Weaning frustration

[febbabies2023]

Baby is 9m old and on 3 meals a day (has been for about 3 weeks or so)

To start with she was a great eater - would eat anything I put in front of her whether it BLW or purée.

We naturally seemed to fall into purée feeding probably because of my own fears.

I was making all of her own food. Pretty much just giving her what we had for lunch / dinner just appropriate for her

I gave her pouches when we were out or if I was super short on time etc

But the last few days / week she will not eat anything unless it's come out of a pouch! I've tried making it smoother, lumpier, a similar proportion of what's in the pouches but she's just not having it. Every mealtime feels like a battle.

I don't want to feel like I'm going backwards and I do find weaning extremely stressful so if anyone has any kind words of wisdom / advice, I'm all ears

She's on 4 bottles a day - routine is somewhat like

6:00 - bottle
7:30 - breakfast
9:30 - bottle
11:30 - lunch
2pm - bottle
4:30 - dinner
6:30 - bottle

She's fine with these timings to eat... as long as it's a pouch. Help.

Presuming all's ok with weight, dirty and wet nappies etc then I'd continue to be giving a choice of things and not worry if they don't eat it. Mine will always eat yoghurt if he doesn't like what I've made?

Also is she eating directly from the pouch or are you putting it onto a spoon first? You can get refillable pouches but don't know if you'd want to be doing that for any length of time.

Food before 1 is just for fun and they should be getting the vast majority of their calories from their milk so try not to worry too much about how much is being eaten. Easier said than done I know!

@Tillytilly5 oh her weight is fine, she's 98th centile 😂
No I put it on a spoon first, she's not fussed if it's hot or cold but she definitely gets excited when she sees the pouch bless her!
Whilst I know it's just for fun, I know it's also about teaching them to eat etc and I'm not fussed if she doesn't eat a lot, but I would like her to at least attempt it 😂
I hated weaning with my first too right

Can you make it so she doesn't see the pouch? So either give her home cooked food in a bowl, or squeeze the pouch into a bowl before you feed it. Kids at that age have short memories so hopefully she'll soon forget about the pouch part and just eat things from the bowl regardless of their origin.

I'd also say that's quite a lot of milk, which is probably fine from a health/nutrition point of view but may mean she isn't very motivated to try with food. Mine were only having about 4-5 oz first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon at that age, with big feeds before bed.

Finally, solidarity! I hated weaning both times with my two despite having fairly happy eaters!

It's so hard isn't it! And phases of only wanting one thing can be so annoying when you know they used to eat it and liked it!
Mine is obsessed with bananas at the moment, I'm sure it will be his first word!

Reusable baby pouches might work.

9r just go pouch cold turkey and offer what you want to offer. Baby will learn!

@CoalCraft I do try to make sure she doesn't see it but she's definitely at that 'joined at my hip' phase shouting mama at me the second im out of sight 😂
I would be expecting her to drop a bottle about now, but because she's not eating enough at breakfast (her worst meal time) she's getting hungry and I'm having to give her a bottle etc and if I only gave her 5oz or such she'd be shouting at me for more so it ends up in a vicious cycle if that makes sense!
God I hate weaning like she will eat anything I put in front of her in terms of flavour etc but she's being a pain. I remember my first being a nightmare too and he's still picky at 3 🙃

@Tillytilly5 haha aww! She did eat half a banana today for breakfast so that's something. My 3 year old is still obsessed with bananas, for a while he would wake up and his first words would be 'I want a nana' 🫣

@KCSIE yeah I thought about trying to reusable ones. She's due to start nursery in 2/3 weeks though and they get their hot meals in fresh and blend or whatever as appropriate so I'm trying to avoid it

So tricky

While ago with weaning but I think I use to make a fruit/oat smoothie which I would share with my daughter. Both her and her brother also use to pinch their Dad's porridge!!
Both were breastfeed, DD stopped about 9 months and DS about a year so were eating a lot of solid food by that stage. Pouches occasionally when out but mainly home food.
Might work at nursery with everyone else eating around her to encourage her to eat more solid food!!

Pouches are made to be sweet so the baby enjoys it. Realistically, why would a baby sit and eat just broccoli when a pouch is so much sweeter? I would stop with the pouches