7mo refuses all savoury foods

[schroedingersdodo]

DS is 7mo and in the last few days has started to refuse all savoury baby food I make for him! I usually make things such as chicken breast, brown rice and carrot, or meat, potatoes and butternut squash - this sort of thing - through the food processor. In the last few days he's decided he doesn't want any of these - as I insist, he ends up eating some, but it is an ordeal...

However, he continues to love the dessert: sometimes it's plain fruit, or fruit with yoghurt, even porridge - he eats copious amounts and asks for more!

I'm not sure of what I should do. Apart from sweet things such as melon and papaya, he loves avocado and plain yoghurt (I never thought babies would like that!). He eats anything that is mixed with yoghurt (he had chicken breast with yoghurt - with gusto - and today I put some in his savoury food and he ate it too). But I think adding yoghurt to everything is not the right answer to the problem.

Any suggestions? How do I persuade him to eat his meals, not only the fruit?

Have you tried finger foods? Many babies prefer to have more conrol over what goes into their mouths.

Well at 7 months in doesn't matter if he doesn't eat much. Just stop offering sweet desserts for a while?

I wouldn't "insist" if it makes it an ordeal. Agree with Jojay about letting him feed himself.

He likes to feed himself, but I'm very uneasy about that (choking, gagging, etc). I've given him bread, but with everything else (biscuits, fruit) he manages to bite big pieces and I'm worried he might choke...

MoonUnitAlpha, he's been eating a fair amount of solids, breastfeeding several times during the day and still wakes many times during the night to feed (he empties both breasts each time so I know he's definitely hungry in the middle of the night). I know it may sound insane, but I wonder if maybe he needs more food than he is getting?

Please don't be worried about him feeding himslef.

Read up on Baby Led Weaning - lots on here about it and babyledweaning.com is excellent.

There's a big difference between gagging nad choking. Babies, (and us too) gag when food gets too close to the airway, and the tongue moves the food forward in the mouth. Babies have a sensitive gag reflex to begin with and some seem to gag quite a lot. This is perfectly normal and babies are almost always quite unpeterbed by it.

For safety, ensure he is always sitting upright when he is eating, not reclined in a bbouncy chair of car seat.

Give him large wedge or chip shaped chunks of soft food to begin with, which he can pick up and hold. Most cooked fruit and veg are excellent. Try carrots, sweet potato, squash, broccoli etc, well cooked and not cut up too small.

Put a choice of food in front of him nad let him get on with it.

Don't pop little bits in his mouth for him - that is a choking hazard!

He's perfectly normal to still want milk at night. Milk is still the biggest source of nutrition in his diet so don't try to encourage him to cut back yet.

Please don't 'encourage' him to eat things he doesn't want to, or get into battles over it.

He's so young, it really doesn't matter if he hardly eats anything at this stage. It should be a fun, exploratory time for him that lets him begin to exert his independence. Don't turn it into a traumatic time for you both.

Chill out, follow his lead. You will both be fine, I promise

Jojay, Thanks for all the tips, I'll try to follow them and see what happens.

(and I don't mind him feeding at night, once or twice. But every two hours? There must be a better way to do it...)

How's it going? How was he today?

Hi Jojay, sorry I didn't see your message earlier. DS is doing better, I guess. I gave him a cooked piece of squash and I think he liked, but I guess DH was a bit concerned about choking and took it of :) Will try again though.

I ended up buying ready Organix puree, which he loved! But then I prepared a different one, with some seasoning (like the ready made one, with garlic and thyme) and no meat, and he loved it as well.

So, that's where we stand now. And since yesterday he's having supper a bit earlier, about 5pm, which I hope will help with wind.

And then let's see what happens :)