Sudden crying during meals

[Rhubarbgarden]

We are into our third week of weaning six month old dd. It's going pretty well so far, she is usually very enthusiastic at the start of a meal and likes to feed herself with a bit of help from me loading the spoon. But for the past week or so she's been suddenly starting crying halfway through, quite hysterically. It's not as straightforward as her just being a bit dramatic about deciding she's full, as I first thought, as sometimes she pauses in the crying to grab the spoon and eat from it. Sometimes I can get her to take quite a lot more just by offering (not forcing) her spoonfuls, throughout the crying, and she doesn't spit it out.

Any ideas what's going on? My husband tends to take her out of the high chair when this happens to feed her on his knee, which has mixed success, but I'm a bit reluctant about this as the health visitor was adamant we should feed her in her high chair.

Thanks

Well, firstly I'd ignore the HV & stick with whatever works for all of you.

The only thing I can offer is my own experience of DD2 who was a hungry little beast.

When she was a little bit older than your LO, she started screaming in between mouthfuls and it worried me too. Turns out I wasn't getting the spoon in quick enough. I had to use a bigger spoon and shovel faster!

Do you have a spoon each so there's no gap in getting the food to her mouth?

Sorry, can't think of anything else!

Thanks. She does get impatient between spoonfuls and shouts a bit if I don't shovel quick enough, but this is different. It's full on red faced crying, and she snaps into it really suddenly.

Good point about health visitor, thanks!

Does she sometimes get bored and fed up when playing? When that happens do you pick her up quite quickly or offer a different toy? And do you react less quickly to grumping at mealtimes because you would rather she ate more food, or stayed in her chair whilst you finished the meal.

I used to keep trying to get DD to eat a bit more rather than just letting her get on with something else and then because she was a combo of bored/tired/fed up she'd totally lose it. Now I find either popping her on my lap, or simply letting her get down and play for a bit seems to work quite well. She either makes it clear she is quite done thank you, or she sometimes calms down quite quickly and if I pop her back in the high chair she has a renewed interest in her food.

From her POV mealtimes are just a different type of play right now. Whereas I think of mealtimes as fixed periods where we sit at the table together. So I try to remember that she needs cuddles and variety just as much during meals as at other times.

As your baby gets better at feeding herself the screaming might well calm down. She'll learn new ways to play with her food, she'll get better at interacting with you during meals, she'll work out that this tasty stuff you put in front of her also sates her hunger and everything will become more relaxed.

Maybe your HV made a big deal of the highchair because she thinks it is important for babies to be sitting up when they eat (it is - but obviously they can do this on a lap). I can't think of any other reason why it would matter.

Ah, thank you Veronica, I think you might be onto something. This morning when the crying started I offered her the sippy cup, wondering if she was thirsty, and she immediately stopped crying, drank a little bit then happily ate the rest of her meal. Thought we'd cracked it, tried the same trick again at teatime but without success. But I think you are right, it could be boredom rather than thirst; her behaviour with toys is similar - I hadn't made that connection. Thanks.

If she's teething it could be causing her pain when she eats; if you think that's likely, try rubbing a but if teething gel on just before meals.

Or, she could have tonsillitis, which would make swallowing very painful.