6-month-old not interested in solids

[Marabou]

Hi all,

My DS is 6 months old today and I started him with a bit of baby rice two weeks ago. In the beginning he was quite keen on eating it and I gave him the baby rice and some smooth baby porridge once a day for the first week. I also tried BLW and gave him a piece of boiled carrot and some banana, but he didn't really do anything with them so I just stuck with spoonfeeding him.

However, for about a week now he has been complitely disinterested in solids and I cannot get him to eat more than a teaspoon and mostly not even that. So far he's tried carrot (hated it and wouldn't eat it at all), broccoli and carrot (this was ok with him surprisingly), avocado (hated it), banana (wasn't interested) and potato (not interested). I'm getting a bit frustrated and don't know what to make of this. Is he not ready?

Would be grateful for any ideas?

Its hard, but I would just persist with lots of different foods, also try eating something with him, they normally want what you have, so then you can give him some.

Try things like rice cakes and toast as I think they find it easier to hold, my dd can't really hold bananas and steamed carrots, they are too slippery, but toast and mini sandwiches are easy for her to hold. She hated avocado too.

Food should be fun for then at this age, find a way to make it fun for him.
Good luck

My DS hated all those foods at 6 months, he did however love applesauce, any fruit puree really, mushed peas, heavily buttered toast, I think weetabix not long after. We also gave him some of the ella's kitchen pouches occasionally and, embarrasingly, he loved those more than anything we cooked.

Just keep trying different things. You'd be surprised what they eat, I think DS also ate mushed up spag bol at that age.

Also suggest not paying attention to what anyone says he should be doing and just try to find what works for him.

Thank you for your replies and the tips! I really feel at wits end and I don't really know if I should just keep throwing new tastes at him every day or just try the same one for a couple of days like the HV advised, even though he clearly isn't keen..

Anyway, I've now made some applesauce and will try that a bit later today and I really hope he'll try that.. Mind you I only had Granny Smith apples, so I hope the taste won't be too tart for him.. In that case I'm planning to mix it with a bit of rice pudding. And try to distract him with and make him laugh so I can sneak a few spoonfuls in his mouth:)!

I really wasn't expecting him to be so reluctant to try food! Lately he's even started to intentionally gag and throw up if I try to get him to eat something he doesn't like. I've been trying to get him to take his vitamin drops and he will just throw up ! I had also hoped to start supplementing with formula, but he doesn't like that either... Aah, I don't know if it's just me being impatient..

My wee one is/was the same! She's 7-and-a-bit months now. She will eat bread and toast, pear puree, mashed potato with curry powder (but not plain mashed potato), and pureed mushrooms with sesame oil mixed in (but neither plain mushroom puree nor anything else with sesame oil). Most other things she will only have small amounts of if she's feeling sympathetic to me!!!
She'll only try things if they come off my plate, or if I put a teensy dot of it on my finger which she will lick off and think about before deciding if she will condescend to eat it.
She won't eat at all unless I sit and eat with her, and invariably it goes far better if she can have a spoon too.
It's really hard going but she is getting much much better.

I was a total lunatic during weaning I just wanted him to eat and he wouldn't eat

But the thing is -- they are not going to let themselves starve. They are still getting most of their calories from milk and the transition to solids can take as long as you need to, eventually they will get there. It's hard when you hear people saying 'Oh I just did BLW and within 3 days they were eating roast dinners', but there are plenty of people for whom it takes much, much longer. Even now, my DS (18months) sometimes won't eat breakfast at all and we have to give him fortified milk. But it's fine.

If you go into each day thinking you have to get him to eat, it will be really stressful. I only calmed down once I started thinking: today I'm going to offer him some food, let's see if he'll eat it. No? Okay, let's try again tomorrow.

At 6 months he would eat hardly anything, at 9 months he was scarfing down everything. So try not to worry! Just keep trying things, he'll get there.

Really don't worry if he isn't taking solids, at this age it is more about exploring tastes and textures.

If you are doing purees, apple is a good one. I did purees with DS and when he'd had apple a couple of times I started adding a bit of spice into it. Nothing too strong, just a bit of cinnamon or cardamon, just to get him used to different flavours.

Know that you have tried finger foods and he didn't take much but I would continue offering them. Could you try giving him something like sweet potato wedges to hold? He may not seem to eat much but it would get him used to feeding himself and trying something new and you could eat the rest .

