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?

Sorry half asleep night feed reaction. I know what you mean.
Dd1 is an absolute grubber and always has been. I think baby led weaning helped but it's probably just her indivuduality. She still eats ridiculous amounts compared to other children her age but seems to have hollow legs at the moment as she's a skinny little rake.

Dd2 is such a terrible feeder with milk that I'm praying she is good with solids.

Dd1 did pretty much stop eating solids at 10 months and started throwing food instead of eating it which I'm led to believe is quite a common 'phase'.

I know my friend's dd1 took to solids very quickly at 4 months whereas her dd2 wasn't interested even at 6 months and now at 8 months still isn't too fussed. It's definitely dependent on the baby.

You are being quite ambitious I think. My daughter is 11 months and still can't manage toast or cucumber. I wanted to blw but she wasn't interested so she had purées for a while (home made and Ella's). We then introduced finger foods. She now loves soft fruit like strawberries, banana and avocado and things like cheese. She's not an enthusiastic eater and I won't make mealtimes a battleground (as I was the same and they were during my childhood). Some babies will have a go at everything but others are less interested in food.

I spent weeks stressing over the fact that DS wasn't eating anything when everyone else the same age was woofing food down.

He would refuse spoons. Was uninterested in finger food. Every time we had a success he'd take a step backward and not do it again.

It was soul destroying.

It was only when I stopped getting so worked up about it, that I found it easier. DS was perfectly happy what ever.

In the end I make sure he gets vitamins, try and make sure eating is fun and not a battle ground, and tried for little victories every day rather than 3 meals.

Its only in the last fortnight that a routine has formed and we'd graduated to 3 meals a day. This has been as he finally 'got' spoons and stopped refusing them (after a couple of weeks of a tiny bit of nutella to bribe him into it!!!).

At nine and a half months we are finally on
1 yoghurt for breakfast
1 fruit or 2/3 of a jar puree pouch
1 attempt at finger food (normally bread or similar though he has a thing for pizza!) a day.

He is still rubbish with veg, and won't touch puree but will eat savoury things such as pizza.

We are getting there slowly. I wish I'd not read half the bollocks I have on weaning as all it did was make me worry. DS is very happy and healthy, putting on weight at the correct weight and oh yeah he took his first steps last week so there can't be too much wrong.

In short, don't stress it. Go at your own pace. They'll get there.

I found different spoons can help. My dd prefers flat ones from Ikea for food like mash or avocado - or some almost triangular shaped ones (very narrow) from poundland for pouches, porridge etc.

My dd took to solids like a duck to water and weaned really easily, eating a varied and healthy diet from 6 months.

My ds was a completely different story. He was also weaned from 6 months but would just sit in his highchair launching himself at me with an open mouth to give him a breastfeed. All he would eat was bread or porridge (but only for breakfast). I just kept offering him food at mealtimes and one day aged 10 months we had chicken and leek risotto for tea and he couldn't get enough if it, he even licked his highchair tray clean! That was our breakthrough moment, after four months of him eating not very much at all. He has gone on to eating a varied diet, really enjoys his food and eats lots of it. At 17 months he still breastfeeds at night, whereas his sister self weaned at 15 months, but he no longer asks for it during the day.

We weaned dd and ds onto whatever we were eating, so to be honest I wasn't really keeping track of what we had or had not tried. But our diet includes fish, vegies, grains, pulses, pasta, rice, potatoes and meat once or twice a week. We eat a lot of soup, which I used to load on to strips of toast for the babies.

So don't worry!