Any ideas on how to wean a strong-willed, milk-minded 8mo?!

[SomethingSuitablyWitty]

My DD is eight and a half months now and I have been trying solids since 6m. Started down the fairly classical carrot puree route and in a fit of zeal pureed a supply of carrots, sweet potato, apple etc. I've never managed to get her to have more than a spoon of puree before clamping her mouth shut and turning her head. I've tried when she's hungry and when she's not hungry.

Mainly after looking on here, I decided to try BLW on the side and she does put things into her mouth - rice-cakes, bits of bread, banana, apple etc - but she has yet to swallow anything at all. She gags quite violently when she gets a piece in her mouth and has even vommed up her milk. We put her in her chair next to us at meals and give her bits to be playing with, but no real breakthrough.

Her paediatrician suggested putting fruit/veg puree into her bottle to get her used to the taste slowly - at the moment she is BF morning and evening and formula-fed in the day. This worked insofar as she now takes and seems to relish a helping of veg puree(am) and a helping of fruit puree (pm) when she drinks it in the bottle, but there has been no breakthough with the spoon and the bottle thing isn't really a solution I know.

The plan is to try and up the dose in her bottle until it is pretty thick and see where that takes us, while still continuing to give her finger food in the highchair. I was just hoping someone might have some additional ideas or suggestions... I am a bit worried about her not moving forward to a better diet.

Anybody else dealing with a picky DD?!

purees in a bottle? recommended by a paed? which country are you in?

she is v young still. take the pressure off. if she wants milk, that's what she needs. anything else is just for fun until she's 1, remember.

just offer her bits and pieces to play with and experiment with, and offer her things that you eat too, off your plate if necessary.

Pureed food in a bottle sounds like a choking hazard to me and I can't see how it will make any difference to how she takes solid food, if it isn't solid.

The gagging thing is very normal, and if she isn't ready, she just isn't ready.

Give her a bowl of puree and a spoon and let her have a go herself, and carry on with the blw.

Keep giving her the bf and ffs that she asks for and she'll get there in the end.
She is still very small and they all develop at different times, including taking to solids. She's not picky, it just takes time.

erm i dont want to sound harsh but its really not a big deal and dont stress out about it. babies dont get to 6mths and suddenly think "right thats it i'm going to eat 3 meals a day, bugger the milk"

Milk should be the main source until 12 mths.

It sound like your doing all the right things, (apart from the bottle thing its not going to get her used to a spoon or feeding self is it) over time she'll start to eat more and more.

Sit her down with you when you eat and just give her little bits.

Mine were also a pain with food until about 13 months i also stressed about it at the time! :)

I don't know the answers but I can empathise, as this describes my 7 month DD quite well. Bits of fruit, bread and rice cakes are occasionally picked up and very small bits even eaten but nothing much else (I've tried a range of vegetable sticks - even chips were refused, pasta, lentils and other pulses, egg, risotto, amonst others - all refused and generally just chucked straight on the floor). I did not really start off or particularly want to do BLW but DD refuses to be spoon fed.

I've been trying putting the purees on rice cakes recently - works up to a point and will use them up in time.

I'd really like her to eat more and particularly to try a great variety of food but she's just not having it at the moment. Today she had a bit of cereal for breakfast and has had a few small bits of bread with cheese, rice cake with carrot purree and peanut butter, bits of banana since (really very little quantities of all).

I'm hoping that nursery (I go back to work 2 days in 6 weeks) might help a bit - when she sees others eating she might not want to miss out - but I don't have many other suggestions. I've been to HV this morning - DD is very small (6.5 kg) but still growing along the same centile so they are not too concerned at the moment, just told me to keep offering new foods from time to time and see what happens. They are still very young so I try not to panic just yet. I know how frustrating it is (and stressful) to keep seeing your home cooked fare refused!

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Thanks for the responses! It's good to hear that people don't consider it a big deal diet-wise - I am inclined to worry that milk is not nutritionally sufficient and that DD is really unusual in refusing the solids: it's really nice to hear I'm wrong on both counts!

I must defend the paed's suggestion a bit though: there is no choking hazard, as there are no lumps and anyway, lumps wouldn't fit through the teat. It just introduces the tastes and gives some extra calories to the feed and DD really loves it. So I think it's been a good thing on the whole. I don't imagine that it's the right way to learn to eat though - hence the efforts with the spoon and BLW on the side.

