why doesn't he want my lovingly prepared purees?

[DesperateHousewife20]

Ds is 6.5 months, started weaning a month ago. He used to accept any food in any format but now is refusing the spoon no matter what is on it.

He'll chew on finger foods but that's it. Why is he doing this? I've been giving him porridge for dinner and it's helped so much with his night sleeping. Now I'm worried he'll be up at all hours again as he's not taking in any/much purée.

Lots of babies just have finger food and no puree. Just pass more food over. He can eat porridge with his hands, just make it thick and then give him a bath!

It just seemed odd he's suddenly gone off it when he was eating purée literally 2 days ago.
Thanks for your reply ruddy

My DS loved puree for about a week, then, just when I thought it was going to plan, he refused a spoon totally and I ended up doing BLW. I think he found it fun at first, but wasn't interested enough in the food to want to keep going. On the otherhand, kids do sometimes just go through phases of not eating. I think they have a way of knowing when we spent a long time on home cooking!

Could it be possible that he is bored with what you are giving him? May be worth trying a change. Also he may want a bit more substance so you could try a bit lumpier food.

I really worried about this too, I know where you are coming from. Around the same age, possibly later DS started to get stroppy about the spoon occasionally.

It took a lot of bravery on my part to give him a fully finger food "dinner" in the evenings. However, do not despair there are solutions.

He's almost 11 months now but a typical tea around the time you are on now would be, couple of pieces of bread and butter (maybe dairylea), yogurt (will always take that off a spoon!), cheese (babybel if you are out and about), little home made chicken burgers (AK has a good recipe for minced chicken with apricot puree which are lush!), cucumber sticks, few satsuma pieces or grapes, organix rice cakes.

Obviously not all those things in one meal but I think you will be surprised how they can fill up on actual solids and that you don't always need the purees.

As I say it took A LOT of courage to do this but give it a go.

If you slightly overcook the porridge in a microwave you can cut it up like a wobbly cake - I used to do this with DD and she picked it up and ate it herself.

Ok well I managed to give him porridge again tonight.

UKsky thats what I was thinking, Ill try some different foods.

babybouncer I give him finger foods aswell. I just want to get some food in him as he has always been such a rubbish sleeper but since the puree has slept really well.

Forget purees and give him PROPER food. Baby led weaning is the way forward.

Sorry x-post.

tigress white bread seems to make him sick at the mo so trying to steer away from that. I give him cucumber/green beens/carrot sticks etc which he gets on well with.

humphrey yeah I know someone who does this, might give it a try.

Have you tried "Going Bananas"? Its AK again but well nice and a great way to "fill them up"!

Ok it is puree but needs must when you just want them to sleep.

Does it help if you load the spoon and give it to him?

My DD was exactly the same. We had a few weeks of delighted puree-gobbling and then she never let me put a spoon in her mouth again. We went onto an entirely finger food diet until she learnt about spoons herself at around two.

At six months, he will probably love

• Polenta (you can add grated cheese, cooked veg or frozen veg while cooking, tomato puree, whatever) - let it cool and set and cut into chunks then shallow fry for a crunchy but easily bitable outside. Delicious and a complete meal in one easy chip-shaped package. Freezable, too.

• Toast with things on it. Marmite, fruit puree, veg puree, dal, cream cheese, hoummous etc etc. And don't forget that you don't have to have the standard things on toast. If you want to give him thickish porridge on toast to increase the ease of eating the porridge then why not if he likes it?

• Fritters - one egg, a few tablespoonsful of plain flour, a bit of milk, grated cheese, any cooked or frozen veg. Fry in dollops until golden and cooked through.

• Cooked veg of any kind

• Fruit slices/chunks (until he is confident at chewing and swallowing, you may want to hold off on apple but most other kinds should be fine just as they come).

• Crackers or Ryvita or other crispbread type things like rice or corn cakes - but hopefully not too salty. Spread them with anything you think he might like.

• Slices of cooked meat (cut across the grain so it is easier to chew if you are worried about choking). Or slices/chunks of cheese.

• Roasted veg - it is delicious and most kinds of veg are very sweet and tasty done like this. Chunks of butternut squash, potato, carrot, parsnip or sweet potato are ideal.

• Risotto, made quite thick so it's sticky enough to pick up chunks. You can also roll leftover risotto into balls and fry it the next day.

Hope that helps a bit. FWIW, once I started finger food with DD I really did wonder why I had ever bothered with purees. Most of the things she was eating were things I quite liked too so it was way less cooking and trouble for me and she enjoyed it a hundred times more.

Fried left over risotto? God that sounds good, I want that now.

Love your ideas, they have re-inspired me thats for sure.

Fried leftover risotto is fabulous. For extra deliciousness roll each ball around a bit of mozzarella so it goes melty inside. And I meant to say courgettes are brilliant roasted.

Also, it won't be long before he gets the hang of dipping bread or something similar into something else. In which case soup, which is very easy for you and really healthy. A pureed veg soup with pearl barley and a little chicken or lamb is delicious.

Thanks for the suggestions horton some of those I give him already as I want him to learn about finger foods now aswell as puree. The puree is literally just to fill him up so he sleeps better, so I may try the porridge fingers/on toast.

I love making soup so Ill def be doing alot of that!