7 months old not taking to solid food/not sitting up yet

[purplelizzy]

Maybe I'm panicking because my baby's been such a textbook baby so far, but now he's 7 months and for the past 2 months have been tryng to get him started on solids with little success. He will eat things that slip down easily like banana, avocado or yughurt with fruit puree. He can't seem to get the hang of anything with a bit of texture and can only swallow it with a drink of water to wash it down. He's not able to sit up alone yet either and I wonder if the two are connected, especially as this means he can't sit in his hight chair yet - have been feeding him in his car seat. (Tried using his bouncing chair bur he was bouncing too much!). He is a bit under the average weight for his age and my HV suggested giving him more fatty calorie laden food but there's hardly anything he likes. Getting very frustrated and discouraged. All tips gratefully received. Thanks.

Mine was exactly the same (he's 11 mo now) - I found it a really tiring, hard time! You feel like giving up, don't you?!...then gradually (honestly), they start putting the odd little thing in their mouth, and it happens like the down-bit of a roller coaster - all of a sudden in a two week period they're finger feeding (mine happened a month ago - and strangely that's when he sat up as well - although I never thought that it was connected)! The only thing I was able to feed him was cow & gate buscuits because they melted in his mouth...He's still pretty fussy - and only started crawling 2 weeks ago by the way!

Good luck - I promise it won't be long.

Ds was and still is very difficult regarding solid food. I have begun to think it's just that he regards eating as some tiresome activity that takes him away from play. He has eaten with a spoon and eats crackers, etc. but at 20 months would still much prefer that everything be pureed and shoveled in his mouth as quickly as possible! It's maddening but I wouldn't worry about it as far as developmental. There is a brand here in the states that makes spinach lasagna. Ds loves it and ate it every day for a looong time. With the cheese element that would add more calories for you if it's available in the UK.

Thanks GG and Jabberwocky, it really helps to know others have been through this. There's definitely an element of laziness about it - he just can't be bothered with it when he knows he can have a bottle if he makes enough fuss or spits everything out. he does feed himself a bit, he can actually get the spoon into his mouth without much problem. I tired him on some homemade cheesy pasta yesterday but he didn't want to know, i think the texture was to much for him even though it was very slippery. The only finger food I've given him so far is bits of banana and he did eat some of it.