Weaning - LO just sticks out his tongue when I try to give him food?!

[MummyGina]

So, my little dude is approaching 7 months now and I have been trying him mostly on puréed veggies from 6 months (minus a 5 days he had to go on antibiotics). My problem is that he will happily accept the spoon to his mouth (I would never force it) but then he just sticks out his tongue with the food on and won’t put it back in his mouth and try to swallow! He may scape it off with his hand then suck his hand or suck my finger with food on but that’s it 😕

It’s just getting me worried because there isn’t much progress. The one success I had was when I made him a fresh batch of butternut squash to try and gave him a little bit outside of his usual lunch time on his dads lap and he went mad for it... the next day I have him some of the exact same batch for lunch in his high chair... no dice sigh I then took him out and put him on my lap...still nothing other than a lot of mess! Now back to square one.

Anyone has a similar experience and how did you resolve it?

Thanks!

Sorry, I had to laugh. He sounds so sweet. You just have to keep trying and he'll get the hang of it.

He might just not be ready yet. Keep the mantra food is fun until they're one in your head. He can still get all he needs from milk at this stage. Have you tried giving him a piece of broccoli or soft carrot to play with in his high chair?

P. S food is really really messy at first!!

Try him with finger foods instead. You might find he prefers to self feed! Soft steamed veggies, toast, scrambled eggs, chicken etc are all good foods to start with.

Might be the tongue-thrust reflex. If you google it and think it sounds right, then he’s just not developmentally ready for solids yet. Unless your HV is worried about his weight, I’d give up on solids for a bit, and try again in a few weeks when he might be more ready for them.

Feeding is a grim and frustrating time.

The only answer is to relax and repeat “food for fun until they’re one”

But that’s so much easier said than done.

I couldn’t bear it with DD1 when she didn’t eat, but she’s now 4 and fine. DD2 goes for weeks eating fine, and the last 2 days has pretty much refused all food. She wouldn’t take purée off a spoon, but would take it if I offered it on my finger.....

You just have to keep trying and not get too down when more goes in the bin...........

Keep trying!

It’s such a frustrating time but it gets better. I just stopped having any expectations of them eating anything.

DS was like this as a baby. He's a happy 7 year old who eats fine now. I'd recommend this book www.amazon.co.uk/My-Child-Wont-Eat-mealtimes-ebook/dp/B00785YLYG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=my+child+won%27t+eat&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1523282218&sr=8-1

Finger food and lots of eating with you not on his own. He'll get there.

We baby led weaned both of ours and it was ace! No fuss, no bother... just give them what you're eating and let them get on with it!

Put a black bag on the floor first though!

Thank you for all your replies! I’m obviously not the only one whose had a tricky baby!

I did wonder if it could be the tongue thrust reflex but thought babies had generally outgrown that by now, and he seemed to know what to do that one time with the butternut squash... then he obviously forgot again! 😂

I may give some more finger foods a go, but I was kind of hoping to go the purée route... but I’m willing to be flexible! He has tried one of those first stage baby wafers which he seemed to think was fun, but when I offered his some cucumber once he was like “what the hell is this mum” haha

I can agree with the weaning being a messy business as well, already got some fantastic pics - as none seems to go in his belly, it goes everywhere else instead! Thank god I got a large splash mat when I got the high chair 😂

Oh and watch his nappies (I know not the best job). More maybe going in then you think, but you can tell by what comes out.

My conviction for battled weaning was totally sold when I realised at first they hardly digest anything. A lot of food comes out they same as it goes in. So they can't be getting much nutrition from it. I guess you just wouldn't notice this with puree.

The number of mum's who also seemed to struggle to then get there baby onto normal food. At lest we had skipped this part.