weaning getting worse and worse...

[Jules125]

Hi, I've posted before but things seem to have become impossible over the last week. DD is 7 months next week and will scarcely eat any solids. We started weaning just over a month ago.

She refuses to sit in her high chair any more (she did this initially) - just becomes increasingly irritable if she tries, she has stopped picking up finger foods (she did this for a few weeks and did eat some small amounts). She's always been reluctant to be spoon fed, so I've done mostly finger foods with occasional spoon feeding - though she will not open her mouth for this any more. [On the rare occasions I can get it in, she does eat it!]. I've tried all sorts of different foods and am starting to really despair. Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks

Don't forget, she doesn't need any vast amount of solids for ages yet. Food is for fun until they're one etc.

I'm no expert but from weaning two of mine my advice would be

1. chill out about it so you don't pressurise her
2. stop using the high chair for a few weeks - just sit her on the floor or something
3. offer her a variety of finger foods every day - just dump them in front of her and get on with eating your own food

She won't starve herself. Nutritionally, you feed her milk when she wants it so you know she's got the nutrients and energy to grow. And she will get into it. In my own experience I've made food available from around 6 months but neither of mine really got going until about 9 months. In the last fortnight my 9.5 month old DD has started to relish meals and shout for food - after being pretty ambivalent about most things for months. It will be fine :)

Also, stronger flavours go down better. Curry, fajitas and anything garlicky are hits in this house :)

Agree with above, although go carefully with spices - ds cries and rubs them in his eyes and cries more etc.

Get a wipeable tablecloth and have a carpet picnic. Try things like a whole peach that feel and smell nice. Eat at the same time, she may copy you and if not it will distract you. Appear to enjoy your food. Give spoons dipped in whatever to play with if she doesn't want to eat normally.

Mostly just do not despair and keep offering. Ds is 1 and only just starting to eat. I'm not trying to scare you by saying that but some of them take a long time, you just have to keep at it with a brave cheery face on. Good luck.

Definitely relax. Milk is her main source of food for now. please don't feel too anxious. She will pick up on it

Garlic bread. They love it.

Sit her on your knee while you eat your dinner, let her help herself. No pressure.
She's not going to go without nutrition if she's having as much milk as she likes.

Agree with others -chill. DD barely ate at 7 months, just fruit puree and yoghurt really. She is loads better at 11 months.

Oh and to add -despite her being a 'slow starter' in the weaning department she moved from the 75th centile to the 91st between months 6-10. HV commented "Oh someone likes her food", I said no, someone likes her milk!.

ok thanks for all the reassurance - I'll try to chill. Easy to spot the anxious first timers! She does eat occasionally so hopefully this will gradually increase.

Just to add my voice to the mix - DD ate virtually no food from 6-10 months, v small amounts of finger foods only from then, and really only seemed to "get it" at about 13/14 months. I just offered her milk as normal throughout and her health and weight gain were fine.

At 19 months, I now cannot stop her eating some days, she tries most things, helps herself to whole fruit from the fruit bowl.

I really regret the time I spent worrying, stressing, reading up, quizzing the HV/GP etc as she obviously picked it up in her own time. I had to give up on the highchair altogether, as I think I did transmit my anxiety to her. We have up on the table for a while, and when we started again, we went with a booster on a chair.

FWIW, some of the others in our little baby group who started off as amazing eaters, are now nowhere near as good and quite picky, so I think like everything, they are all different!

My eldest hated the highchair. I am clueless to why but he detested it. Started weaning at 7 months and looking back with hindsight I can see the highchair loathing meant he was in such a tiss that he wasn't in the right frame of mind to consider food.

We used a brilliant booster chair at the table and he gained an interest in food. I think he wanted to be at the table with us, at our level.

DC3 hated the highchair, dc2 sat in it for 2.5 years so it can't have been that bad but when we bought an Antilop (I bought it because the other one was so hard to clean) she was much happier. Maybe try to wedge your dc in so she feels secure. Dc3 ate very little until 9m, still won't eat much off a spoon (12m) but now eats a lot.

Thanks again. I have an Antilop with the inflatable thingy and she looks very comfy there (and sits well anyway) - so i really don't think its a comfort /security issue. She just wants to crawl and roll all the time so think she does not like being made to sit still in one place for more than 5 minutes! Especially as she can't see the point of eating!

I think she could also be teething (though nothing really visible yet) which probably doesn't help as she's a lot grumpier than normal at the moment.

My DS was the same at that age. I started him on baby rice at 5 months, then puree fruit/veg. He'd take 2 steps forward then 3 steps back with solids until about 2 months ago (he's now 1). He'd often sit there with him lips clamped shut (actually this was most of the time until he was 10 months old!). He's now feeding himself crackers, toast, chicken nuggets, fish fingers, fruit plus he likes to suck those ella's sachets as well. He also likes mashed baked beans with cheese.

My advice is to relax, seriously. I was super stressed about it because everyone elses DC seemed to be taking to solids easily and in hindsight I think I made things worse by sitting in front of him trying to coerce him into eating & looking anxious. Forget the highchair for a while, relax and it will all come together when they're ready! I really wish someone had told me that at the time.

I have a question about this, would you keep offering food on a regular(ish) basis (2-3 times daily) or just give up for a week and try every once in a while?

My dd1 is 6 months and we've had a couple of false starts with solids (interrupted by chicken pox and a streaming cold). Briefly (a day) she did ok with purees and for the first couple of days when we tried it had a little chomp on some finger food. Now she just throws the food repeatedly on the floor without even considering bringing it to her mouth. I'm trying not to stress, but am finding it frustrating.

I don't know - personally I have kept offering (not much progress since I started this thread a few weeks ago but she is now quite definitely teething which probably does not help).

But I try to offer in a very casual way (e.g. some carrot sticks in the pushchair whilst out shopping, bits of my lunch when I eat) and am not sticking her in the high chair too often. Only rice cakes and bread really get accepted - but I keep offering those and trying other things from time to time too.