More help required, sorry!

[Ironmaiden]

Okay, I am really struggling with this weaning thing! I have introduced a few different foods and we are up to two regular meals a day but DD has decided she doesn't like most things I'm giving her, the more I introduce the pickier she gets, now she wont eat carrot, parsnip, courgette, pear or apple and I'm left with sweet potato, butternut squash, baby rice and cow&gate rice pudding. I cant keep giving her just these things can I? Are there dangers in giving a 6 month old a limited diet? I've tried mixing the things she likes with the things she doesnt like but she's wise to me!

nothing wrong with a limited diet! she should be getting the majority of her nutrition from her milk still.
in fact, it wouldn't matter if she was having no solids at all,. because milk gives her everytthing she needs.

at this age it really doesn't matter if they aren't having a full and varied diet. But do keep trying her with small amounts... some things take a while to get used to.

i wish i had come on this site b4 i weaned. Our hv was so almost forceful that we should wean at 16 wks that i just thought they were right. by 20 wks she said he should be eating our food so i started that too. He only has veg and a bit of meat but comments on here make me panic that it was all very wrong and far too early. i guess ill know for the next one...

lindster sorry about yr hv and don't worry needlessly. cross that bridge when and if you must. any volunteers to make up a firing squad?

my dd is 30 wks and not v. interested in food either. i've decided not to sweat it and go at her pace. she id most keen to eat when we eat so i just put a bit of what she can on the side of my plate to give her when she begs. eg, made dahl on sat night and took out her portion begore i added salt & curry powder. i just put a touch of cumin in hers. she loves feeding herself so i just put a table spoon of it on the tray and nade her do whatever she wanted with it. be prepared for mess. also peeled and cut a segment of apple and just gave her to keep her occupied while i cooked later i looked at it. had lots of dents from her one tooth. [aaawww emoticon]

ironmaiden please don't worry. I'll join the firing squad. My dts are 7mnths now, and until very recently refused to eat savoury food at all. I gave up and they have been livign on pureed fruit and rice.
Then a couple of weeks ago I tried it again and they are happily munching whatever is put in front of them. If I had told my hv she would have been spitting bricks, but they are doing fine, and like starlover says, they get most of their nutrition from milk still.

I've another question. If they get most of their nutrition from milk do I begin to reduce the ammount of milk she is getting as I increase solids? Also, how much is 1 cube? All the books talk about cubes, is that ice cubes? And how many cubes should I expect DD to take in 1 meal at 6 months? Aaahhh! It's all too much! Don't know what i'd do without this website!!!!

Cubes are ice cubes. My ice cube trays are 15ml per cube. A small baby food jar would be 7 cubes. Start with a cube and work up - they won't eat more than they want, lets face it. My ds (9mo) eats 4 cubes max. Friends ds of the same age eats a large jars worth - that would be 12 cubes (obv stop storing it in cubes at that point!). Keep offering the food and try not to get down if you throw it away.

Oh, the milk. I give the solids first and let him drink as much milk as he wants after. If he's eaten a lot of solids, he takes less milk.

DD, 7 months is also on 2 meals a day. She has 6 (ice) cubes of savoury and 3 of fruit or half a banana. I completely cut out her midday bottle after a couple of weeks of giving her this amount of food as she was only drinking a few ounces and she doesn't miss it.

I find the Cow and Gate weaning guide useful. You can phone them and ask for a copy - number is on the web site www.cowandgate.co.uk. It gives you information on how much and when during the different stages of weaning.

ironmaiden... don't cut down the milk. not unless she starts refusing it!

she should still be having at the very least a pint of milk a day.
as i said before this is her main source of nutrition and will be until she is around a year old.
don't worry about the food... she will take it when she is ready.
Right now all you are doing is getting her used to eating solids

Ironmaiden, I had that problem. To begin with it seemed like ds didn't like anything I gave him, and we got to a stage where he really wasn't having any solids some days. But I found that leaving it for a few days and offering the same taste again over a period of weeks gradually got him used to things. Just because they screw their faces up and gag in the beginning doesn't mean they necessarily dislike the taste - the texture is also new to them and something they need to get used to. Also try finger foods as some people have suggested. I think it gave my ds more of an understanding of food, gave him chance to explore at his own pace. He is 7mths now and has a mixture of mashed veg and finger foods - still doesn't eat a right lot but I have stopped stressing about it as he still has plenty of milk and I figure that he'll eat more when he's ready. Have a look at the baby-led/self-weaning threads in this section, will bump them for you

hiya,i know how you feel like. my dd is the same, she ate only bananas for couple weeks, she refused everything.
she still eats very little of savoury, its more like i force her to eat couple spoonful a day.
about milk please dont cut it or reduce. dd had bad cough and didnt have milk for 4 weeks, we worried so much. she lost 2 pounds but as long as she is back to her milk and normal food, she put it back.
i really hope she will get used to savoury and will have it as soon as possible.

hiya,i know how you feel like. my dd is the same, she ate only bananas for couple weeks, she refused everything.
she still eats very little of savoury, its more like i force her to eat couple spoonful a day.
about milk please dont cut it or reduce. dd had bad cough and didnt have milk for 4 weeks, we worried so much. she lost 2 pounds but as long as she is back to her milk and normal food, she put it back.
i really hope she will get used to savoury and will have it as soon as possible.

