9 month old refusing to eat

[lotsofthingstolearn]

This is a very recent thing - until today whereby Ds has barely eaten anything-I am just looking for advice so I don't set up any bad habits- I accept he may just be having an off week.

He has been weaned on a variety of homemade and pouches with finger food. More pouches than homemade (Getting better at the not gagging but still not sure exactly how much goes in). Also a bit rubbish what to try-e.g breadsticks, toast, cucumber, organix puffs, wafer thin ham, rice cakes, watermelon

He has moved to the 7+ stuff and hasn't gone great but has still eaten it until the past couple of weeks . He will still eat the stage 1 stuff which is a mixture of sweet and savoury- eg peas, carrots and pears.

Has 70z of formula in am and before bed and 5oz in the afternoon

A lot has gone on recently 4 top teeth at once led to febrile convulsion, started nursery and had a cold.

So do I ignore and NOT give him something else hoping he will eat when he's hungry(today I tried 3 savoury and 2 sweet)

Is resorting to masking his food, stage 2 with a bit of stage 1 just adding to the problem or do I just let him have stage 1 as he is at least eating it (some of it).

Any advice much appreciated

He's 9 months in a week btw

More teething perhaps? Or sore throat/tonsilitis?

Both of mine would
Go off food even their most favourites when teething.

Perhaps try some calpol?

It doesn't sound like its the food you're offering but teething or something else.

Dd2 is a pretty good eater (11mo now) but has had her episodes of being off her food - sometimes it has become apparent why, such as a new tooth or constipation, but sometimes she'll just have an off day for no reason. Some babies can be slower to accept lumps and textures than others. Dd2 has pretty much only eaten homemade food (more because ds1 had severe feeding difficulties and so I went quite overboard with Annabel Karmel cooking with dd2 to ensure I would get at least one good eater!) but she still turns her nose up at a couple of dinners I've made that are too lumpy for her - I mix them with a defrosted cube of smooth carrot puree which she finds acceptable. I think it's best to go at your baby's pace and introduce textures slowly if needed. I would continue to mix textured with smooth if he finds that okay to eat. If he's feeling poorly he might not eat a lot for a couple of days but that's okay. Does he like yoghurt? Dd2 has to be feeling pretty poorly to refuse an Ella's Kitchen fromage frais!

Best finger foods that dd2 likes:
banana
breadsticks
buttery toast fingers
toast fingers with cheese spread / flavoured Philadephia (chive one is popular)
cucumber sticks (with skin removed - she loves these but spits lumps out)
strawberries
raspberries
whole plums (I take a bite out of them first)
pieces of melon
nectarines
toasted tea cakes
pasta

Just come out the other side of this, twice in the past month. It should only last a day or two. I think it is teeth - a paediatrician friend told us that if she is teething then quite possibly her whole jaw aches even though it's not a molar.

Keep offering food, don't stress about replacing meals with milk and offer lots of finger foods. Chilled banana and apple slices are a good one. If it's nice and firm, it won't go squishy too quickly and they can gnaw rather than mush. Just watch him and don't leave him by himself.

He'll eat when he is hungry (how hungry would you be with an achy mouth and a headcold), just keep the liquids up at the normal times.

Vis texture, I wouldn't revert right back to Stage 1 but you could make his food closer to S1 than S3? Frozen peas are good for adding some interest but still sweet and tasty. Annabel K does a 3 cheese sauce which is nice with peas and baby pasta. Never known DD2 (10 mo) or DD1 (3) to turn it down. You can add tiny bits of broccolli and chopped carrots too

Thanks everyone, he's been at Granny's this morning and eaten "Ok" for lunch- not refused but not eaten what he normally does.

Tonight for tea I decided to do all finger foods and he has demolished it- ham, pitta and cream cheese, mango finger, water melon finger with a full pouch of fruit.

So I am feeling much better about it, he's been brighter this afternoon also.

DP and I just chatting and it may well be that he is forcing us to do the BLW thing for all meals....could be interesting as I really can't cook and dinner for us usually involves the contents of a jar which he obviously can't eat because of the salt content.....mmmmm

I've also got a friend whose DS absolutely refused stage 2 textured food and went straight to lumpy stage 3 type things....I am going to try that as an option also- it's worth a try I think.

We weaned dd at nearly 6 mo on pureed food, which she took to very well. When she was 7-8 months old we tried moving on from pureed food to the 7+ jarred stuff and stuff we made ourselves, lumpy but not solid. She hated it and point blank refused to eat it. At a loss as to what to do, I asked the HV who said to just give her the same as what we were having. Family meals. The same stuff as ds, just turned 2 at the time, was eating. So that's what we did. Cut out all the jars and just gave her normal food and she loved it. She's not looked back since. I don't know why we didn't do it sooner, as that's what we did with ds!

Now, on a typical day, she'll eat:
Porridge or weetabix or some other cereal, plus milk for breakfast

Fish or chicken with mash or potato letters and some veg, plus milk and yoghurt for lunch

Curry or stew or chilli or even just sandwiches, plus milk and yoghurt for tea

Cereal plus milk for supper

It sounds like a lot but she only has small portions!

My suggestion would be to stop with the mashed or pureed food and just give your ds whatever you're eating (unless of course it has a high salt or fat content, or is too spicy). Cook it enough so that it's not too hard, and chop it into bitesize chunks, that're small enough to fit in his mouth but large enough for him to chew, and (according to my HV) he should swallow it easily.

Just a quick message to say my DD was purée feed/finger foods until around 9mo when she started spoon refusing. She goes mental if you put the spoon anywhere near her (though happy to hold spoon and have a go herself!). Since then I have offered finger foods only. 4/5 weeks on and she eats like a horse - yes it takes longer, but she gets so much enjoyment out of it. Spaghetti is her favourite, she sucks it up really easily.

Hope you find something that works. I did some research when my DD went through this and 9mo is a common age for spoon/food refusal. My mum even said me & my siblings all started refusing the spoon at this age.