A sweet tooth..... heeelllpppp!

[peachandpear]

Hello. Me again!!!! 8 month old faffing with food. Suddenly realised he quite happily opened his mouth for sweet stuff ie fruit and fromage frais but simply refused to open his mouth for anything savoury. Will eat breaksticks and marmite toast but thats about it. He has never had anything like chocolate or icecream by the way before you all think I am a terrible mother!!

How would you handle it? Today I got so fed up I just let him eat fruit and fromage frais and didn't bother with anything savoury.... got fed up with throwing it in the bin. Tried the have a pudding mouthful, then sneak a savoury mouthful in, (he just spits out the savoury mouthful and yells at me!) HELP. Will he live on fruit and fromage frais for the rest of his life!!!!????

A sweet tooth is perfectly normal - breast milk is pretty sweet.

I'd just keep offering savoury foods, but don't stress about it. I notice the two savoury foods he's accepting are both finger foods - do you offer lots of savoury finger foods?

dip the veg in the fruit

choose the sweeter veg .. sweet potato, corn etc

don't give him fromage frais or fruit at every meal ... they don't need pudding (mine certainly get pudding as a treat)

and most importantly

don't sweat it

I have tried giving steamed veg as finger food and he won't eat it. Have tried sweeter veg, he used to love butternut squash... won't touch it now! Should I not give any puddings at all and hope he gets the message? Can they get the message at this age?

can't tell you what to do

can just say that mine never got puddings really .. well not as a matter of course and they still dont (4.9 and 19 months)

I would say don't be afraid to use spices ... babies can get bored with bland food IMO

P&P, I got around this by mixing sweet and savory - such as apple and carrot (I know - awful) and increasing the savory component until it was all carrot. Done over a week or so, I never had any problem moving to savory!

Is the fromage frais sweetened or natural? If sweetened I would do the same, mixing it with natural and increase until they are only having natural!

Oh yeah, if the fromage frais is sweetened, I'd leave it out. Fruit is plenty of pudding for this age.

I do sometimes give sweetened yogurt to my DS2 (14 months), but it's mixed with plain yogurt, to make it less sweet. And even then, it's a twice-a-week sort of thing.

Thanks you lot. Will try that.

Be careful almost all Fromage frais and yogurts have piles of sugar and are teeth-achingly sweet but we have found the Mums4 yogurt really good as a dessert which isn't too sweet. My 1 year old laps it up.

Hi Peach&Pear,

Was wondering how you were doing. Have just come across your thread after yet another day of throwing away all the savoury stuff I've offered my 7.5 month dd. She sounds like your ds - used to lurve sweet potato, butternut squash etc but now won't eat anything but fruit and yoghurt. I am getting very anxious since my very sympathetic HV told me that I was malnourishing dd last time I went to see her because she wasn't on 3 square meals a day by 7 months.

Help!

To use an oft-heard MN quote: "Don't some HVs need a slap?" Malnourishing my a**e! At 7.5 months babies should get most of their calories from milk - breast or formula. Up until a baby is at least one year, food is for learning about textures, tastes, the properties of objects, the social aspects of eating, etc. It's not for filling them up - that's the job of milk. As Twiglett said, don't sweat it!

Hello! Well not doing so bad I suppose. He seems to have suddenly started taking more milk and I am happily letting him. He also seems to be refusing most spoon fed foods so I have given up with that too and just offering finger foods. As for the sweet tooth. Do you know what I discovered!? DH was secretely feeding him sweet biscuits and chocolate DD2 told me!!!! Had a right go at him. He has agreed to stop and DS3 seems to be happier with his savoury finger foods now!