She doesn't eat anything!

[explodingbosoms]

I started weaning my 6 month old two weeks ago- a mix of finger foods and purees/baby rice. She is breastfed.

She'll often gobble up a bowl of baby rice, though sometimes she just turns her head away and/or makes a really grating whine of protest.
With the other foods, after an enthusiastic start she now seems to have lost interest. She'll have one bite of toast (she sucks the butter off though!), or a few gums on a piece of banana, or 2-3 teaspoons of puree. Hardly anything.

Meanwhile the HV is telling me to give her x portions of veg, carbs, protein a day. Well, you can take a horse to water and all that...

Our vague routine is
07.30 - Milk
08.00- Breakfast (today was 3 tsps of banana and some gumming/sucking on a piece of toast )
11.30- Milk
12.00- Lunch (eg 4 small tsps of mac and cheese and total disinterest in broccoli batons)
15.30- Milk
17.45- Dinner (baby rice- which is sometimes devoured, sometimes not- and a small beaker of breast milk to get her used to taking milk from cup)
18.45- Milk
19.00- Bed

She then has a dream feed, and a night feed too, so I'm quite keen to up the solids! She's already dropped a cluster feed around tea-time.

I'm not stressed about it, yet. But is it normal for babies to hardly eat anything? Any tips on upping her intake or should I just keep offering and go with the flow?

Yes it's entirely normal and your HV is an idiot. Your baby will still be getting what she needs from the milk. Have you tried BLW? Dd2 started off weaning really really well but then stopped. It was because the independent little madam didn't want us feeding her. Once given the chance she shovelled the food in, in any way she could. She used to known for sucking spag bol off her toes if she dropped any [yuck].

Perhaps she is not really hungry (especially at breakfast and lunch) having had milk shortly before. If you swapped the 11.30 milk for lunch and then topped up with milk after she has finished eating you may get a clearer idea of whether she is simply not particularly interested in food yet, or just not hungry.

ShinyandNew, that's hilarious! Seems the only way to avoid ruination of their clothes is to just feed them naked.

I think perhaps the independence thing could be one issue. Sometimes she'll make the grating whiny noise when I'm trying to feed her, but if I put the spoon down with some food on it, she'll pick it up (and stick it in her eye/on her head )

Problem is, with the BLW she doesn't seem to actually get much in her gob and into her tummy. She just sort of messes about, or bangs on the table and ignores the food.

Thanks for the reassurance that this is normal!

It took dd2 a while to manage to hone the spoon to mouth skill. It didn't take her that long to learn that it is quicker if you just shove your face in the bowl though

Perhaps you feed the first few spoons and let her do the rest? It's really just about learning about the different textures and tastes at this stage anyway.

It might also be worth trying only giving half the milk first or the food first and then the milk.

She's loving it a bit more now I'm letting her put the spoon in her mouth herself. Still only managing 2-3 spoons of savoury stuff and just nomming on finger foods, rather than properly eating them. I certainly wouldn't call what she's getting a "meal".

I'm now feeding her solids around an hour after milk, which seems to be helping slightly.

Patience is the key to this, I think.

Does anyone by any chance have any tips on proteiny/carby foods (finger or puree) that babies love?

Just wanted to say that it is so so early days, she is doing very well! DS is only starting to eat much food now (we're BLW)and he is 8.5 months. Their stomachs are so tiny at this stage, a few teaspoons can easily fill them up.
WRT proteiny/carby foods, I haven't met a baby yet who doesn't love pasta, just normal adult pasta as finger food, DS loves fusilli and spireli :)

My LO has been getting the hang of finger foods and likes cheese. Good protein there I think!

explodingbosoms - I just came on here to ask for advice about my DS & then saw your post, which sounds exactly our problem. He is 7 months + 1 week and for the past week or two he seems to have been eating less and less to the point where he hardly eats a thing. I wondered if it was because he wanted to feed himself but that can't be it because, like your baby, he devours he baby rice he is still having for tea.

When we first started weaning, I was doing the same as your morning/lunch routine, giving him his 11am feed, then trying to offer solids at lunch time. I realised he was probably just not hungry when I took no interest. Then I took some Gina Ford advice & started all over again, moving the solids to the 11am feed & offering some milk first, gradually reducing the milk over a few days. The idea is to eventually cut this milk feed, introduce some water and move the solids nearer a proper lunchtime, although we haven't got there yet! Have also tried a few finger foods but they mostly end up thrown around the room and he puts everything in his mouth except the food! Feeding takes at least an hour now & it's beginning to stress me out.

Re protein foods, I've made a few different combinations of chicken casseroles pureed - just different mixtures of chicken, veg & pulses cooked in enough water or homemade stock just to cover, then wizzed up. He did like those but seems to have gone off them. I tried some wizzed up bolognese but he didn't enjoy that, think it was the texture of the meat, it went really grainy when pureeed. He'll also eat caulifower cheese.

I don't think it would bother me if he was only having a few spoons as he is still only young, it's just that he started off having more & appears to have lost interest. He is only on the 9th centile - could that have anything to do with it?