7 Month Year old eating issues

[MrShev]

My 7 month year old son, Ralf, has gone off his food. We have been following Annabel Karmel's weaning guidlines and I have been cooking a delectable selection of organic, home cooked baby food.

He started off well and would put away one cube (of AK's rubber freezing tray thingys) of fruit pure? and baby rice in the evening and then crash from 7pm til 7am. All good. He would have a small breakfast (pure? & yoghurt) and then 2 cubes of veggie pure? at lunch. This is plus his bottles of formula.

We had a rough Christmas at the reli's and he just didn't sleep well in a new environment and missed his old routine and cot. He came home and all was good for a while and then he woke up at 2am screaming. We tried some cool boiled water and then eventually had to give him a bottle of formula.

Since then he has not slept through for about 2 weeks and has completely gone off his food and will only eat a couple of small spoons of pure? at a go. He just seems indifferent to food - loves his bottle though. We are now totally zonked and just need to sleep for 7 hours. I don't think he has enough food in his belly to be able to sleep through. What are we doing wrong? Is his routine trashed?

Help!
Mr Shev - sleep deprived father.

p.s we found out that a minor chest infection caused his initial waking but that has cleared up, thank gawd...

p.p.s He is, otherwise, a happy, happy baby and spends more time laughing than crying!

have you let him feed himself with finger foods?

7 months seems really too old for purees?

Possibly teething. Lots of babies go off food when teething.

Either that or try to introduce something other than fruit puree, as tastes do vary quite quickly (or so I found) at this age.

Alos agree with Enid, some finger foods may well get his interest!

i agree with Enid - my DS is 7 months old and eats (well gums) lots of finger food and loves his lumps. Try to introduce more textures so mash rather than puree food.

Also, have you introduced protein like lentils or chicken ... protein is nice and filling for babies.

Try poaching some fish in milk and mashing up with veggies or offering pieces of cheese and steamed veggies.

Wholemeal toast fingers and rice cakes are also nice and bits of banana and avocado (altho' messy)

I agree with the others re protein (can't comment on the finger food because I am waiting for delivery of a high chair before mini-plibble can try that).
If your baby usually loves fruit, then you can try mixing fruit in with chicken. Mini-Plibble loves apple and sweet potato with chicken (and so do I), which is in AK's book.

Also, I usually find that if mini-plibble can't be tempted by anything else, then banana is always well received. You could just give your chap one to chomp on when he sits on your knee.

Finally - one of my friends says when her baby is teething and she gives finger food, she puts fruit (e.g. chunks of melon) in the fridge or freezer first to get them cold and a little bit harder. Apparently they love that when their little gums are sore.

AK's mealplan was total fiction for my dd. She never did purees and didn't do lumps till she was 13 months old. Not even finger food. She just one day started to grab stuff off my plate at 13 months.

At 10 months she would 'feed' herself porridge, weetabix, readybrek and yoghurt using a spoon, or just using her hands like a shovel.

the moral of the story is, don't fret. nothing is wrong with your baby. A baby can get all or almost all his nutrients from bm or formula till at least a year. In fact, for highly allergic babies, it is even recommended.

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. Will try some finger foods tonight. Banana, Avocado and I'll try some small bits of toast.

How big should they be? Like 1cm cubes or something?

This has been such a worry for my wife and I. My initial thought was that we started weaning a touch late and that he seemed hungry before that, and that maybe he had established some habits - maybe it is a boredom thing.

Again, thank you all, so much for putting my mind at rest...
MrShev

no not tiny cubes

chip shaped so he can hold and chew

see www.babyledweaning.com for more

I feel like such a beginner at this. Just had my wife in tears on the phone - he didn't eat any lunch at all. I want to give my wife the night off but don't know how. She can hear R's cries from 1500m...through concrete.

