Won't eat! Retching and vomiting when offered feeds

[rufus5]

My DD is 7 months and I've been trying to start weaning her for about 6 weeks now. She occasionally has taken a brilliant feed from the spoon (making me think 'yay! finally we're getting somewhere') but most of the time she retches violently at the slightest taste of any puree. It doesn't seem to be the spoon she dislikes as she will retch even if I just put some puree on her lips for her to lick at.

I've tried her with all sorts of flavours but even the very bland baby rice causes gruesome faces and immediate retches. Once when I persisted trying to give her puree she projectile vomited everywhere!

Contemplated BLW but she is not one bit interested in putting food in her mouth, and I am really not keen on that route as I would have no idea how much she's taking. She still takes her milk feeds well, but even when I cut down how much milk I give her she still refuses the food.

I know she's getting all she needs from the milk, but I thought a couple of weeks would be enough to get her taking some purees and am beginning to worry about the violent retching still occurring. I appreciate any advice! Thanks.

I would definitely take a step back from purees and go for finger foods. Just put her in the highchair while you are eating, put a tiny bit of what you are eating in front of her and ignore her for a bit. Don't cut down her milk at all at this age, mine didn't start to cut down their milk until about 3 months after weaning started, this is normal - with one of them I had to cut down his milk for him thegreedy sod but this was well after he'd started having 3 meals a day.

Baby rice is clearly foul, have you ever tried it? It has the texture of wallpaper paste. Try putting some chunks of banana in front of her. Give it another couple of weeks trying toast or banana or whatever you're eating, take the pressure right off - don't try and force her to eat anything. If nothing's happening at 8 months go to GP. If she is still having all her milk feeds, weaning is about learning to eat at this point, not consuming enough calories to keep her going, the milk is providing that.

Totally agree with Combine, just put a little of whatever you are having on her tray and ignore and let her play. It really doesn't matter if you don't know how much she is actually eating as she doesn't seem to be eating anything now anyway.

Don't cut down on her milk as this could restrict her growth. Also agree with waiting a month or so and then getting her checked out at the GP.

My DD would never accept anything if we spoon fed her. She would feed herself with a spoon when she was a little older but at that age it was finger food or nothing, she simply would not eat if we tried to feed her.

Me too - I agree about taking a step back.

They say babies have to taste something like 17 times before they'll accept a new taste.
My little girl retches and pulls really funny faces, as if she is being poisoned. But often she'll put it to her mouth again and again 3 or 4 times, and then try putting it in (and then spit it out a few times before actually eating it).
She is a good eater, though. She'll stuff food down if she recognises it in front of her and also if after a little taste she realises she had had it before. And she likes lots of strong tastes. Just likes to get used to new things slowly.

We don't spoon feed very much at all - yoghurt and once or twice she has had icecream. We are happy to let her do it at her own pace. I don't think she'd be happy at all if we were trying to spoon feed her while she was deciding if she was going to like something.

Even if you don't want to do baby led weaning (although i don't really understand why you need to know how much she has - i know lots of people say this but its just something i don't get) I would say let your little girl decide what she wants. Even if you are spoon feeding, she needs to be able to accept or refuse the food. I would expect her to vomit if she's 'accidentally' swallowed something she doesn't trust.
And i don't think its abnormal to refuse new foods for the first 2 - 3 meals she is offered it. I'd stick to, say 4 or 5 different meals and see if she starts to accept them once she recognises the taste.
If/when these go down ok, then slowly introduce more and let her get used to them at her pace.