Struggling to find food to give my allergic daughter

[Bex905]

Hi there,
I am in need of some advice on mealtimes for my DD. She is 7 months old and has been on solids for a couple of months now. She has a dairy allergy and a suspected gluten intolerance. When I first began weaning her, she would happily take pureed food fed by me on a spoon but in the last week or so she refuses to open her mouth for any spoon to go in, and if I manage to get one in, she blows a raspberry to spit it all out again. She will only eat food that I put infront of her on her highchair tray to feed herself. I am happy to move over to BLW but as she cannot have any dairy or any gluten I am seriously running out of ideas of what to feed her that she can pick up in her hands at this age. Gluten free bread, vegetable & fruit sticks & rice crackers go down well but I don't want to be giving that every day.

She is a very healthy weight, on the 75th percentile, and from 5 months old has been exlusively formula fed on Aptamil Pepti 2 formula which I know is still the most important form of nutrition to her but she does still need the solid foods.

Very grateful to anyone who can advise! Many thanks.

just carry on letting her feed herself. start trying some new foods one at a time, mashed or chopped. let her do it with her fists and fingers, its all educational stuff! (early mark making dont u know!!)

you are doing well, and she is showing you that she is ready to move on a bit as well.

get messy!

Porridge fingers made with Kara dairy-free milk were good for my DS at that age. Here is how to make them (very easy):
3 level tbsp porridge oats + 3 tbsp milk. In a bowl, soak the oats in the milk until you have a mushy mixture. Press the mixture into a small, flat-bottomed dish or bowl using the back of a spoon. Cook in microwave for 2mins on high. Cut in to fingers while still hot and serve when cool. Or oven cook for about 15mins at 190c/375f/gas mark5

Oats are generally ok but to be absolutely sure you can get gluten-free oats in freefrom sections in supermarkets or Holland & Barrett.

You can also make cakey-type things with baked polenta (Merchant Gourmet polenta is really easy to make up). As an alternative to Cheerios for practising pincer-movement you could try Wholegrain Rice Krispies (no gluten, unlike the normal Rice Krispies which have barley), but they're a bit sugary. Doves Farm do chocolate stars though they have zero nutritional value. And Nature's Path do gluten-free cornflakes called Mesa Sunrise -- Sainsbury's normally stock them.

How about butterbeans as finger food? Or baked salmon?

My DS has quite a lot of allergies including dairy and wheat but in fact over time I've found that because of the extra effort involved in finding things for him to eat he's ended up with (I think) a far better diet than many toddlers his age! But we did go through some very difficult and frustrating stages, like the one you're describing at about that age! Then suddenly he preferred to be spoon-fed again, then just as suddenly started using a fork, and now (he's almost 2) has gone back to ramming food into his mouth alternating with being spoon-fed.

Still loves his Pepti 2 at bedtime!

As I'm gf, ds was blw on gf food - and pretty much anything can be finger food. Strips of chicken/beef/lamb, gf fish fingers, steamed salmon flaked into chunks, mash potato, baby new pots, roasted veg (carrots, sweet pot, beetroot, potato, parsnip), steamed veg. If you want to do rice, buy sushi rice until she has a pincer grip as then you can make little balls (sushi rolls are fab gf food on the move too - I make cucumber, avocado, tinned tuna, cooked chicken etc).
Look at www.babyledweaning.com for lots of ideas on food to share. I still make sweetcorn fritters 6 years later !

Will try and get my head round this some more, but BLW sounds fine to me. Here's a few ideas:

Eggy bread - cut up into small squares/fingers. I just beat an egg with a desert spoon of water, soak the bread in the mixture and fry both sides 'til they're golden.

Organix Spicy tomato noughts and crosses (they come in packs of 6) in the baby aisles at the supermarket

Hash browns grilled then chopped up.

Home made chicken nuggets (bit of a phaff to do the bread crumbs, although it is possible I believe to buy gf breadcrumbs).

GF pasta cooked then tossed in a tomatoey sauce (bit messy but BLW is anyway).

Thank you all so much for these ideas - I am now feeling so much more confident about trying new things for her. BLW is actually quite fun isn't it! Luckily we have wooden floors.