Weaning should I be worried

[Couldntthinkofausername24]

I put a thread on a few weeks ago about weaning but can't seem to find it.

My little one has just turned 7 months old and I dread every meal time. I first started giving him about 6 ice cube of pureed veg which seemed to work. Now I've started to introduce 3 meals he just won't eat hardly any. Anything remotely lumpy or finger food he chucks it all up. A normal day goes like this

Breakfast - the tiniest bit of baby porridge he can just about stomach or is sick. I've tried weetabix and normal porridge, finger food wise I've tried omelette and toast

Dinner i will attempt to feed him pureed veg Ive made or ellas kitchen pouch with a bit of pureed veg. Normally half a pouch of eat

Tea as above

Some days he will wolf the whole lot down for one meal only. 99% of meals he will spit out or refuse to open his mouth. Smack the spoon out of my hand etc. He's still drinking 5 x 8oz bottles a day and is thriving. He's almost 10kg so he's a big lad

I stagger everything. Currently do something like this
5am - 8oz
7am - Wake up and top up about 4oz
8am - breakfast
1045 - 8oz
1200 - dinner
1445 - 8oz
1700 - tea
1900 - 8oz

Am I worrying over nothing. I'm convinced he's going to grow in to an 18 year old and only eat pureed veg haha

My health visitor told me to make him eat finger food or else I'll miss the boat and he will have problems later in life,

Thanks guys.

No you shouldn’t be worried. He’s only been eating for 4 weeks. I did purée food with both of mine for a couple of months at least and did offer finger food which was usually lobbed on the food. Both my kids eat all sorts of stuff now at 4 and 19
Months.
I boob fed so unsure of milk quantities in bottles but 36 oz seems like a lot- is that the ‘right’ amount?

If he's having 12oz within 2 hours in the morning then he won't have much room for food. Is he looking for milk at 7am or could you do breakfast instead?
At 7 months he doesn't really need 3 meals and he maybe won't eat much while still taking a high quantity of milk. You could try reducing the 2 daytime bottles by an ounce or 2 to see if that increases the solid intake although he is still quite young so depends how you feel about doing that.

Oh thank you. Sorry I should have said I make him 8oz but he may only drink 6 or 7. Could he maybe not be hungry? I'm finding weaning really hard

The amount of milk sounds like an awful lot to me.
When my DD, who is now 11 months but was a nightmare to wean, started on 3 meals a day she then only had 3 7oz bottles.

Our routine went like this:
7am 7oz
8 ish breakfast
11.30 lunch
3pm 7oz
5pm dinner
6.45 7 oz

To start with I would offer her a little bit of milk before lunch but she soon dropped it. It sounds like he’s filling up on milk.

Could you try less milk and see how he goes? It’s all trial and error!

Thanks @dementedpixie I might try that. I'll knock him down to 5 or 6oz and try it. Is food really important and his age

I would try and cut out the 7am milk and maybe offer a breakfast of food at 7.30am.

They do say that milk is more important before the age of 1, and 7 months is still very young so please don’t worry. I think at 7 months I was only trying 2 meals.

Maybe try 2 meals and a slightly lesser amount of milk. A minimum of 20oz is recommended alongside meals from 6 months. Try the breakfast instead of a top up of milk

My DD was a huge milk monster and despite doing well eating was still on 5 bottles at 9 months! Do you eat with him? Have you tried sharing your food? That can help. Is he a bit hungry by the time he gets to the meals? I used to do milk 30-45 minutes before food so she wasn't too hungry and wouldn't get frustrated at having to chomp away at whatever I'd dished up.

A lot will argue food isn’t important from 6-12 months but I personally disagree to some extent. 6-12 months is the prime time to get them introduced to flavours & textures. It can become problematic if you don’t get them used to it at an age they generally eat everything & anything!

