To be Soo fed up with weaning my nearly 1 year old

[Hippydippydoo]

It just feels like torture! She is nearly 1 and I feel like we have still barely made any progress.

This morning she has eaten 1 quarter of a piece of toast, and that was a struggle (she hasn't eaten since a couple of Oz of milk at midnight so should be hungry!). Lunch is diabolical, it hardly worth even trying as she won't open her mouth, iv tried wraps, ommellets, the only thing she will entertain is a bloody melty puff which I hate giving her.

The only way I can get her to eat a "decent" dinner is Ella kitchen 10 month pouches, because she is sick on everything else because she doesn't really chew.

Argh! I thought by this age of trying 3 times a day, every day we would have made some progress at least! I feel like she is going to be in bottles forever!

Poor you This sounds unusual - have you spoken to your HV or GP? What's her growth like? What happens if you give her harder things like carrot sticks?

I have a GP appointment later but other than force feed her I don't really see what they are going to suggest?
If I give her a carrot sticks she will nibble it for a minute or so and then it will be thrown on the floor 😔

It will help the GP to know if she is hitting other developmental milestones - link here.

She definitely hitting all her other milestones, she remained on the 75th percentile since birth, nearly walking, she's a very happy and content baby, just won't bloody eat 😭

OP my little girl barely ate a thing until she was 13 months. It was torture, I dreaded every meal time! She wouldn't have a spoon anywhere near her, so we did BLW but she just didn't want anything! She wouldn't touch it, and if she did she'd lick it and pull a face. She's 2 now, she's a bit fussy but she does way quite well now, will use a spoon herself, etc. Just keep plugging away is my advice. Do talk to HV but don't let them panic you. Keep offering a wide variety of food (even if you know it's going to end up in the bin ) and give her some cutlery to mess alone with herself. And try not to make it a battle.

Some children are like this. Is she a milk monster? Apparently I drank milk almost exclusively and didn't want food till I was 3.

Have you introduced weaning at the same time as reducing milk feeds? I have always done this. They need a little bit of hunger to have the inclination to try.

Start by halving the amount of milk you’d offer in the morning then leave a few hours before offering lunch. Replace milk with water as an accompanying drink at lunch.

Once you have done this move onto the evening meal. You say she had milk at night. Replace a night feed with water. As long as she is sitting up and able to put things in her mouth you may find this effective but check first with your GP if there are underlying issues first. Best of luck.

OK so that's all very reassuring but still worth getting her checked out.

Old school, I know, but have you tried rusks? The beauty of a rusk is that a baby can suck on it till it is disgusting exactly the texture that they like before swallowing.

Have you tried not sticking to meal times?May be if she's playing on the floor give her some bits to eat? See what she does then. It might be the formality of sitting in her highchair for a set meal time that's putting her off? I feel your pain my DD is 8 months and will only have puree and those melty puff things everything else is choked on and coughed up. I'm working on it though!

Don't panic. Some babies just take longer to adjust to food. If she is hitting milestones, healthy in herself and not losing weight I wouldn't worry.
My little girl is two and she's nicely plump. Some days she eats 3 teaspoons of cornflakes for breakfast, and a quarter slice of bread a few cubes of cheese for lunch. But she does generally eat a decent dinner.
I've come to the conclusion that she is just not a big breakfast eater. The one thing she will do however, is pinch my breakfast.
You could try making something appealing for yourself and then let her steal it.

What the heck is a melty puff?

My DD would not entertain a spoon from me ever. She also was not really interested in holding food and gumming it for long.

What she would eat was a big dollop of mash potatoe on her highchair which she scooped into her mouth. Once she was more used to this I assed things to the mash like puréed carrots, brocolli etc.

I then gave her weetabix, with a spoon but more thick than I would have it so she could scoop that up with fingers or spoon.

Mine loves melty puffs too 😂😂 I know it’s hard but stick at it. My walking, talking, running 1yo eats as little as he can get away with and went through this stage! We went with pouches and eventually finger food inbetween meals or bits of our dinner and he just got there. He still doesn’t eat that much some days, others he eats loads! I sympathise but you will get there eventualy x

*eventually...

How much milk is she having in a 24 hour period?

How much milk is she having? I think at 12 months you can drop from 500ml formula to about 300ml cow's milk, so maybe if you gradually aim for that she will be a bit hungrier for food?

My DS suddenly ‘got’ eating one day at about 1 year old. It was almost like he realised that this is what he had to do now, milk is for drinking. I can’t promise yours will have a similar breakthrough - but she might!

My DS1 was exactly the same, I would be so frustrated at mealtimes! Then one day it just clicked, literally overnight he started eating. No idea what prompted it at all. He's still quite fussy at 2.5 but he eats normally for the most part.

DS2 on the other hand has been having three meals a day since pretty much the start of weaning, loves his food and hasn't turned anything down yet (he's 9mo). I did everything the same with them both! Kids are just weird. Hang in there.

