7.5 month old just wants to eat fruit puree

[neptunesdaughter]

Hello, I'm in the process of weaning my DD - we started about 5.5 months with fruit purees and bits and bobs of baby rice etc. She was very interested at first and liked the purees and hasn't really moved on!

She refuses to eat anything I've cooked for her and only seems to like the super smooth Ella's Kitchen purees (which are very sweet of course) and fruit purees. I'm trying to give her finger foods as well as spoon feeding as sometimes she wants to be fed and other times not. She likes holding and sucking some veg sticks, fruit, toast, breadsticks rice cakes etc but I don't think she's actually eating much.

She has two bottom teeth and I know she can chew and swallow a bit as she does it with toast and breadsticks but any purees I give her with any texture at all she gags and throws up! But for some reason finger foods are ok...

She will eat things like:
Cream cheese (on toast on a breadstick)
Breadsticks
Toast
Rice cake
Nectarine
Apricot
Mango
Apple
Avocado (mashed on toast)
Cheese sauce (tried it with cauliflour and with fish but she wouldn't eat it)
Yoghurt with fruit puree
Rice pudding with fruit puree mixed in

She won't eat things like:
fish
chicken
beef
Most veg (Brocolli, Cauliflour etc)
Lentils
Pasta
Bolognese sauce
anything savoury really...

I'm worried as I'm going back to work in a month and she is still breastfeeding a lot. I'm trying to reduce it but she cries as she's hungry and won't eat any food so I feel like if I don't BF her she will go hungry.

Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences to share?

Hi Neptunesdaughter, I'm sorry I don't have any advice as such, my DD (8 months) is a bit similar in that she has eaten all fruit and vegetables on their own or mixed with milk quite happily but now that we are heading to stage 2 she doesn't seem keen on any sort of homemade savoury mixture containing meat like casserole or bolognese. I have only started with finger food.

I tried Ella's Kitchen stage 2 stew and chicken casserole and she loved it, but I am scared that will take her even further away from real food!

Hopefully someone else can help- I am panicking a bit and very tempted to succumb to Ella!

I know the feeling! At least your DD likes Ella's stage 2 - mine won't even try it. I should laugh as her pursed lips are exactly like my MIL's....but sadly I feel like crying. I try so hard to make lovely food for her but she just doesn't want to even try it. She seems to recognice the Ella's packets and the fruit puree ones - then she will open her mouth.

Hope someone can help or reassure us!

have you tried the savoury stuff as finger foods? For example a lump of chicken or slice of steak?

Yeah, try finger foods, maybe bits of ham or chunks of cheese? Eggy bread or slices of omlette are good. Pasta pieces, or strings of spaghetti. Some babies just don't get the lumps in sauce thing for ages, and prefer solid food.

Do you put puree on her breakfast at all? I found that grating apple instead of using puree helped initially.

Oo the grated apple is a good idea! I do put puree in her breakfast sometimes and just haven't had a clue how to ease her into lunpy stuff - although she will suck on things as finger foods. I've tried her with some meat (chicken and bits of fish) as finger food but she isn't interested. She did try a sausage but didn't actually eat any of it just threw it on the floor.

Will keep trying and hope she gets it eventually!

I had this. I switched to BLW and now she'll have anything. I recommend it.

I am in a similar situation with my 7mo, with the added complication that she has an intolerance to cow's milk. I was wondering whether she might be encouraged to eat more veg if I made combined fruit/veg purees eg carrot and apple, brocolli and pear etc. Will this help or will it just further develop a sweet tooth?