Weaning difficulties

[smilasmum]

My daughter is 7 months and i have started weaning, one meal a day at tea time. She loves eating the jars bought from supermarkets but refuses and even gags whenever i offer homemade food. (my cooking is not that bad) what can i try to get her started with home made foods? mash potato, carrot and apple, spag bol, all made her gag.

i started on shop bought stuff, mainly fruit - classic bad move according to everything you read! low and behold to spat out all attempts at my home pureed veg. i just carried on with shop bought stuff for another week or so, got the stage 2 stuff with a bit more texture and now he's happily eating a varied diet. he only really had homemade fruit puree to start with and is still quite fussy with the veggie based main meals but after a bit of shouting at me earlier he realised there were no other options and it was quite nice after all! it had lots of cheese and milk in it. anything too strong or different he wasn't impressed with so i just kept it bland and add milk.

it can take a while to get going then suddenly they'll eat pretty much anything you throw at them! i offer him anything suitable off my plate so he's having a good chew on toast, chunks of fruit and veg, crackers with cream cheese. if i'm eating it, he wants it. he does a lot of gagging but their gag reflex is a lot more sensitive than ours so it will happen.

Thank you, it is comforting to know that i'm heading in the right direction. I worry that i am rushing her or not doing things right. So is it that the shop bought stuff is smoother or that it tastes different to fresh stuff? I will move her up a stage and try foods with slightly more texture. Thank you!!

Hi smilasmum, you could also try mixing home made food with the jar food, gradually decreasing the amount of jar food. Also, as naturalbaby suggested, adding milk to your home made purees then decreasing the amount of milk as you go along.

Also, at this age they want to feel included, so try putting some finger food on your plate and tucking in, letting her help herself, she might be happy with finger food. And try giving her her own little spoon to hold, my DS loves chewing on the spoon in between mouthfuls.

HTH.

You could try finger foods instead, so that she is in control of the food - google 'baby led weaning'.

I have tried some finger food but she tends to take a bit and then gags as she doesnt know what to do with it. What finger foods should i try first? I like the idea of mixing homemade food with the jars, i will do that for certain. Thank you guys for your help.

Shop stuff is indeed smoother and it is also blander, so it is a jump for them to then eat stronger tasting real food. I would try to get her onto lumpy food as quickly as possible as the longer they are given smooth purees the more stubborn they get about moving up to lumps. Try not to worry about her gagging, it's a natural reflex and part of the process of learning about food.

Gagging isn't a problem at all - in fact it's really useful in helping them practise moving food around their mouths, (and the more lumps they have to deal with, the stronger their tongues get and the quicker they are able to articulate sounds, too) so you're liable for a stretch of it whenever you decide to move to home-cooked food. I'd stick with the home-made stuff, to be honest. Cheaper, better and what she'll end up eating anyway so might as well start soon!

Also, with only one meal a day she's probably simply not getting enough practice. She should really be on three meals a day at seven months.

Try batons of roast/steamed veg such as carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, pear, apple. You could put the purees on oat cakes or rice cakes.

babyledweaning.com is a good website for ideas and info even if you are feeding purees as well as solid food.