10 months old not interested in food

[Emily920]

Hi Everyone, looking for some advice. my 10 1/2 month old daughter has always been a milk lover! She has 4 bottles per day. Each has 8oz and she usually leaves 1oz or will drink the whole bottle. She has a bottle every 4 hours. As for solids, it’s a different story... she goes through stages where she doesn’t mind being spoon fed, then she will refuse the spoon and want to feed her self! At the moment, she just doesn’t seem interested In food at all! She will sit in her high chair and get frustrated until I take her out. She will clamp her mouth shut when I put a spoon to her mouth or she will throw and play with the food when I put it in front of her. She doesn’t have a bottle in the night and hasn’t for months so I don’t know if that’s an indication that she is getting enough throughout the day but I certainly don’t feel like she is. I also don’t know if I’m looking at her food with my belly thinking she should eat the whole thing when she only has a small tummy.. maybe she is getting enough, I just don’t know 😩 please help! Also, any tips on getting baby to enjoy her high hair would help. thank you x

I would maybe cut the daytime bottles down a little to leave room for food - maybe only offer 5/6oz instead of 8oz. Up to 1 year they only need around 20oz and after 1 year they only need around 300 mls (10/11oz) of milk so you could start to work towards that

Slowly reduce the milk so that she is hungry at meal times.If she wants to feed herself the either give her finger foods or give her a spoon as well as you.
If she is happy,her nappy contents are OK and her weight ok then try not to worry ,you will get there.

My DD2 was a terrible eater until we realised that she hated being spoon fed. She got better once we just offered her finger food she could feed herself with. She really detested wet mushy food for a long time.

So that she's not thirsty, offer her water. She won't fill up as much as she did on milk, so should want more solids.

My only worry about reducing her milk is if she is still fussy about solids 🙈 she seems to just get frustrated as soon as I put her in her high chair and then there is no chance of her eating! I have done finger foods the past few days and it’s better but I still don’t think she is getting enough! Like I said, it couldn’t just be me because I was at my mums the other days and my brother had pasta, my fighter wanted some so he gave her about 7-8 pieces of pasta and she ate them all and then wanted to get off my mums lap.. my mum said that she’s had enough and that is more than enough to fill her up..but I thought it was hardly anything?? Xx

Could you try a booster seat at the table ? (If you have a table)

7-8 pieces of pasta is plenty for a 10 month old. Sounds like your expectations of portion size are off and if you are pressuring her to eat more than she wants then that's why she's getting stressed.

I agree about reducing the bottles to 5oz or 3 a day but also just relax and let her eat what she wants and stop when she's full.

Try giving solids before milk - think in terms of a tablespoon of food/half a slice of bread as being a suitable portion.

No, their tummies are still small so that probably is enough. Personally, if she isn't interested in solids at all I wouldn't worry too much as she isn't 1 yet. But perhaps she just wants very small amounts more often for now, even just 1-2 tsp?

Ahhh ok, I think I may be expecting way too much!! 🙈😔 it’s me that’s stressing her out!

It’s hard to judge because there has been times she has polished off a whole plate full so I expect her to be able to eat like that all the time!

Think I’m going to just chill out 😊

Sounds like your DD is only interested when she's actually hungry which is fantastic!!!

One of mine hardly ate solids until around that age, very healthy appetite from around a year old but was very very sad when I ditched he bottles at the age of 2 and just let her have a lidded cup.