7 month old baby not interested in food...

[icurgnmum]

Hello, I'm new, but hoping someone on here will be able to offer me some advice / help as I'm so stressed out over weaning. My daughter is 7 months (and one week)! old, started weaning at 6 months. She was exclusively breastfed until then, never took a bottle. Tried the traditional home made puree route - she wasn't having a bar of it. Tried Ella's kitchen purees, finally she would take something, but having achieved a state where she'll eat a reasonable amount of only 3 flavour of this, or any sweet thing, we seem to have stopped. She's not really bothered about food at all. I was advised by HV that I was giving her too much milk and to cut out feeds in order to make her hungry in order to motivate her to eat. Also have been told to give vitamin drops. She detests these and it has been very difficult to get the foul tasting liquid into her, so I haven't been bothering. Questions I have are - 1) do I need to give vitimin / iron supplement? She's having 4 or 5 feeds from me a day, I'm not prepared to drop any more. I am taking pregnacare supplements and have a good diet. 2)i'm now offering her breadsticks, pasta shapes, carrots, cucumber, rice cakes, toast etc every meal time - I put it on the table and let her do exactly as she pleases with it all (so it all goes on the floor) - is this a good idea? 3) For those of you who are BLW if I choose to go more for this route can I be confident that she'll be eating before I go back to work (when she's 1 year old)?? Sorry - bit of a rant... it's just all my peers are shovelling in the puree and having no issues, and my child seems to be the only one who isn't interested. I'm sure she'll get there eventually it's just that I'm scared I'll end up with a child who only wants to breastfeed at a year old, which will be somewhat problematic given that I will be returning to work 12 hour shifts. Any advice welcome. Thanks.

Just remebered a really disgusting recipe that DS likes spread on toast- couldn't bring myself to spoonfeed him it!...

Nigella suggests mixing chicken livers with dried soaked apricots and a slice of bread (that has been soaked in milk).

Soak liver in milk then fry in butter. Then puree 2 apricots to each liver along with the bread. About 4-5 livers would be right I guess but can't remember the exact ratio to bread.

I then passed through a sieve to make it smooth. Sounds gross but will be very high in iron and is a bit like pate!

It froze well in icecubes and I defrost 1 cube per slice of toast. yum yum

addictedtofrazzles - you're talking out of your arse. 4 breastfeeds a day is not going to fill up a baby to the point where they are refusing solids and the iron in breastmilk is more easily absorbed than any food source. The vitamin C and lactoferrin aid in iron absorption. There is also protein in breastmilk.

Baby's supply of iron does NOT run out at 6 months, this is roughly when it starts to deplete.

Adding iron supplements can interfere with the way the iron in the breastmilk is absorbed - resulting in less iron being taken.

See www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html

icurgnmum - as I said above, your LO will take to solids in their own time and will drop feeds when she is ready. IMO 4 breastfeeds a day is too few for a 6 month old. My 10 month old has more than that and is on 3 meals a day (BLW).

Well I disagree with you Jem - DS1 would eat anything put in his way (milk and solids) and DS2 WILL NOT feed unless he is hungry (only 12 weeks so obviously we haven't started solids yet). If I feed him less than four hourly, he just will not take a bottle. So all children are different.

If a baby is full on milk, and needs to be hungry to feed well, then frequent milk feeds are not going to encourage a baby to take solids. The OP's baby is 7 months old and at an age where one should be encouraging solids as the main source of nutrition, not milk. Of course BM is an important component of the baby's diet but at this age it no longer needs to be the main component.

OP - could you try cutting down the time you feed at each feed so that the milk takes the edge off her hunger, and then offer the solids? Also, my DS really needed something in his hands to entertain the idea of eating well (usually a kitchen utensil!). I am not sure what structure you had to your feeding but at 7 mo, my DS was:

7am: 6-8oz milk
8.30am: porridge + fruit (made with 2oz milk)
9-10: sleep
10.00: finger food snack + water (perhaps you could offer a small bf here?)
11/11.30: lunch (this moved closer to 12pm by 12 months)
12.30-2.30 sleep
2.30 6-8 oz of milk
4pm: snack water (again, could you offer a small bf?)
5pm: tea
6.30-7pm: 6-8 oz and bed!!

I hope things start to improve - weaning is stressful!!!!

Thanks - clearly some differences in opinion here! - as regards the number of BFs - I was still doing 8 per 24 hours when first began weaning, however I think the frequency of this was largely due to dd being unable to take large feeds when she was tiny,due to reflux, and then getting into habit of feeding 3 hourly on a 24 hour basis... now we do a wake up feed, a morning feed, afternoon feed, bedtime feed and 10 - 11pm feed. Will admit to giving morning feed after breakfast as a top up, hoewever she sleeps from 10pm until 6.30 so assuming that if she was hungry she would wake up. Also, she's gaining 6.5 oz per week, so would also assume that she's not underfed as she certainly isn't getting many calories from food intake yet. Lemonbergamot - thanks for liver recipe!! I do need to introduce protein / iron.. may also try to hide some chicken in fave purees too and see where that gets me. I think it'll be a case of whatever works for us! addictedtofrazzles thanks - it's good to see someone else's routine, as I must admit I've struggled with getting into a routine. It's hard to measure how much milk she's getting because dd can do a full feed in less than 10 minutes - the only indicator I really get is how empty my boobs are afterwards! Since cutting the feeds down, the weaning is improving, albeit slowly, and I'm happy with where we are for time being - ie I feel we're making some progress without feeling as if I'm starving her into it. It's tricky this weaning thing.

You're still wrong, addictedtofrazzles - breast milk should still form the majority of an infant's diet til 12 months. Solid foods are complimentary not primary.

