Help DS 9 months refusing spoon fed food unless its sweet???

[didsnbump]

Please please help me with suggestions as to how to get back on track.

My ds is 9 months and has been eating all foods either finger foods or jar/ homemade and blended (with lumps) with no problems what so ever.
After a really poorly weekend and being completely off food he was diagnosed with an ear infection caused by his cold last monday. Within a few days he was back to his normall self, just eating smaller amounts.

Now and for a few days though he has started to refuse to eat anything given to him by a spoon unless its fruit or youghurt. He will still eat finger food, and i can get some spoonfulls of savoury in if distracted by the tv.

Please has anyone gone through this and how did you get back on track?

[Ijskater]

Sounds harsh, but let him go a little hungrier than usual. Also try sweet potato, parsnip, courgette, carrot, any of those are pretty sweet! But within a few days he should be back. Persistence is key. It took me 5 weeks before my son would drink from a beaker but I kep offering it at every opportunity. Now he's the one that drinks more water out of the 4 of us!

[Pesha]

Can you just go with the finger food and forget all the purees?

I did BLW with ds2 so went straight to finger food at 24 weeks. Found it much easier as i could just sit him in the highchair with his food and get on with eating mine rather than having to sit there spoon feeding him! On the few occassions I did try to spoon feed him yogurts or other mushy things he refused so I ended up just giving him the spoon and letting him get on with it! Its very messy but hes happy and hes eating a varied diet so I don't mind.

Aitch has a blog with loads of ideas for finger food for babies here or search the archives for BLW (baby led weaning).

[ilovespinach]

agree with the others to try and just go with finger food...my 9 month old loves sandwiches, eggy bread, omelette, veggie sausages,carrot sticks etc...sometimes he will just eat figer food as well and not want froma spoon (unless of ciurse it is yoghurt or pudding)....

[fruitful]

How do you get them to spoon-feed themselves later though?

I had this problem with ds1 - he would only have absolutely smooth purees, sweet things, or things he could pick up and feed himself. Fine I thought, he can just feed himself - much easier. But later, even when he could use a spoon to feed himself sweet puddings, he still wouldn't eat anything like chopped spaghetti bolognaise or a casserole. I still have trouble getting him to eat these things now, aged 3.5.

So now I have ds2 aged 10mo. Who will only eat things he can feed to himself, and sweet things from a spoon... I don't want to go there again! I'm fairly desperate to persuade him to take something like mashed spag bog from a spoon, so that I don't end up with another child who wants everything on his plate to be dry and separate!

But I don't know how.

[didsnbump]

I dont mind doing all finger food, but am finding it difficult to find ideas to make sure he eats meat other than just chicken.

He was always so good with a spoon and was getting a really good varied diet, so am worried i wont give him the variety he gets from homemade pureed food. How do they eat things like spag bol and cottage pie themselves.

He ate a small amount of weetabix and pureed fruit this morning before rejecting, so thought i would let him try for himself and he just chewed the spoon, stuck his hand in it and then tried to chew the bowl!!!!

I really wanna get him back to spoon fed as we travel from home in germany to visit family in england alot so given him jars/purees is easier, as unlike in your own home, there is never what i need around when i need it if he refuses.

[ilovespinach]

i used to give ds1 veggie cottage pie...i rolled it into small balls and he used to pick them up off the tray and eat them with no probs....think the same with spag bol...if you cut the pasta up and put it in front of him he will pick it up and eat it..maybe use pasts twists or some other type of pasts where the sauce sticks to it....

[didsnbump]

Thanks ilovespinach, had never thought of the cottage pie idea.

Anyone else got any good ideas when it comes to finger food other than veg, fruit, bread, cheese, chicken.

What can i do with meats that are quick and easy to do. What about feeding when out and about?

[VeryHungryKatypillar]

How bout meatballs? They could be made with any minced up type meat. AK (who may be the she who must not be named of the weaning board, but I love reading recipes and am following hers) has recipe for chicken and apricot meatballs I think. Bound to be on her website somewhere.

[didsnbump]

Right it now appears that finger food isnt going down so well either.

I gave him sausage, potato, carrot, green bean and swede to feed himself this evening and he hardly ate any of it. He just dint seem interested. So tried a puree but after 2 spoonfulls he dint want that either.

Any ideas anyone??