Thank you Enid, seems so obvious when you put it like that. Have just bought some nice ripe bananas and avocados and will give them a whirl tonight - fingers crossed. WIll update tomorrow.
MrShev

oh dear

I would stop worrying about giving him formula at night for a couple of nights - you need your sleep!

remember teething can cause them to wake in the night and sometimes babies do go a few days without eating much

post his routine here and we will judge it (nicely) for you

here is an old thread about other late weaners. who are perfectly healthy babies. i am sure if you start a similar thread in Weaning you will get more responses.

in the meantime, go to www.kellymom.com and and search the site about weaning. it is mostly about breastfeeding babies but i am sure it is true also on formula fed ones too.

i know of more than one ff fed baby who were also later weaners like my dd and are perfectly fine.

We are on the she-who-must-not-be-named routine that has been wonderful for us:

7am - up for breakfast. Normally puree, cereal and yoghurt. Then a 9oz bottle of formula.

9am - 10am he normally gets a bit pooped and has, maybe, an hour. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.

11.30 - lunch, 2 cubes of veggie stuff and a bottle of formula 6-7oz.

12.00 - either a nap of 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs in his cot or in his pushchair if we're out and about.

2.30 - 6oz of formula.

4pm - 5pm - at some point here he will have a power nap of 30mins or so.

5.30 - supper of fruit and baby rice and a half bottle of forumla 4-5oz.

6.00-6.15 - bath time.

6.30 - rest of bottle.

6-45 - 7.00 wind down until bedtime.

7pm-7,30pm he'll go to sleep.

We're not too regimental about she-who-must-not-be-named routine and he has been great on it. Maybe he is getting up and reading it and is playing with our heads...

i would add more protein than this (personally). Purees of veg and fruit are not filling at all ... and only 2 cubes ... my LO would eat the whole ice cube tray ... be guided by your LO tho' and when they clamp the mouth shut don't try to force it

Lentils, chicken, tofu, or cheesey mash, etc etc and finger foods ....

Have toyed with the idea of cleaning and sterilising a kitchen grouter and injecting purees direct.

But am well up for finger foods. Will get lentils and some chicken - should I do these as finger foods as well? Or more of a mash?

ah, then you can see where one book won't suit all babes.

purees are boring and a bit of fruit and veg wont fill him up

make a chicken and lentil stew and try that

or a chicken and veg soup with cubes of bread soaked in it (Pixies fave when she used to eat from a spoon )

that seems a tiny amoount of food - mind you my 8 month old is a GUZZLER

she never had purees though, went straight to lumps and finger food at 6 months

(Enid secretly notes the giving breakfast before morning bottle advice in the hope of getting pixie to eat more breakfast)

A big thank you to all. Little R loved his banana sticks and I dispensed with the spoon. He ate all his dinner with his hands, like little shovels and used his banana batons like drumsticks. They were more a plaything than food but he ate a few of them. He thus slept 7 til 7 - hurrah!

Making Lentil and chicken stew today. Fingers crossed.

Gave missus Desperate Housewives box set and bottle of wine and she slept like a baby too.

Thank you everyone.

awww hurrah! it's ok he's playing with his food. he'll just get better and better at actually eating it. have you got him a plastic bib with a pouch at the front to catch the food? then you can scoop it all out and give it to him again, and again, and again... it seems to take a while before they realise they can scoop the food out themself.

have fun!

hi there,

sorry to impose on your thread but im at my whits end with DD2 9months old and really will only eat yoghurt,pureed fruit and cheese!! is totally not interested in anything other than the above!!!!!!!aargh-help. She wont even open her mouth to try it-her mouth only opens when the yoghurt comes out! finger food hustgets thrown-DD1 was so much easierand i am seriously struggling to stay calm.

I am - after lots of kind advice on this forum - getting deeply cunning at persuading my S to eat all manner of things. He loves apple (grated, pureed, cooked, uncooked) but hates savoury. So, I alternate spoonfuls It always comes as a shock - but, tough, I say.

Also, put things you want him to eat in the actual yoghurt pots and maybe he'll be convinced. Worked with my god daughter.

Oh, and patience. It's a waiting game with my S sometimes.

Good luck, and keep us posted!