Starting solids - DS doesn't understand spoons, swallowing, anything!

[Tamz77]

I'm probably being a bit paranoid here, as DS (5 1/2 months) has only been trying solids for a week. But he hasn't seem to have registered at all that what I'm offering (baby rice and purees) is food. Is this normal? How long does it last? He doesn't open his mouth for the spoon at all (or my finger - tried that), I have to wait until he smiles and slip it in cunningly. Once the food's in there, he doesn't actively swallow it, it may kind of accidentally move to the back of his mouth and down his throat, but most of it just gets spat out. He starts blowing raspberries usually, other than that he just pulls very weird faces.

I waited to start solids until this point because he is not a very hungry baby at all, sometimes going 6 hrs or more without wanting a feed during the day (he is breastfed). Nor did he show any interest in my food, hasn't 'grabbed my spoon out of my hand' or anything, like the books say they're supposed to when they're ready for weaning. I only started solids really to make sure he was getting some extra nutrients by the time he was 6 months. But at this rate he's not going to be ingesting enough to get any value! I'm lucky if he swallows one baby teaspoon of food.

Any ideas? Or reassurance? Do they just 'click' eventually re. how to use a spoon or am I doing something wrong? It seems like he's not ready but I kind of knew he wasn't ready two weeks ago but my HV said don't leave it any later than this, if I do then he'll be past the 6 month 'watershed' and then I'll be worrying about his depleting iron reserves etc. Help!

If your baby doesn't have the tongue reflex than he probably isn't ready yet.... some are ready AFTER 6 months

Make sure you have enough iron in your food.

I think your HV's freaking you out a bit here! WHO advice is currently not to start weaning until 6 months, so don't worry about that. And I do think some babies just don't have a clue at first. My ds1 and dd both got the hang of swallowing/mouth opening really quickly but my ds2 didn't have a clue. I started weaning earlier than you (just before the WHO advice changed) but we had a few problems and stopped, starting again about 6 months. I spent about 4 weeks either slipping it in when laughing/crying and watching most of it fall out or trying to get the spoon in through firmly clamped lips. In retrospect it must have been hilarious to watch, but at the time I found it really stressful. Even being my third I despaired that he'd ever get the hang of it. But he did. They all do. I wouldn't worry too much about getting nutrients into him, at this stage he's just learning what to do with a spoon, it's a big change, particularly for a bf baby, I think. Just persevere, a little every day; it will get better, I promise, just enjoy trying lots of different things, eventually you'll find something that he loves and then he'll get the hang of it quick enough! (Banana was always popular in our house.) Good luck.