Oh but also, don't get too stressed. I look back and wonder why I was so stressed about it, worrying and getting frustrated made no difference to the outcome and made us both feel worse.

DS1 was a total non-eater at that age, except when he was at nursery where he ate more under the influence of other children eating around him, but was breastfed and I understand this is not uncommon for BF babies to be completely disinterested in food until well past a year of age.

However at 5yo, he still barely eats. Survives on deep breaths, happy thoughts and the odd ham sandwich or slice of pizza. He's skinny as a rail, but outrageously energetic and one of the brightest in his Y1 class. It drives me mental, but that's the only apparent negative effect. Don't worry. Some children just aren't eaters.

My DD was like this. Could not eat anything with lumps at all til 20 months. She had such a strong gag reflex she brought it all up again. It is a phase and will pass. She's now a grown up 18 yr old and eats most things.
You will come out the other side but I still remember that feeling of frustration as meal after meal goes in the bin and every other baby is eating everything in sight. You are a great mum because you are trying everything and not giving up.
Good luck.

I also own a baby who bloody loves melty puffs but is repulsed by actual food. Carrot puffs and she's all "yum!" Actual carrot sticks and her attitutude is "what the fuck is this shit you're trying to make me eat?!" before she flings it onto the floor. She's perfected this move where she will sweep her arm across the highchair tray so that everything gets dumped onto the floor.

Breakfast yesterday was porridge, around a tablespoons worth. Lunch was Dairylea on toast soldiers, cucumber sticks, and melon slices. She had a lick of a toast soldier. Dinner was mince and dumplings with mash, broccoli and peas. She had a bite of a dumpling, a bite of broccoli that she gagged on and then threw away, a spoonful of mash and no peas.

She is the poorest eater of all my DC and even though I know all of the things about they'll eat when they're hungry, etc, it is still a worry and it does make you feel a bit shitty when everyone else's baby appears to be chowing down on all sorts of foods whereas yours won't even try.

HV has said to look at what she eats over a week rather than a single day (still next to nothing). Has also said she's obviously getting enough as she's growing and gaining weight (11mo and 20lbs). She's happy, she's healthy, she's hitting her milestones.

Definitely get your DD checked by the GP to rule out any underlying issues but it may simply be the case that she's not a big eater and this is her version of normal. All you can do in that case is to keep offering ans try not to worry too much. One thing I have started doing is to give DD a multivitamin to make sure she's getting everything she needs.

I'm in exactly the same boat OP, DS is 16 months old and I feel like he hardly eats. He'll eat porridge, yogurts, custard and 10 month old jars, and crisps, but anything that he has to chew is really hit and miss. Some days he will eat a whole piece of toast, other days he has a few small squares and that's it. Same with a sandwich. It's really frustrating,cos he will chew a few squares and then spit them out!

I've figured that I've just got my idea of how much he should be eating a bit skewed iykwim? So I think oh he should be able to eat all of this, when in reality he's eating as much as he can actually manage. He doesn't seem hungry most of the time, is gaining weight and doesn't wake hungry in the night or anything, so as long as he's ok, I just think, meh? 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for all your advice everyone. It's made me feel a little better.

We have a doctor's appointment today to discuss her eating, as she has cmpa and is on prescription formula. I believe they only prescribe for a year and don't know what I will do if they stop it because she isn't eating.

Development wise she seems fine, she happy, chatty, nearly walking, says mama, knows the names of her Teddy's, so I know in that department she is doing ok, I just dread meal time so much.

To make matters worse, out of nowhere she has decided to start f*cking around with her bottles, so whereas it would usually take a couple of minutes to feed her, she now rolls the teat around in her mouth and it takes ages.

I'm just starting to feel like everything is a struggle and nothing has come easy with this baby. She is my first, and myabe everyone feels like that, but I just feel like we have never got any easy wins.

She's had cmpa since a few weeks old so feeding has always been as issue
She grunted in her sleep for the first 12 weeks which nearly ruined me as I couldn't sleep a wink
She still isn't sleeping through...no wonder as she eats so little.
We have only just mastered naping in the cot, but she is already transitioning to 1 nap which is making it all harder again.
Never slept in pram
Never could be transferred from carseat out of car.
Still cries in her carseat unless I am constantly entertaining her.
Can't do ANY house work as she clings to my ankles and cries non stop

The list goes on and on...am I going made or does this sound hard?

I should probably add that during the week I have no help what so ever, not even for a minute. I have no family close by. I did ask a semi retired friend through tears of desperation if she would be able to help me, even for an hour a week and she would be paid, but she basically said no.
I also 7 months pregnant and this whole this is becoming exhausting.
DD took so long to go down for her morning nap that I am now going to have to wake her after 45 minutes otherwise there is no chance she will nap at a decent time in the afternoon. Feel like I am constantly fighting fire day in day out.