and also shows very little interest in food. I started solids with him at 6 months - he happily ate whatever I gave him (rice, fruits and veggies) for a month and then right about 7 months he stopped letting me spoon feed him. None of the "tricks" such as "give him one spoon and feed him with the other" worked. It was extremely frustrating, to say the least.

So, I moved on to finger foods soon after the strike began. I came across the baby-led-weaning idea here on mumsnet and thought that was the answer - I had visions of my db adorably shoving fistfuls of food in his mouth and eating "entire roast dinners" as other mothers swear their babies do. Not surprisingly it wasn't a magic bullet. Lots of the food I gave him went straight on the floor, most was just ignored and he'd lick a piece here and there. If he swallowed the equivalent of a few spoonfuls a meal it was a victory.

He's 9 months now and I've seen a very gradual increase in the amount of food he actually swallows and in his general interest level. But he still doesn't eat anything near what other babies his age likely do.

In case it helps, these are the foods I've had the most success with, relatively speaking: ripe avocado sliced in long strips; bananas sliced in long strips; toast soldiers slathered in butter or cream cheese; the cow & gate rusks - both savory and sweet, with cream cheese; strips of mango; very ripe pears, plums, peaches or nectarines - I cut in half, peel off some skin, hold it up to db's mouth and he sucks on it and scrapes some into his mouth; rice cakes with fruit puree or somethin spread on top; Ella's kitchen puree pouches which he sometimes lets me squirt right in his mouth. Again, he only eats a very tiny bit of any of these, but at least he tries.

Also, fwiw, my db has steadily dropped to the 2%. He sees a paed who is not very concerned with his weight. She says that weight is just one thing to look at and if you look at the whole child it is clear that my db is doing ok (he is also very happy and loony-like). My best friend is a paed and she has also reassured me that he seems to be doing just fine.

Oh, and in reference to Tapster's comment, my db was mostly FF'd.

So, hope that some of this helps. I've posted before trying to find other people dealing with the same issue and no one ever responded. It's very frustrating to deal with and I find the suggestions given by friends who have babies that eat well very annoying, although I know that they mean well.

Anyway, good luck and try not to worry too much.

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Food not so important right now. Milk is the most important nourishment for the first 12 months anyway.

Leave it a couple of weeks and then try again.

I ended up leaving titbits on the floor at home because DS would eat things he thought he shouldnt, but was not interested in sitting and having a 'meal'.

[maltatheterrible]

dear all, thanks ever so much for replies, all my friends have the he's just eaten a three course meal and asked for a brandy" type babies and i was just starting to wonder if we had a problem

by the sounds of things i shall just have to chill out and stop PFBing!
snoozer - my dd will go for peeled peaches/mangoes exactly as you described, sort of sucking/rasping at them i had forgotten that, must see if there are any left at the shops

tapster - dd is bf, again about 6/7 times a day but basically when she feels like it. I am cross with myself for not checking the petit filou ingredients, obviously i have been steam rollered by advertising and wanted to make her bones grow strongerer....or something. thanks for the heads up, i'll eat them myself they're yummy

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

You could always try Baby Led Weaning.

Do a search on here.

[Natasha0307]

I was just about to post a similar message asking for help as my dd (nearly 7 months) is also now not interested in food and protests when I try and give her some solids.

Glad to know that there are others in the same situation...

[Jomaja]

Ds only started eating properly when he started nursery at nearly 12 months.
Before that he would play with food and eat occasionally but it was not that great.

Even now we notice that he is not eating that well when I am around (unless it is spare ribs which he loves and he could have milk instead.

[maltatheterrible]

thanks VVV, but when I try her with any type of finger food she just looks at it, and either mashes it into her highchair or chucks it on the floor - i just don't think she is ready for it yet.

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

All part of the fun with BLW

Have her join you at dinner and pass her some (appropriate) things from your plate for her to 'play' with.

Food should be fun. Not a chore. As I said - milk is the most important thing for the first 12 months anyway.

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

blog & website

[maltatheterrible]

well she did suck on a yesterday when we were in Fowey looking at the gianormous cruise ship, does that count? (wonders if chips are on the approved BLW checklist grin]

[maltatheterrible]

suck on a chip

and thankyou for the link

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

LOL

DS's very first BLW food (he was a spoon and mush refusenik too) was a ...... McDonalds french fry......

He settled into a method like BLW relatively easily....(albeit leaving titbits on the floor for him to munch on....)

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

(We'd given it to him so he wouldnt feel left out, but expected him to do what he usually did and throw it....he gobbled the whole thing down and proceeded to whine until we gave him another one!)

[maltatheterrible]

dd looked so cute sucking her chip that she drew admiring comments from the Arab Sheik getting on The World! (have you seen that ship? I want to go on it, it's huuuge, although probably not very environmentally friendly)

[AitchTwoOh]

chips

[AitchTwoOh]

and that's my dd, btw.

[bluejelly]

I'd suggest sitting down and eating with him, giving him little bits from your plate
He will get into eating as a social activity, rather than you hovering over him

( sorry if you are doing this already!)

[ScarletA]

My bf dd was exactly the same - I gave her solids far too early (back in the days when you were supposed to do it at 16 weeks) and she showed little or no interest (apart from petit filous - YUK) until about 11 months. She is 6 now and eats a wide range of food and although not a greedy guzzler of a child, has a healthy enough appetite. I was much less worried when it came to my second and let him guide me on whether he wanted food or not. I do sympathise about the hv, the centiles and the friends with enormously fat babies though. You'll look back on this one day and laugh, I promise.

[chipmonkey]

Everything VVVQV The Wise says. Sounds like a normal baby to me!

[maltatheterrible]

lol...thanks all (especially Aitch with the adorable chipmunching baby) i shall stop hovering and just try her with little bits of what I'm having.

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Aww bless you chipmonkey

[AitchTwoOh]

a benediction from VVV The Wise, truly you are and honoured chipmonkey. good luck malta, dd ate an ostrich burger, sweetcorn and (ahem, hand-cut) chips tonight in a restaurant so you can see that nothing much has changed.