Baby unimpressed by weaning attempts!

[SallyMischievo]

EBF DD is almost 6.5 months and I started to introduce solid foods a couple of weeks ago - baby rice and purees to begin with and moving on to finger foods such as lighted toasted soldiers of bread, cheese and cucumber sticks. Despite me being really upbeat and encouraging, she remains distinctly unimpressed with everything I offer and although she has tasted it, has barely consumed a spoonful or small piece of anything thus far! I have not yet noticed any change in her nappies either - should I be worried? Advice would be very gratefully received! Were there any 'breakthrough foods' that worked for you?

There's no rush! Milk will be her main food for a while yet - this is just experiments with taste and texture and throwing things at the wall. If she's completely uninterested, hold off for a couple of weeks and go again? It's a bit like toilet training - she'll be ready when she's ready!

I weaned my son in autumn, and he ate an awful lot of late raspberries, which turned his every garment pink and made him look like a vampire.

They are quite hard first foods. At 6 months I started mine on avocado, salmon, regular rice, banana, casseroles , soups, potato, creamed spinach.

Have you actually tasted baby rice? Tastes like wallpaper paste. Mine wouldn't have thought much of a raw carrot either I steamed them or then had in casserole etc

Oh but the still had milk more than food for ages. A meal would be say a few flakes salmon off my plate, a piece of sweet potato off dhs plate, and some veg to hold whilst we ate

Most babies really love sweet potato, either mashed on a spoon or sliced into wedges or thick medallions and roasted. But yeah no rush!

'Until they're one food is for fun.'
There are other things she's learning apart from swallowing - chewing, moving food around in her mouth, tasting different flavours etc
It can take a while. Don't worry. She'll get there

Don't worry at all. Milk is still the main nutrition at this stage. Your role is to introduce and offer new foods and not worry too much yet about how much they actually eat. Just keep offering a good range of foods and try to keep it fun without coercing your little one to eat in any way as that can put them off even more. I have had such a roller coaster ride with weaning but my DD is almost 9 mo now and eats like a little star now. I had to deliberately decide not to worry, just kept offering a good range of things and she just gradually started to eat it. Good luck!

Mine both loved sweet potato mash with spinach and ricotta cheese through it. They ate loads!

I've started ds on baby led weaning. Broccoli, sticks of cucumber (he only really scrapes the seeds off), avocado, chips , sweet potato wedges, soft carrot, plums, peaches, melon have all gone down well. He still looks confused at cheese, and toast gets toppings sucked off rather than actually eaten! Ebf babies are used to flavours coming through the milk, so don't be afraid to try stronger flavours. Easy finger food are those with a hard, grippy edge /rind/skin to hold on to, with a soft bit to suck/scrape off with their gums.

Dd1 loved sweet potato at that age (hates it now). She also loved porridge, courgette, banana and fruit yoghurt.
I never did purées but just went straight to finger food. Id say it took her a good month or two to get the hang of it but by 8.5 months she was eating a full roast dinner lol.

At 6 months our DD had cooked vegetables and cereals first (I gave her large pieces of broccoli, carrots, parsnip and potato plus red pepper - anything she could easily hold and chew on, plus thick porridge for breakfast - made it thick so she could hold the loaded spoon herself) then the next week having cried and gesticulated with her arms for the roast chicken that was on the table until I gave her some, she started having meat - mostly roast chicken as it's soft, but also casserole beef and lamb worked well, the 3rd week we introduced dairy, eggs and nuts (hazelnut butter, almond butter on toast etc) . She tried and sucked/gummed everything but didn't actually get enough inside her to begin having fewer breastfeeds till around 7-8 months. It wasn't till 9 months that she stopped breastfeeding during the day completely, and went down to one morning and one bedtime breastfeed. It does take a while for them to eat enough to reduce or stop milk feeds, but the more varied and interesting the food you offer, the better the result I think.

We were lucky we went on holiday in Italy for over 2 weeks when DD was 7 and half months and it was fully catered (a cycling holiday hotel - I went on the morning rides on alternate days so my husband could ride too). There we ate massive buffets every night so DD got to try many delights including wonderful seafood, various homemade pasta, soups, spinach pie, asparagus pie, artichokes, various other anti-pasti including salami, hams, courgette flowers, salads as well as exotic to us sea-foods like crayfish, a mixed seafood and meat paella, risotto, various deserts and her first taste of ice cream from the nearby Gelataria! This holiday of foodie delights was at 7.5 months and I think it really kick started her weaning - we went home after 17 days away and she never stopped eating after that!