They need 18oz milk a day at 6 months. Obviously more is fine & 7 months is still young. So def don’t stress. But also don't give up. I def think he’s potentially just not hungry & throwing it up cos his belly is just full of milk! Most babies are very receptive to food and put anything in their mouths!

My DD is 6.5 months & on medical advice we’ve been weaning since 4.5 months. So we are a bit ahead of the game. She has a 6oz bottle between 5am-7am. Then breakfast at 8-9ish. I offer 6oz at 11am but she has about 3oz usually. Lunch 12-1 (I’m only offering a light lunch, things like toast & hummus, cucumber, grated cheese, cooked carrots, mini egg muffins, it mostly ends up on the floor!) Milk at 3ish, tends to have 3/4oz. Tea is around 5pm. I spoon feed tea. Purees of our meals & DD loves Greek yoghurt & fruit purée! I offer a bottle at 7pm bedtime but she often refuses as she fills up at teatime! If she doesn’t have that bottle, she’ll wake about 11pm for a bottle & drink 6/7oz.

This is my second, so I’ve got lots of hindsight.. my first ate everything under the sun until 2 years old & now is mega fussy. So I just don’t have the energy to overly worry. They’ll all get there, I hated all veg except carrots as a child until I was 18 & I’m now veggie and love them 😂

It sounds like he is doing really well. 7 months is early to be on 3 meals a day. Remember to offer food about 60 mins after milk so he’s not hangry. Milk should be his main source of nutrition for a long time yet. Just keep telling him explore food and he will get there.

Is he teething? This often puts babies off food.

His first tooth came last week and hes constantly got a red cheek. Wonder if another is in the way. I will stick to the schedule for now but lower each bottle by an oz or two so hes still having around 25oz a day. X

Sometimes I feel really useless because I just can't master it. Should I go back to eating two meals a day? Which two meal times should it be. It sounded so simple until I had to do it. X

@Couldntthinkofausername24

Sometimes I feel really useless because I just can't master it. Should I go back to eating two meals a day? Which two meal times should it be. It sounded so simple until I had to do it. X

I was going to suggest this - it shouldn't be stressful for you or baby and there's no need for three meals until 9 or 10 months. It doesn't really matter which meals you do so just pick what's easiest for you. We did breakfast (normally porridge which I would feed him and some fruit for him to feed himself if he wanted) and a mid afternoon meal - again I'd do something to spoon feed him with something in the side so, for example, a bowl of chunky soup with some toast fingers for him to dip/suck. Doesn't matter if they don't eat much, particularly at this stage. DS ignored all finger food until about 9 months (although I always offered it) and then overnight, he became a demon at feeding himself!

Also please ignore your HV and don't 'make' him eat anything he doesn't want to! That's terrible advice!

Going back to 2 meals a day is probably a good idea.

I find teeth often come in symmetrical pairs but a couple of days apart.

Offer him solids first instead of milk. So at 7am offer porridge, then milk. Offer puree at 11am and then milk. Then offer puree about 3pm and then milk. I wouldn't worry too much at this stage about the times fitting regular meal times.

Thanks so much guys. You've made me feel so much better. I have serious anxiety about him having anything he can choke on. I know that's no good for baby but I am seriously working on my fears. Ill go bsck to two meals for now and give him chance to get used to that rather than throwing everything at him x

I was the same at this point of weaning. My little girl hardly ate anything and I felt it was pointless and I was doing it wrong.
I did find I had to cut down her milk before she would eat anything.
If she had milk after 10am she wouldn't have lunch and if she had a bottle after 2pm she wouldn't eat dinner.
I found that at about 12-13 months she suddenly changed and started eating a lot more food and different types too. I was convinced she never would but it just sort of happened.

