9 months old and eats practically nothing

[eachpeach80]

Please reassure me.

DS is 9 months. Started solids at 6 months and is still breastfed.

Started with BLW, he was not eating anything, picking food up and playing with it and chewing it but spitting it out again.

About a month ago decided to try purees too, he usually will not eat more than a couple of spoons and a lot of the time won't even open his mouth for one spoon.

At the moment, he eats something like this
Breakfast - chews banana/mini shredded wheat and spits out, maybe one or two spoons of yoghurt or ready break.

Lunch - 1/2 of spoons of purée, chews and spits out cheese, rice sakes, fruit etc

Dinner - same.

He is between 25 and 50th centile and had not dropped when last weighed one month ago.

He has about 5 bfs a day.

The best meal he has ever had has been a couple of occasions when he has eaten 1/3 of an ellas kitchen pouch.

How do I get him to start eating?

Same here OP. DS is also 9 months, started solids at 6 months and is still breastfed. He started quite well on purees but recently has been spitting food out (and thinks it's very funny when I get cross!) and refusing the spoon after a couple of mouthfuls.

The only thing he will gulp down and not miss a bit of is Plum fromage frais but I refuse to let him have one every day as I think it's a slippery slope to having a very fussy toddler on your hands.

It's so frustrating, isn't it, and upsetting too if you've made the food yourself. I keep telling myself he doesn't really need much food at this stage, that it's more important to keep things fun and not make meal-times a battle. Sometimes I do find myself playing tricks like making him giggle just so he opens his mouth and I can spoon something in or giving him something to play with like a spoon so that he is distracted and will open his mouth almost without thinking about it.

I know these games are not an ideal solution and am hoping it's just a phase and that in time he'll want to eat properly. The best thing I find re: the spitting is just to completely ignore it (even when you have carrot on your face!). My DS is definitely spurred on if I react to it... cheeky bugger.

Good luck - if it helps, I think this is a very common problem at this stage.

Thanks both. Hopefully he will get the hang of it soon. It is so disheartening having your purees spat out and finger food swiped off the high chair constantly!

I remember how stressful this was - my DS didn't really eat anything until he was about 10 months, but once he did start eating, I was not prepared for how quickly he dropped his bottles and had three good meals and two snacks per day. It felt like one week I was worrying that he would never learn to eat, and the next he was gobbling up macaroni cheese and asking for more! Please try not to worry - be reassured that he's not loosing weight and he is happy. If he doesn't like spoons, don't feel you have to get him to eat things that way. It may not feel like it at the moment, but he will get there eventually!

hi i found the same prob but relaxing and not worrying helps as babe will pick up yr anxiety..they will eat if really hungry!iwas same but am just giving her the spoon and letting her attempt to feed herself,,

My first post on MN was coming on here because my 9 mo old DS was practically eating nothing. It definitely seems like the "thing" for them to do at that age. If it makes you feel better, he is now 7, and eats large amounts of anything except for green onions.

ok thats good to hear!

have you tried distracting him with plastic (washable) toys. It's amazing what I can get our baby to eat while she's not thinking about it. But without the toys, nothing goes in.
Alternatively, give him a spoon to chew on while you shovel food in.

If still no joy, I'd always go on whether he looks healthy. If he does, you're fine. And he's not dropping weight either, so that sounds fine.

Also maybe worth thinking when you feed him with milk and how much time there is before his next meal. Have you tried giving him breakfast before his milk, or the other meals a good couple of hours after his last milk feed?

Alternatively, does he snack? You could perhaps get food into him throughout the day. Little bits of fruit, etc. I'm sure though as he gets the idea about food, he'll stop playing with it and start eating it.