Refusing Food

[laineylocke]

my 8 month girl has started refusing food. It started 3 weeks ago when she was poorly, which later turned out to be an ear and throat infection. She is now better but screams at the mear sight of her food bowl. She seems happy to have cereal, yoghurt and bread but any type of veg, chicken, fish etc mixed she just sees it coming at lunch and diner and screams - often won't even try it!
she is teething, could this be related?
she is waking at night hungry, and will not settle for day-time sleeps cause she is hungry.
Health visitor has suggested waiting till she gets really hungry but it makes no difference.
Has anyone else had a similar problem?
she used to love her food and ate anything she was given!

Thanks
LL x

Could be the teething, if she is eating certain foods why not just offer her these? As long as she's still taking all her milk she should be fine, as children under a year old get all their nutritional requirements from milk anyway. Don't force her to eat, she will probably get her appetite back! I had similar situations with DS when he was little, he'd go through phases of eating a lot or just not being interested, I remember when he first learnt to crawl he wasn't interested in food at all, he had something much more exciting to occupy his time!

It's important not to make a big deal out of this, especially if she is already screaming when you offer her certain foods. She could still be in pain from the throat infection and finding it hard to swallow some foods? What about offering her more bottles if she still seems hungry? This might be easier for her if she's feeling unwell?

What about finger foods? How does she cope with a blanched carrot stick she can hold in her hand and suck? might be worth a try?