8m and still won't eat? Any tips/tricks?

[PonderLand]

I'm starting to run out of ideas. He's CMPA and doesn't like his own milk in foods. He likes coconut milk I think. He had 1-2 spoons of that with weetabix once!
The most he's eaten since 5 1/2 months is 4 spoons of leek and potato purée. Now we're at 8 months and we've not progressed at all. I tried blw for the first month then tried puréed and spoon feeding him. He closes his mouth and turns his head. Gets angry and cries. I'm trying to stop before he gets to that point as I can sense him becoming agitated about food in general. For context he had a stay in hospital last week as his blood sugars were low. The consultant seemed to blame me for him not being weaned. It made their job a lot harder to get his sugar levels up as he wouldn't take any high sugar foods. The consultant told me he could grow to have a bad relationship with food it is carries on... any ideas of new recipes? I think finger foods would work best. He likes holding cucumber, tomato, peppers etc. He doesn't like getting his hands messy lol.

Hi OP

My DD was completely ignoring food until she was around 9 months old. There was no way in the world to spoon feed her (there still isn't and she's nearly 18 months). At 9 months her coordination was finally good enough for her to be in full control of her own eating. She ate with a spoon straight away too. She absolutely loves food now and brings me her high chair when she knows it's meal time.

I'm not saying it's the same for your son but it may well be that he's just taking his time.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. Keep offering him finger food like boiled pasta, boiled carrots, sweet potatoes, whatever veg you have... Bits of cheese, chicken etc. He will eventually start getting into it.

I hear you though, it's so frustrating when you've prepared food and have the whole freezer full of purees and they just refuse to it any of it!

I don't think it matters yet that he is not very interested.
I would sit him in high chair or on your lap and eat all your meals with him letting him have whatever he wants from your plate . He will get the idea. My DD was slow to show any interest but at 10 months suddenly cottoned on...we were on holiday and all eating together. We did restrict her milk to a pint a day after she was one to encourage her.
My DSs both took to solids more easily... I think they were copying the rest of the family and sort of realised that eating the food in front of them was the done thing.!

Will he take puree off your finger? My DS initially hated the spoon

Op, as I read your post I was thinking tongue tie! I would get that sorted quickly.
Where abouts are you? I could recommend a private practitioner

Wow, thanks everyone for the advice! It's good to know my child isn't the only one and reassuring to see they've all eaten eventually! I have offered him rice in my fingers before but never thought about doing it with purée. Sometimes he pretends to eat fruit if I'm having a pear or something. Maybe removing spoons etc is the way to go.

I thought due to the TT being minor it wouldn't cause weaning issues. I'll go to the HV clinic in the morning and ask them about the TT & weaning. Or is this more something for the GP?

I'll ban the high-chair and start feeding him on the play-mat. I love the idea of plates of food close by for him to lean over and play with/explore. Will definitely give that a go!
Thanks so much for all the advice!

One vaguely helpful thought (I'm the one with a 4 year old who still drinks a lot of milk). Once DD finally would eat a few things, it became clear that textures are a real issue for her. The only solid fruit and veg she'll eat are strawberries, bananas, broccoli and sweetcorn. However she'll eat all bar one of the Ella's kitchen fruit/veg purees (the really smooth ones). Anything in sauce is a real struggle, e.g. she'll eat meatballs, but not if they've got tomato sauce on, and she won't even think about baked beans. Just something to look out for once your son is a bit bigger.

TT might not be the reason

My Dd has TT

It's very noticeable too but she didn't get it snipped as a baby so they are reluctant to do anything about it now

She weaned lovely

Update - I went to the weigh in clinic this morning, my DS has dropped down to the 2nd centile (he's been moving between the 2nd and 9th since birth). He's put on 4oz since December but he was sick as I previously said so I'm not too concerned about that, he's never put on loads of weight since birth, seems to put on 1/2oz every couple of weeks. They've told me to take him back in 4 weeks.
I spoke to one of the HV about our weaning issues and perhaps related to TT. She's contacted my HV and we'll be getting a visit soon from her. She gave me loads of advice and actually mirrored some of the responses on this page.
So from now on there's no more high chairs, no spoon feeding, no set meal times!
I've ordered a big wipeable play mat and I'm gonna try messy play with him and also provide snacks for him through out the day as he plays. If he wants to grab some and explore the foods and textures then he can, there won't be any pressure on him to do it if he doesn't want to.

The tests he had done at the hospital were looking at if he has some form of metabolic disease, we get the results at the end of April. So if he's still struggling with weaning then perhaps the results of the tests might shed some light on it? He's never really 'thrived'.