A week later, sorry, still struggling. Today I waited til I knew she was hungry and tried half a jar of chicken and veg stuff. She cried the whole time, even while taking mouthfuls and eventually closed her mouth (still crying, sounded like I was suffocating her!!!) so I gave up. She just wanted her bottle. What shall I do???

Poor you Ironmaiden! Sounds heartbreaking I know. I'm slightly struggling with the food with my dd (7.5 mos), and TRYING so hard not to make an issue of it. Some days she will eat, some days she won't. I think the important thing is to try and stay cool, be consistent in the times you offer her her meals, and make sure her milk intake is good and that she isn't losing weight or dropping off her percentile. They say you have to sometimes offer a baby a new taste up to 20 times () before they accept them, so just keep going at it. That said, my dd is sometimes SO stubborn about NOT eating her solids that I want to scream (and the MESS!!!!!!), but I'm hoping that this chilled out attitude is the right thing to do. My dd also loves sweet potato and butternut squash... have you tried spinach and/or sweetcorn, as they are favourites too...
Good luck, I think we just have to be relaxed about it and not force anything on our fussy little darlings! BTW, if anyone disagrees with what I've said, please say, as I'm just trying to find my way here!

Sweet potato and butternut squash are about the only success stories I've had too. She is always hungry for milk, should I just keep offering the solids but not worry too much if she's not into it? All the books say she should be on 3 bigish meals a day now, just feel under pressure to get this started and frustrated cos we've been at it over 2 months now!

I think we need to ignore the books on this occasion, and just let our dds dictate their own pace. I did start her on breakfast about 3 weeks ago too, but have dropped it again, as it seemed pointless fighting to get 3 meals down her per day. I don't know how good a milk drinker your dd was when she was younger, but mine was pretty hopeless.... couldn't ever get more than about 3oz down her in any one sitting, whereas my sister found a feeding diary she had for her son in the back of an old notebook the other day.... he was gobbling down 40-45oz per day at 5 weeks or something insane like that ! Dd must have been on something like 12-15oz/day at 4-5 weeks old. So, each to their own, keep trying new things, but also keep feeding her the tried and tested favourites. good luck!

Milk's fine - she'll get into food in her own time. Some babies not really eating much until they're one, so really don't stress about it.

Plus the older she is, the easier it is. Try letting her have bits off your plate to play with. Milk should be their main source of nourishment for the first year anyway, so food should only be tastes/playthings for the mo.

Good luck with it.

ironmaiden please don't worry! she is perfectly NORMAL!

Some babies just aren't that interested in food at that age... it's no big deal. When dp's grandma had his mum the regular age for weaning was 9 months or more! So please don't worry.

don't try and force her to eat, and don't get upset if she doesn't like it. She is getting everything she needs from her milk... it doesn't matter if she has no solids at all at this age... it really is fine!

Keep trying it once a day... but don't fret if she doesn't take any. maybe go back to babyrice which is just bland and will taste more like her milk... at this stage all you are really doing is getting her used to h aving other things in her mouth...

also, try a few finger foods and see if she prefers that

oh, and yes, I would keep offering her the solids, at whatever regular mealtimes you have/are trying to establish. I have also read that there shouldn't be toys during mealtimes, keep play and food separate (apart from the obvious thing that they love playing WITH their food!). Also, dd loves playing with and eating/chewing various finger foods, so I'm trying to encourage that. Top tip, as she is opening her mouth to put her rice cake in, nip in front with a spoonful of mush....!

DD only has 2 front bottom teeth, can I still try finger foods? If so what's good to try and do I cook them first? (BTW had a bad experience when I began weaning which is why I am so paranoid, please humour me...)

yep ds has no teeth at all but happily munches on cooked veg (bits of broccoli, cauliflower etc), rice cakes, baby biscuits, toast... all kinds! he mostly just sucks them to death.. or crumbles it in his fingers and throws it on the floor

Starlover, how old is your ds?

he is 9 months now

Can I try toast / crackers / rice cakes at 6 months? Would be terrofied she'd choke. Can I try slices of banana?

yeah... i stuck with things that would dissolve quite easily in his mouth on account of having no teeth! lol