nearly 6 months and not ready for solids at all. should I worry?

[NannyJo]

My DS is 6 months next week so I decided to start weaning this week. It was very unsucsessful, he was very sick, gagged on it and cried if I put the spoon anywhere near him and witg just a few spoons it left him very unsettled for the rest of the day and night (seemed to be tummy pains) He's not a hungry baby at all and still only takes about 5oz of formula 5 times a day. Do I leave it for now? how long for? should I worry about him needeing extra nutrients yet?? any advice would be great. Ta.

Don't worry at all. Milk is still their most important food just now. Just keep offering little bits casually, have him at the table with you as you are eating and leave something down for him to get interested in.
You'll prob find at this age he'll go straight onto finger foods and miss out the purees.

what did you start him on? if it was baby rice, some babies just loathe it, and you can just skip that and try something else.

At 6 months you really don't need to do the baby rice (if that was what you gave him!). You could try pureed carrot/apple. Often it is the texture not the taste that they object to.

tried rice, butternut squash, carrot and courgette. All failed i think the rice was more sucessful so i think it is more the taste. not too sure though. I have weaned loads of babies before (being a nanny previously) never had this problem before cos the other babies before mine were all hungry,

Nanny Jo - my dd is also 6 months next week and I was in a similar situation in that she has never been a particular hungry baby ( and sleeps through the night) so I wasn't in any rush to wean her. DD often would leave up to 4ozs in a bottle and has been known to refuse a whole bottle once in a while.

Then all of a sudden last week she decided to become really hungry. On Saturday she had a full 7oz feed but was still hungry, so just to see how hungry she was I gave her another 7oz bottle - she scoffed 5oz's - so I started weaning her on Sunday with baby rice and gave her carrot today.

So it may be that your dd/ds will start hungry soon - but I wouldn't get hung up about it - my dd is on the 91st centile and she seemed perfectly happy not having solids.

I posted last week under the food topic wanting some basic advice on weaning - mner's were very helpful as always. FWIW I got the Annabel Karmer book recommended by everybody which gives a schedule which I am finding really helpful.

NannyJo, If you would like the Annable Karmel book, let me know and I will send it down to you.

got the books ta MB. had them all from work. I know in theory what to do but when it's your own it helps to have backup advice. mnet is great for that

You have my number, give me a call if you want a chat.

NannyJo, my DS2 is similar, I think. He's fat and happy and six months. He doesn't mind fiddling with finger food, and even chewing on things, but I'm pretty sure he spits out any food that breaks off.

Spooning purees into his mouth just annoys him. And makes a mess.

I've tried sweet potato, porridge, avocado, pear, chicken (not pureed), bread sticks, rice cakes, bagel with cream cheese ... I think I'll just keep offering finger food and see if he works out this whole "food" idea soon.

I've been debating making him some sort of lentil dish (high in iron) but I think the annoyance of him not eating will be increased if I've put actual effort into the food for him.

(I'd like to kick him out of our bed, and stop feeding him at night, and I feel, perhaps irrationally, solids will help with that.)