Baby regressing rather than progressing with feeding....any advice please?

[Iona1651]

My 8 month old baby was doing fine with eating. She had porridge in the morning, (around 7 or 8am) then a jar of baby food (cauliflower cheese/Sunday dinner etc) followed by a pudding (apple and baby rice/banana and custard etc) at lunchtime (1 or 2pm) and then the same about an hour before bed (6 or 7pm). She also had during the day around 450 to 600ml of milk over 3 bottles (sometimes 2 bottles but was still producing plenty of wet nappies so I wasn't too worried). However, she has this week decided not to eat any main course at all. She's now having porridge (from a spoon and is happy with that) (sometimes ready made Heinz porridge, sometimes Heinz 7month on berry porridge with soft bits in). However, she will only have maybe a spoonful of main then she seals her mouth shut and turns her head. She will have some pudding sometimes but hasn't eaten much at all this week. She's not ill and is fine in every other way, sleeping, nappies, playing etc. Tonight I fed her a couple of spoonfuls of main while in her bouncer rather than her highchair and then put her in her highchair and ended up squeezing a pouch straight into her mouth which she accepted, but this was a pudding! She also had a Petit Filous so I'm sure she's full for tonight. I've given her toys to play with to distract her in her highchair but she still won't have it. Sorry for the long post - thanks for reading and any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'll be back on tomorrow evening when she's in bed to see what (if any) advice any of you have - fingers crossed! x

Perhaps teething?

If not, what is she like with finger food? Maybe she wants to feed herself?

I've never weaned a baby on purees, but maybe given her age she's not that interested in the pureed foods and wants to get more independent. Have you tried giving her things like broccoli? Have you tried loading the spoon with puree and giving it to her to hold?

Also, that seems lots of food for an 8 month old. You really don't need to worry if she wants to scale it back for a bit and up the milk.

Maybe she's showing her preference for sweet foods? She will learn very quickly that if she refuses, mummy will give her something else.
Babies are really good at getting what they want!

Is it worth giving her things to pick from, so cubes of cheese, some peas, banana slices, cucumber sticks, bread cut into fingers etc. She might find if more 'distracting' so eat more?

My 9month old DD is more inclined to sweet things then savoury but I have a few things that I do which gets a lot more of her mains into her when she's being particularly fussy.

1. I find that DD is a lot more forthcoming to her mains when she has something (food) in her hands. She likes toast, organix carrots puffs, rice cakes, carrots and broccoli, banana, pasta etc. DD will normally have a chew on something in her hand and then happily open her mouth for some food.
2. if she's not very forthcoming to the above i try a couple of mouthfuls of pudding (which she will ALWAYS open her moth for) and then sneak in a spoonful of mains repeating all the while in a way which she doesn't know is next. Does your LO like finger food? DD has come on leaps and bounds in her eating since she has got the hang of this and there's no really a lot that she won't eat now. I hope this helps?

Hi all.

It does sound a lot of food for an 8 month old but she isn't fat (she doesn't have much of a tummy), I weighed her last week and she is 8.95kg with her clothes on, 73cm long. (Does this sound 'normal'). DD does have finger foods such as rice cakes, slices of banana, cut up and peeled grapes etc. I've also given her the spoon with puree on it to play with but she's never put it in her mouth - yet. I'll try the spoon of pudding followed by a spoon of main, see how that goes. Thanks for the advice. x

She sounds fine, I'm sure your HV would tell You if they had concerns about her weight or being 'fat!' My DD can pack the food away, I swear she has hollow legs but everyone has told me you cannot over feed a baby at this age, they will take what they want and need. Go with it, she will tell you what she needs! you are doing a brilliant job!

Thanks Lovebugs85. I was starting to doubt myself being a good mum! Weaning has been the hardest thing I've come up against so far - I'm sure there will be many, many, more things way more difficult as time goes on. Today my DD had some porridge but then refused so I loaded some onto her spoon and gave it to her to play with. She didn't eat it, just messed everything up with it! She then had her bottle and a long sleep after playgroup. When she woke, around 3pm she had a pouch which I squeezed into her mouth (a savoury one) and which she opened her mouth for and ate a fair bit of it. I then gave her some corn snacks and a large slice of peeled apple - all which she chomped away at for ages. She then had about half a bottle around 5pm. Just before bed she had some more of a savoury pouch and most of a pudding (I tried the spoonful of pudding, spoonful of dinner which she gagged at but then swallowed!) and finished her bottle so I'm fairly confident she's full for tonight - fingers crossed she'll sleep as I'm shattered tonight (sinusitis, followed by sickness bug at the weekend followed by my period this week - lovely)! Thanks again, I don't often get to go on this site but everyone is so helpful and reassuring when advice is needed. xx

Glad today seems to have gone well.

When I said it seemed a lot of food I didn't mean you were overfeeding her or that she was fat. Just that she might not be ready for that much of her calories to be food and she might want more milk and less solids for a bit.

Yes, we've had a few good meals. Toast is being consumed as I type this. Yesterday I cooked sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, broccoli and cauliflower. For tea last night she sat and played/ate it for ages so will try again tonight. Lunchtime yesterday consisted of banana, apple, tomato, grapes, avocado, again which she seemed to enjoy picking up.

PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom - I didn't take it the wrong way so don't worry - there isn't any tone to text written down - so don't worry. All your comments and advice are valuable to me. It's my first child so everything is new to me and ANY advice/comments are very welcome regarding all the hurdles I will come up against!