Strips of cooked meat like chicken or beef are good for them to hold and if he is fussy you could try offering him a few different things at a time, like a strip of chicken, a pear and a piece of cheese.

Having done one with puree and one with BLW I'd advise BLW everytime, it is so, so much easier.

Oh and if you want to stick with purees have you tried mixing them with his usual milk and this will give it a smell and flavour he is used to.

Maybe just stop for a week or two to take the pressure off?

Bertie sounds like a great idea. Would give the OP and her LO time to relax and maybe he will be more interested when weaning restarts.

If he's coming down with something, he might be off his food too.

Hello all and thank you all for your replies and suggestions. Very reassuring to know others have gone through similar issues! I've decided to stop worrying too much and just take one day at a time, like you all say. And it's good to realise he doesn't actually rely on the solid food at this stage for the majority of the calories he needs...

He actually had a bit of a cold in the beginning of the week, which might have had something to do with him being a bit impatient, although it didn't make him go off his milk.. But then again, I don't think he yet realises that the various "weird things" I keep trying to sneak in his mouth actually could satisfy his hunger..

I've now tried giving him a piece of toast when I was having breakfast, but he was very careful not to put it in his mouth anymore after he discovered it had a taste unlike his other toys! I might try a bit of chicken, which I was thinking to have for dinner tomorrow.. By the way, the applesauce was not a success...

Funny enough, today I was having spaghetti with tomato and herb sauce for lunch and as he seemed curious I gave him a spaghetti string to play with (which he once again never put in his mouth) and I also gave him a bit of the sauce with the tip of my finger and he sucked it off quite eagerly ! I've heard tomatoes are not the best first food due to their acidity, but surely cooked tomatoes should be ok?

As long as the sauce isn't too high in salt there is no reason that he couldn't have had what you were having Marabou, if he seems interested in it again you could just dollop some on his tray and see what he does .

Never heard of the tomato thing, from 6 months they can more or less have what you have so there is no need to worry about certain foods, unless they are the ones that aren't recommended until 12 months or are high in salt or are junk.

As for the weird things satisfying his hunger, there is a lot less calories, vitamins and minerals in the solids than in his milk and it is the milk that should be satisfying his hunger at the moment, so don't worry about that.

Just wondered if you've seen the NHS info on weaning Marabou?

The sauce probably was too high in salt, which is why I didn't offer it to him more than a few times and even then just a teeny bit. But I'm thinking if he liked the taste I'll make some for him without the stock cubes... I had just heard that tomato is a common allergen and therefore not really suitable as a first food. Don't know if that's true...

Thank you for attaching the link to the NHS site, I hadn't seen it. I had just assumed the info would be pretty much the same as the one in the "Birth to Five"-book, which I don't find very helpful. Actually I found the NHS info quite helpful!

Never heard of the tomato allergen thing and never met anyone with a tomato allergy either and it's not mentioned on the NHS website so I wouldn't worry about it.

As for the stock cubes there is a good link here on low salt stock cubes. If you cook with those he can have everything you have, assuming that you have a healthy diet that is! .

Tomato is acidic. Just check if he gets nappy rash, that's what happens when DD has too much acidic food.

Hih, thanks so much for the thread on the low salt stock cubes, JiltedJohnsJulie, hadn't seen it on here until now!

Yes I had also heard they can get a nappy rash, if they eat tomato, but somehow I thought if it's cooked, it wouldn't be so acidic anymore.. So far DS hasn't had a bad reaction, although some of the tomato hadn't been digested and came out in his poo..

This morning I tried giving him a piece of toast and he actually found it quite interesting and managed to chew on it a bit. I also noticed that he doesn't like to be spoon fed, but when I try with my finger he might actually have some of the food...

I'd like to add really don't worry how much they eat at all. Food isn't about nutrition at this age. 7mo DD is in hospital at the moment, and they put her off all solids. She's been living on milk, milk and more milk for 5 days now. Just shows even the paeds think that milk is the only thing that matters at 7mo!

The toast is a good progress isn't it? He seems to like to play with it. You can always spread things like cream cheese, avocado on them instead of just butter.

Oh I'm so sorry to hear your LO is in hospital! Hope she gets better soon!

Yes I was happy to see DS was interested in the toast - unfortunately it was rather short lived excitement, as yesterday he hardly touched it. But you are right, I have to learn to accept that this is a process and so far as he takes his milk, he'll continue to thrive. I think I rather like food myself so can't wait to enjoy it together with him !

Sorry to hear about your DD too lilham, hope she gets better soon.