We had lots of soft fruit and cooked veg - brocolli and sweet potato especially popular. Was worried anout choking with cheese sticks so gave grated instead.

Gourd i just got hungry reading your post

We started at 6 months on fruit and vegetables, she wasn't really bothered. She is 10 months now and has only just started eating anything substatial.

"Breakthrough foods" were probably roast chicken, strawberries, honey mangoes and calamari - deep fried protein is obviously a winner! DD now almost 5 and these foods are all still amongst her favourites!

Would suggest that high calorie foods and possibly protein are more attractive to babies - I suppose they just need energy, so watery vegetables without much sugar, such as cucumber may not be priorities for them. DD now loves salad leaves (although I suspect this is due to balsamic dressing) and will eat a whole plateful. However, without molars babies struggle to break up leafy greens into a small enough size that can be swallowed! Despite being able to drool freely they don't seem to be able to make enough spit to swallow dry things easily either and DD did struggle with crumbly Lancashire cheese (fine with the creamy variety of same cheese) and tended to chew then spit out. Don’t let that put you off offering any food though, as learning to taste different foods is important, but don’t be surprised if they chew for ages seemingly really enjoying the taste, but then then spit it out when they find they can't swallow it.

Reading mn gives a false impression of hoe varied weaning is. You get people posting their 7 month old "only" eats 3 meals when some perfectly healthy babies only get to 3 meals at 11 months!

My dd's poo if anything was wetter when she only just started weaning but firmed up by 7 months.
She only ate small bites till 7 months, by 8 months was on one small meal and at 9 is on 2. She doesn't always eat everything (babies don't).

HV and an NCT feeding counsellor both assured me she's well within the "norm" and that's why they say "food is fun till one".

Oh and some babies do eat a "full roast dinner" by 8.5 months but many most will not so don't worry about targets ... Honestly loads only get to 3 small meals by 10 months or so!

My DD didn't really start eating anything until 7 or 8 months. She just played with food before then (also EBF). I thought she'd never come off the boob. Then she gathered pace a bit and now (13 months) she eats like a horse and takes a bottle of 'good night' formula before bed plus boob. Total gannet.

Basically, I woujdnt worry. Let her have fun with textures and flavours, and she'll find her own way.

My DD was a nightmare to wean, and the subject of quite a few threads. She's now 14months and she eats a lot! she started eating tiny amounts at 11 months and really started to enjoy food about a month ago. Now she seems to always be eating, or pointing at the fruit bowl, fridge or kitchen presses!

Don't worry too much, my DS is 10 months now and amongst his peer group all of them are at such different stages. I really like the 'food is for fun until 1' mantra, it helps when there is a day when food is used to decorate the table, floor, walls, his hair etc!

Firm favourites here are full fat natural or Greek yogurt, that is guaranteed to go down, as are bananas (look up the banana trick). Also a breakthrough one for us was scotch pancakes (or drop scones). they are so easy to do and very,very easy to eat, they pretty much disappear!

Good luck OP, this weaning malarkey really dies take some patience

Yeah yogurt, avocado, weetabix, porridge and rice cakes are go-to favourites here. Dd still might eat some and throw more though!

Wow, thank you so much for all the wonderful advice - loads of suggestions to try! Thanks for the reassuring words too

PS Do I need to make mash, porridge and Weetabix using breast milk or is full fat cow's milk ok?!

Cows milk is fine in porridge etc but you can use breast milk if you prefer :-)
Every baby is so different. There also seems to be a common regression with eating around 10 months so don't panic if she seems to get the hang of it then it goes backwards a bit.
I'm gearing up to weaning dd2 and I'm sure she'll be completely different to dd1.

And not really sure the quote marks were necessary squizita. My dd1 has always been a really good eater which I know doesn't mean all babies will be the same, but yes she did eat a 'full roast dinner' on Easter Sunday with lamb, Yorkshire
Pudding, potatoes, broccoli and asparagus.

I wasn't doubting you at all. I was quoting as, well, I was quoting you!
I was just making it clear that while that is lovely it's actually quite advanced. So mums shouldn't worry at all if their babies don't do that kind of thing for ages. At the feeding playgroup I help with "but when will s/he eat a full meal?" is a huge source of worry for many, when the plain fact is only a few very good eaters eat a full dinner like that for a long time, so it's not a worry if they don't.

Apologies.