Hunger strike at six months!

[Louisakate]

Please has any one got any advice about why my six month old daughter might have stopped feeing. She has been bottle fed since birth and was in the process of being weaned when everything started to go wrong. First she started to refuse solid food, fair enough I thought, I know they go through phases, so I didn't force the issue. She was having huge milk feeds instead and so I wasn't worried. Then she started to cut the milk feeds down and now she hardly wants anything! She gets really cross and angry if I try to feed her solid food and she is really reluctant to have any milk. My son had a milk allergy at around the same time, and so I switched to a lactose free milk which really helped. I have been advised to do the same with Esther as she had been suffering from runny nappies and ecxema. So far this doesn't seem to be doing much good and she is waking more and more often at night for minimal feeds. Any ideas/suggestions would be gratefully recieved as I am getting towards my wits end!

How is she with finger foods?
she may just be getting fed up with other people poking spoons etc at her and wants to have a bit of control herself...
have you tried milk in a cup not a bottle?

The fact she's waking often at night for feeds, even if she only takes a little each time seems to indicate she does still want to eat so it's not really hunger strike. Does she cry / fuss / push the bottle away after a few oz at night, or just doze off?

She pushes the spoon away if I try to feed her solid food, she turns her haed away if I try to put a bottle in her mouth. Currently at night she takes three to four ounces, spits the bottle out and then goes back to sleep. It's almost as if she is hungry, but for some reason she doesn't want what I'm offering. I thought she was too young for finger food really, and I had only really just started weaning her.

Finger food fine from 6mo - steamed veg, toast, lumps of fruit - anything softish she can grab. More ideas here - there may be some mess!
If she gets on with it this is a fab book.

If the dairy-free formula isn't helping, is it worth trying a few different ones (Aptamil, C&G, SMA, Hipp etc) to see if there's one she prefers?

Thank you for replying, this is my first message on Mumsnet and I have to admit I was getting really worried. I will try letting her feed herself and see if that helps. Right from the word go with the weaning she wanted to hold the spoon herself, so maybe she was telling me something then. I don't mind mess, as long as they are enjoying themselves so I will go and have a look in the fridge and see what I can rustle up now. She had been really keen about solid food, but lumps weren't good, could that be a problem? I've tried to get her to drink from a cup too, but she wasn't interested in that either.

no worries!

Lumps are tricky for little ones to handle - really runny food is easy cause they just suck it off the spoon as if it were milk, and proper solids they can bite and chew are ok too, but when you start lumpy purees they try to suck them off the spoon like smooth ones and run into trouble...

With the cup just kind of casually leave it on the higchhair try (with 1cm milk in the bottom so not too messy if she upends it over carpet) and let her work it out.

I know they're a pain but I'd live with the small-but-frequent night feeds for the moment as it seems to be the only time she's getting much milk. Maybe make up smaller bottles so you don't waste too much. And make DH do some .

OK, we tried a new approach at tea time, much more laid back. She had what we were eating (a beef casserole) I didn't give her the meat but she had carrot, mash potato and gravy and peas (mushed up). For pudding she had tinned peaches and a little bit of ice cream. She pulled some wonderful faces and loved the peach! She did have trouble picking the carrot up because it was a bit soft, but I was surprised because when she did get it in her mouth, what she couldn't swallow just came back out again, she didn't really gag at all. I tried her with a cup at bed time and she started drinking from it but then got very cross so we swapped back to a bottle again. I'm going to try giving her water at meal times in a cup without a drinking spout (could be interesting!) and then give her milk feeds in a bottle, I will persevere with trying to get her to drink from a cup but I remember when Alfie (now 3 1/2) was this age it took ages to find one he was comfortable with. I feel quite refreshed to be honest, I'm going to give her here little feeds at night because frankly I don't have much choice if I don't want her to wake the rest of the family up, and I'm hoping that we might get a little more sleep at some point soon....watch this space! I looked at the website you suggested and it is really great, thank you and I would recommend it to anyone having problems with weaning. I feel a more laid back attitude is definitely needed and I'm going to give BLW a try!

glad to hear it's going so well!