Furthermore, it is pointless comparing a bottle fed baby to a breast fed one. Composition of formula is totally different, formula fed babies normally take bigger feeds further spaced apart etc.

Jemjabella - I still disagree with you and, to use your rather direct tone, "Think you are wrong"!

Read ESPHGAN "Complimentary feeding" www.espghan.med.up.pt/position_papers/con_28.pdf

DS1 was weaned under supervision from a gastro paed and a paed dietician (due to reflux) and both supported the view of this paper.

Yes addictedtofrazzles, the clue is right there in the name. Complementary feeding (the very definition of complementary being to complement). Unless the paper has changed dramatically since the last time I read it, it makes no reference to quantities of breast milk vs. solids required (only recommendations on introducing food by 26 weeks). It does, however, back up several of my points (what a coincidence... oh yes, that's because I've read it before).

But, while we're talking about the ESPHGAN paper, take a look at the 'Nutritional Aspects' section. Specifically the first paragraph that talks about estimates and assumptions on breast milk which make up their recommendations (estimates and assumptions, not actual research). They cite a study which states:

"More research on energy intake in 5--6-month-old exclusively breast-fed infants is necessary, and information on the metabolisability of breast milk in mid-infancy is desirable."

So what they're saying is "based on our assumptions and the results of a study which needs further research we say XYZ about weaning". Specific, no?

Read the 2nd paragraph (same section):

"European infants are unlikely to experience deficiencies of macronutrients during the complementary feeding period. Rather, they may be at risk for excessive intakes-a matter of potential concern, given the increasing rates of childhood obesity."

Also, further down:

"Continued breast-feeding is recommended along with the introduction of complementary feeding."

See also:

"Overconsumption of energy-dense complementary foods may induce excessive weight gain in infancy, which has been associated with a 2- to 3-fold higher risk of obesity in school age and childhood"

The irony (irony, iron, harhar) in the ESPGHAN paper is that it discusses the low amounts of iron in breast milk (without mentioning that it is highly bioavailable - roughly 50% of iron in breastmilk is absorbed compared to less than 12% from artificial milk) and then further down mentions exclusive breastfeeding as a solution to iron-deficiency anaemia. It makes no reference to the multiple studies which state exclusive and/or prolonged breastfeeding are recommended to avoid iron deficiency.

Anyway, what was my point again? I forget...

this could be me and babygirl. I have booked appt with HV as was concerned about total lack of interest in food. Babygirl started out ok w purees at 6 months. Then about 3 weeks in got huffy about being spoonfed or food i dont really know. Would turn away, not open her mouth etc. She hadnt dropped any milk feeds but her poo had changed. I just thought that i was going to end up force feeding her esp once she dropped feeds. So i switched to BLW and absolutely no spoon.

She showed v little interest (actually more like no interest). I put food in front of her at least 2-3 times a day. Her poop even went back to bf poop. So I made appt with HV.

But in the last week something has clicked. She is interested. She likes risotto style things best, sometthing with small grains and a sauce sticking it together (coucous and stew also good) She dabs her hand in it and scoops it into her mouth, She is still not dextrous enough for finger foods but does gum at things i hold in front of her. She reaches out and pulls my hand plus food towards her.

She looks well, I can let you know whar hv says. her milk feeds have if anything gone up. But I think we are now on the way. Interestingly, its in this last week that she has started to be able to sit unspported for more than a couple of seconds. We are a week shy of 8 months.

We re a long way off her really eating but i am reassured that I dont need to worry about her diet too much as she's getting plenty of breast milk. but i too have moments where i worry about how little food she's eating compared to spoonfed peers

So what am I trying to say?...er

1. I really sympathise, am in the same boat at present
2. Maybe it just takes a while foe some babies
3. will let you know what HV says...for what its worth

She is still fully on milk, she looks well. Will be happy to have her weighed and checked out. If that all looks fine I think I am likely to continue with BLW regardless of HV (if HV seems anti-BLW or goes on and on about lumpy foods, 3 meals a day by 8 months etc)..

We're still doing a bit of both puree and finger foods, although to be honest not sure how interested she is in finger foods - some things she'll have a bit of a go at, but then with true BLW I think it does take quite a bit of time before much is really eaten. I'm still doing puree too, but realised today that I maybe should be giving stage 2 type things a go, as we're now 7 1/2 months on. We'll see how it goes. Thing is, one day she'll reject something and the next she'll eat it... unless it's something which I have made myself, in which case it's usually rejected pretty much from the outset. None of the commercial foods she's been given have added sugar or any nasties in them, so I guess I'll just have to go with what she'll eat.. we'll be bf-ing until I go back back to work, by which time she'll be a year anyway. firsttimer7295 let me know what your HV says; I'm going to see mine on Thursday..

icurgnmum Just to report back. The HV could not have been more supportive. PLeasant surprise. Took a good look at my girl and checked how she grabs at things and said she thought everything was fine.

Babygirl now grasps things in her palm rather than raking at them. Asked me about pincer grip - nothing yet as far as I can see.

HV then weighed babygirl - just to give me reassurance - and she is gaining weight along her new curve. She was 95th centile at birth and then 75th at 6 months - this is to be expected as neither my H nor I are particularly big or tall.

Anyway she said to continue offering babygirl food and advised me not to get myself worried by comparing with other babies. Also progress will be in stops and starts and just to be patient. She said that if babygirl seems to get lots of colds or I was worried about her getting all nutrients then to buy some vitamin drops.

I am really happy as I like the BLW, its much easier to just let baby girl get on with it. I feed on demand and now my only problem is that I think people give me sidelong 'thats a bit weird' looks when I breastfeed. I guess they think babygirl is too old to be breastfed.