Good luck to you too jules - we'll get there in the end and should worry less perhaps... The nursery will surely want to help you - mine are actually a bit of a source of pressure, as they keep wanting me to hand over the whole thing them. But as I too have had the feeling that DD is just not ready to have them forcing the puree on her, I will continue to resist their hints!

My DD is almost 11 months and we have the same issue - I keep telling myself food is for fun until they are 1, but 1 seems very close, and she has eaten virtually nothing so far (we have been trying BLW since 6 months).

Its hard not to worry isn't it!

I am a bit worried about her not moving forward to a better diet.

try not to worry, nutritionally you can't really get better than BM at this age! She'll absorb and utilise far more nutrients from BM than from a few spoons of carrot puree. As for the paeds suggestion that she gets a taste by putting purees in her bottles, she should already be getting different flavours through your BM but I can't see any harm in turning her formula into smoothies!! Does she like it?

I've got a nearly 8 month old and I have days where I think 'just eat will you!!' but it's a long game this feeding lark, get them used to tastes and textures, then it'll be mastering cutlery and then..... table manners!!!

Try cutting down the ffs so she's hungrier?

Although as others have said, it's no biggie at this age. Most important thing is not to get stressed or try to force it in any way - they pick up on it so quickly and it makes it worse.

I'm having the same problem. DD just about to turn 9 months and has progressed from not choking on finger foods but is not interested and will not eat more than 2 bits of anything as a finger food and will not open her mouth for more than about 3 spoonfuls of puree. The HV has suggested cutting the frequency of her breastfeeds down (today is the first day of this strategy and she has been very upset!) and also making sure I don't feed her straight after trying solids (DD seems to realise she is hungry when having the solids and wants a breast feed!) or a while before. It goes against my natural instincts but I will be out of the house from 8am to 9pm one day a week when she turns a year and she won't take a bottle or a cup so needs to be eating by then. I am just hoping for a miracle in that she will suddenly realise at 11 months that she loves food!!!

DS is almost 9mths and not super keen on food unless i am eating it, when he tries to either grab it out of my hand or off my plate. He will happily sit down to munch (fistfuls) of spaghetti, crab sticks, cucumber or even chunks of chicken, then i see whether i can tempt him with some homemade purees and if all else fails, i just fill him up with milk.

DP says, "he doesn't even have teeth yet", so don't worry about what he is eating. (DP already has 2 DCs so is more relaxed) I am being a lot less PFB about DS in all aspects. He is healthy, (very) active and gaining weight steadily so i am basically just letting him do his own thing...

keep trying new foods, there may be things she really likes. my DD goes crazy about boiled potatoes, pears (the tesco organic perfectly ripe ones are really nice) and also chicken drumsticks. i just buy organic chicken drumsticks and grill them in the oven and give her one (removing the skin) once it has cooled down, she absolutely loves it. rice cakes, banana etc she is quite bored by as well. when i give her her favourites she can eat a lot, otherwise she doesn't bother and just drinks milk. She also likes peas and generally just gnawing on baguette (because of the teeth).

My DD is 9 months old and I have noticed a big change in how many solids she eats in the last 1-2 weeks so I think if you keep going for a few more weeks and just keep offering her new things to try, you will find out what she likes.

Thanks Sanam, unfortunately she obviously has her father's food habits! Was out at a birthday party, and she tried my cake and was frenzied with enthusiasm and ate quite a lot of it!!! Back to vegetables, chicken and fruit today, she wasn't very interested. Only when sat on my lap grabbing my fork would she eat anything!

I like the idea of weaning onto birthday cake.

Actually, the suggestion to keep trying new things is very useful - I was sort of plodding away with the rice-cakes/banana etc. I hope maybe there's something out there she would really like - I'll start the search!

EERmmm sorry but I agree with others that your pead is a bit off. Vegetables cannot possibly add extra extra calories to milk feed as milk as far more calories than vege!! And fruit in many cases! Also fruit in a bottle is bad ofr her teeth, if she has any. Just such a bizarre suggestion. Follow the advice of other posters - don't stress, offer her finger foods, try the spoon too if you like. My almost one year old is currently on hunger strike apart from yoghurts and fruit.......and baby biscuits .