Don't feel useless, weaning is a minefield! You have to do what works for you and your baby. There is so much mixed advice out there re number of solid meals a day and how much, baby led or spoon fed etc. If you feel it is appropriate, cut down one meal until you feel DS is doing 'better'. For us, we cut down one milk feed per day by extending feed windows to every 4/5 hours instead of 3 hours. We also dropped each bottle by an ounce when we added an extra meal. He seems happier to eat in the morning so I ensure we experiment with tastes and textures in the morning. He typically has half a puree pouch for lunch and a picky tea. Today for example a bit of falafal, veg muffin, chicken strips and peach pieces. Most of it does end up on the floor still but is giving him experience of finger food slowly. Also, nap times have to taken into account so you may have utterly different eating times to other mums. I now politely nod when people talk about their excellent eaters. Great, but not all babies will get it straight away. And I reckon that is fine too. Good luck!

@Couldntthinkofausername24

Thanks so much guys. You've made me feel so much better. I have serious anxiety about him having anything he can choke on. I know that's no good for baby but I am seriously working on my fears. Ill go bsck to two meals for now and give him chance to get used to that rather than throwing everything at him x

I totally get the anxiety but it's also important that he gets used to have solid food in his mouth - gagging (which is what happens a lot) is totally normal and an important developmental stage. If you know that you're only feeding him soft food and safe finger foods (eg no whole grapes/nuts, no small pieces of raw carrot etc) then he'll be perfectly safe as he explores how to eat. In terms of finger foods, ripe bananas, ripe avocados and steamed sweet potato all work well and are soft enough not to get stuck.

I hate the gagging they do, it freaks me right out but it is important they eat ‘solid’ food. Start with really melty things. If you are really anxious, buy the kiddikicious or Ellas Kitchen or supermarket own baby snacks. They literally melt in the mouth. There are wafers, carrot sticks crisp things that look like wotsits, baby rice cakes.. they are a good start! And things like toast, cucumber, melon, cook carrot sticks, sweet potato chips, grated cheese .. these all just melt and don’t require much chewing! Toast can be a bit gaggy if they bite too much off but generally not. You can make porridge fingers - oats & milk & cinamon or mashed banana (or both!).. mix & pop in the microwave. They form a sticky kinda finger that dissolves easily in the mouth! Or make banana pancakes - just eggs & banana! Also just melts away!

Try not to worry OP! With my eldest he wouldn't accept food until he was about 10 months old. In hindsight now I 100% see that I personally stressed too much about it and he definitely felt it. I got too obsessed with him having his meals, when the actually say that food before 1 is "just for fun". I'd say take a step back and again.... and I bet you he'll become more interested!
It will get easier 🤗

I would drop the 4oz top up in the morning and go back to just one or two solid meals. We started at 6 months and added one meal a month when we felt DD was ready. It sounds totally daft but I think they can also pick up when you’re stressing about them eating/gagging and they pick up a lot from your facial expressions, so try to relax and give lots of smiles and praise (I know easier said than done!!). Maybe a paediatric first aid course would help too?
Things like avocado, broccoli and sweet potato are great soft finger foods. Weaning is really stressful but like others have said, it does get easier! In no time he’ll be munching away

Thanks again you guys. Baby has woke up full of a cold today after waking every 30-60 mins in the night so ill probably give today a miss and just keep him well hydrated. We reallt wanted to do a first aid course but then bloody covid happened. A helpful health visitor I spoke to said choking isn't very common at all unless you feed baby foods that can cause choking like grapes etc. X

Echo what others have said re milk but thought I would post as my timing were identical to yours.

I would take each of those 8 ounce down to 6 ounce straight away, and get rid of the 7am completely. As soon as I did that eating improved almost immediately.

Next to go was the 10.45 and that was replaced with snack, not until a few months in to eating though. Then I dropped the afternoon bottle and did snack.

She's now on a cup of milk four ounce before bed and four ounce on waking. The morning one could go but it's more a lifestyle thing here. We have hot drink or milk first thing, breakfast at 7.30 to 8ish. Her dad works on farm so it means they can eat together then.

They are all different though, but as I say your timings same as mine.