6 month old uninterested in eating - how can I get him interested in food and less interested in breastmilk?!

[pasteldama]

Apologies - I have a feeling this might be a bit long. Please bear with me while I ramble.....

My DS is exclusively bf and is a bit of a vomiter, so I waited until 6 months on the dot to feed him solids. He has had a variety of tastes so far (almost 2 weeks) and everything is spat out. I am lucky if as much as half a spoonful is eaten at any sitting. I am trying solids in the morning and in the late afternoon, when he's in a good mood and not full or starving. He has had baby rice, banana, papaya, avocado, carrot, sweet potato as puree with or without Aptimil, and bits of steamed carrot, broccoli, papaya, banana, cucumber and bread to investigate and play with (not all at the same time obv!). Although everything else that isn't a foodstuff goes into his mouth, these foods are squished then ignored. He's developed a very tight-lipped sharp head turn along with an anti-spoon hand reflex - quite impressive if it wasn't so worrying!

He is bf during the day and then goes to bed at 6:30/7 so feeds just before that. He wakes usually sometime between 8:30 and 10:00 and then again in the early hours - usually this is because although he loves to sleep on his stomach he can't quite figure out how to turn back over. I can't just flip him over as he decides that he fancies a feed at these times so I feed him, sometimes it's just a snack. He then wakes 5/5:30.

I spoke to my hv yesterday when I got him weighed and she told me that he is filling up at night so isn't hungry for food during the day so I shouldn't feed him at night. I tried last night to just cuddle or soothe him at 12:30 but it resulted in 1.5 hours of screaming and crying and I finally gave in and fed him. I'm confused as I thought that breastmilk is digested quickly and therefore wouldn't impact on hunger during the day - is that not right? I don't want him to be too full and I'm not sure how to get him interested in food - none of the books I have seem to have any section on what to do if your baby just ain't interested! They seem to assume that they all go baby rice to purees to finger food - to 3 meals a day and what I'm eating, without a hitch!

As an aside he won't take a bottle either (oh what a battle that was!) so I'm a bit worried about how he's going to get enough fluids when I go back to work full-time in August......

Apologies again for the long post. Any suggestions very gratefully received as getting quite down about the situ
x

Oh goodness sounds like DS hasn't read the latest weaning advice
For what it's worth I don't think he feels ready for food yet. So I'd ensure you get some good vitamin drops to tide him over then just slow things down to his pace. HVs tend to be very much in favour of pushing the solids agenda but do remember he needs to get 55 per cent of his calories from breast milk until he's 1 - then 40 per cent until he's 18 months. In other countries little ones aren't often introduced to solids until they're 1 so please don't let the pressure get to you. Once he 'gets' food you'll soon find him spurning milk in favour of solids. Really good luck!

I would just persist with it some children are not that interested til over 6 months, I have the same thing with my ds (just coming up to 6 months in a few more days actually not quite, bt just started weaning him this week) he is not very interested,some of my friends told that their dc did not start to eat really til 7.5 months or so? my ds is also a bit of a vomiter, he possets a lot so i dno if that is a factor? but they have that in common anyway..
I would probably ignore the hv on the dont feed @ night thing, if he is not having the food then he is going to be hungry, so to me that is slightly cruel and i doubt it will make him eat the food cos its likely more a case of he hasnt got used to the food yet rather than 'filling up at night'?
most of their nutrition @this age should be from milk anyway, so i think its a bit early to panic if they wont take the food but all we can do is persist, keep offering them things and try to keep it relaxed and they will get there eventually?
well that is what im thinking for mine, unless anyone has any other suggestions...
i know you get all this stuff sometimes about you need to get them started in this "window of opertunities" otherwise they will never eat and never accept textured food etc, i received some email from cow and gate or someone telling me that but if we are offering to them i think thats all we can do, the child knows whether they want to eat it or not and perhaps not quite ready, afterall they are all individuals and dont have a little clock saying "6 months now, time for 3 meals a day"
my ds had the tongue thrust thing til quite recently so they do develop @ different rates and that also can apply to weaning. my ds1 was weaned @ 4 months(i know people consider it as a big nono on here, but he was ready and hungry!)
you have another couple of months til august and alot could change in those months, so im sure he will have improved on the food eating by then (hopefully)

Hello pastel
I would say it's still really early days for weaning. Like you, I was confused when my ds was pretty uninterested solids at 6 months - all these baby books that suggest they should be on 3 meals a day at 7 months were nothing like my experience.

