Weaning - what worked for your babies?

[MrsOptimism]

I had to start weaning my baby girl onto food a little earlier than 6 months as she has a slightly higher risk of allergies so we started at 5 months. It’s been a month and a half and she still just doesn’t seem to like eating anything and just wants breast milk. She has always been EBF and hasn’t ever liked formula so I wasn’t initially surprised when she wasn’t keen on food but I thought there may have been some progression by now.

I’ve been slowly introducing vegetables to her such as potatoes, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes and butternut squash (not all at once but just tried to vary it over the last 6 weeks) but no luck. She tolerates a small bit of baby rice.

I’ve been slowly introducing the peanut butter and a little bit of eggs as well and happy to say no reactions so far but she barely eats anything of it.

Ive spoken to other people who’s babies seem to just eat straight away and descent portions as well so just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience to me where there babies just weren’t keen to begin. If so, how long did it take until they really started to eat and was there anything in particular that you found they liked?

My baby has only really started eating at 11 months (also EBF). Just keep offering, no pressure, let them make a mess, feed themselves etc. Eat with them, offer food in a variety of ways. At about 9 months I started timing meals around breastfeeds more deliberately to ensure baby was hungry - this was about the time baby was mostly on 2 naps, so I would do breakfast, BF, nap 1, lunch, BF, nap 2, dinner, BF. Spending more time away from me now I'm back at work has helped baby realise that food can satisfy her hunger! And nursery, as she sees other kids eating. Just hang in there, the prep and mess is annoying I know but Breastmilk is meeting her nutritional / calories needs for now so dont put pressure on, let her play with food. I mostly share meals with baby now to minimise prep, with some meal pouches as well (although I always serve in a bowl, not from the pouch). I really recommend Sarah Ockwell-Smith book about gentle eating, really helped me see the bigger picture and follow baby's lead.

@Peonies12 Thanks a lot for the reply. It’s encouraging to know it’s not just me and I’ll definitely look out for that book. I don’t mind it taking a long time as long as I know I’m at least on the right track and to just be patient.

honestly I’m doing everything possible to stop her trying to eat cardboard every minute but can’t get her to eat a carrot stick 😂

Honestly, it’s the baby. One of mine ate everything and the other ate nothing. You just have to keep trying. It will probably be months before she really gets it.

No baby rice due to the arsenic content. It also doesn't have any nutritional value. We just gave what we were having from day one some they ate, some they didn't. Also EBF, one started being bothered by food at 7 month, one at 9 and one nearer 10 month.

@steaminginah ok. We just tried the baby rice twice and she didn’t even manage a teaspoon but at least didn't reject it but I’ll avoid it now.
i did wonder about giving her what we were eating but i cook with a small amount of salt naturally but I thought they can’t have salt yet. Did you worry about that? It was actually the nurse at my doctor surgery who told me to just puree when I was having for dinner and give it to her but it’s the nhs website that said no salt so I just wasn’t sure what to do

@SliceofbattenbergThank you, I’ll keep persevering!

We’ve just started with my six month old and he’s having fun with it, but not eating in any kind of volume. We’ve been doing BLW with both finger foods and pre loaded spoons. I’ve also put some peanut butter on my finger and put it into his mouth so I knew he was eating it and so the food was eaten and not just rubbed on the skin. He isn’t a mouth opener though and giving him medication and brushing teeth involves opening his mouth for him so spoon feeding him wouldn’t work at the moment.

He’s really seemed to enjoy avocado, Greek yogurt, courgette and potato. He seems to be a lot more persistent with trying to eat a maraca than trying to eat actual food though! I figure that he’s got six months to learn this and letting him get messy and have fun and not worry about how much he’s eating at this point is fine. He’s clearly getting something because he’s gone from pooping every three-five days to five times a day. And I was worried he’d be constipated 😂

I either added salt after - we normally cooked with salt too or left it out. I didn't really purée any thing , just gave it so they could mush in their hands (!) and eat as mainly finger foods. I'm sure there's upto date books on baby led weaning as it was a while ago I had babies. We tried to adapt so even if they didn't have the whole meal, they had something of what we were having

@toastofthetownOh yes, I’ve found she’s a little more receptive if she can either hold the food or the spoon herself, although she still spits it out!
she didn’t really like the avocado, potato or courgettes and I have a funny feeling she’d probably like yogurt or cheese but she has a dairy intolerance so we’re not allowed to feed it to her just yet.
I don’t envy your increase in nappy activity though 🤣🤣

@steamingin Ok thank you