Anyway, ds didn't really start getting interested until about 7/7.5 months. I also stopped giving him purees - he really hated being fed by me - and followed the baby led weaning route, and eventually he started to get in to it.

I wouldn't worry about the night-feeds either - my experience with my dd & ds was that they stopped the night-feeds when they were firmly established on solids - I don't think stopping bf during the night at this stage is really going to have an impact on how much your ds eats during the day.

Just saw the bit about you going back to work and giving him a bottle - have you tried a cup at all?

If he's exclusively bf, he is getting all the nutrients he needs. Breastmilk has LOADS more calories and nutrients than pureed veg so it's important that he still gets plenty of milk. The advice about not feeding at night is total rubbish from a bf point of view.

Basically, he'll eat when he's ready - it might be that in a month or so he swipes a fistful of broccoli from your plate... seriously, I wouldn't worry at all, although I know it's hard not to when people are pressuring you to start 'weaning' (maybe more useful to talk about still bf and 'introducing complementary foods').

Only read the title.

I wouldn't. Keep breast feeding him and just have little bits of food on his highchair to try himself.

I'm no expert on the bfing stuff. I really struggled and ended up giving formula before 6 months but we did wait till almost 6 months to start weaning. We tried baby led weaning and DS did all the things you describe turning head away etc. I was really worried about it and saw HV about it every week. Her suggestion was to cut down on milk, we did this gradually but he only really started eating well when he felt like it probably 8/9 months. He loves his milk so this was difficult but it eventually worked itself out without me feeling like I had to deprive him.

He eats everything now at 13 months with no problem and has about 18oz milk per day. (He went straight on to chunks of food and still refuses to be spoon fed unless it is something sweet and delious that he knows he won't be get in his mouth himself) I have a friend whose DD didn't eat properly until over 12months. Very worrying at the time but all is well now she is 7 years old.

Regarding fluids, could you try giving a cup with water in? Our DS wouldn't take water from a bottle but was happy to take a cup, he spat most of the water out at first but after a few months (!) he started swallowing it. He loves a drink of water now, and we haven't even given anything like juice yet.

Thanks everyone - I really appreciate your advice.

I agree it seems wrong to stop the night feeds, I can't see how at this age he would make a link - but after seeing the hv I was worried about doing something that was actually having a negative impact when I was trying to do the right thing.

Travellerintime, I have been trying ds with a doidy cup and a sippy cup for a month or so now, again with limited success. He has both of them to play with so that he can get used to holding them - and he tends to bite both. He is getting used to liquid coming out of the sippy cup, but we seem to be going backwards with the doidy cup now as he sees anything brought to his lips as something to refuse.

So perseverance and letting him set the pace seems to be key. Thanks x

Yeah. Don't stop the night feeds. They're super important, they are the normal pattern for a BF baby.

He isn't ready.

Don't worry about it.

My second baby didn't eat any solids until 11 months.

Havnt read all of this, but have weaned 3 children, and I can only try to suggest to keep offering the food when he IS hungry and then after he has eaten offer him the BF. you will get there in the end !! Good luck !

we did blw and ds didn't actually really eat anything until he was about 10mo and then very little. He continued to bf every 2hrs in the day until 11mo. I also got told to drop night feeds by the hv but I found that during the day ds wouldn't bf for long/properly because he got so easily distracted and that actually he needed a good fill up during the night when he wasn't so distracted

I really wouldn't worry about it, continue to bf as normal and offer the solids as "extra" and he'll gradually drop the milk feeds as he fills up on solids

I think you would find it reassuring to read the Baby Led Weaning book by Gill Rapley. Even if you don't want to do BLW, it gives an idea of what is normal in terms of babies' interest in food. IIRC, she says that many babies don't really get the hang of things until 8 or 9 months, and even at 10 or 12 months some are only eating very small amounts.

The World Health Organisation recommends that babies from 6 months upwards who are being given solids are still fed 'frequently and on-demand' (advice on p19 of this document which is intended for training health professionals, so your HV is talking rubbish. The NHS advice is based on the WHO guidelines (see here).

It will probably be a good while before your DS makes the connection between solid food & hunger. He will think of solids as being about exploring tastes and textures. 'Food' is still bf for him. It'll only be gradually that he realises that solids fill him up too. Cutting down his milk feeds won't encourage him to eat more solids, it'll just mean he isn't getting enough of the nutrition he needs at this stage.

On the bottle issue, you could try a Doidy cup or sippy cup with water or ebm. See it as playing for now: don't worry about properly drinking but you may be able to help him learn to be given milk from a cup by the time you go back to work.