10 month old sometimes screams at meals.. what's going on here?

[mumtomoley]

This has been going on since january so when DS was about 8.5 months and I'm not sure what's happening.

Weaning started off brilliantly, he'd eat anything he was given (all spoon fed though) and making MMmmm noises and cry for more.

At around 8.5 months he started turning his head away and refusing his food, so I tried giving him some finger foods but he just throws them on the floor. He will scream his head off when offered his main but will always happily have his yoghurt if that's offered instead. And will reliably eat a whole weetabix even if he's refused his lunch/dinner.

If he is distracted with tv/toys then it is sometimes better. Likewise if I stir enough milk/cheese into it he'll often eat it.

I can't work out what the problem is, or what to do about it. He has two half brothers who are really fussy eaters and I'm dreading that being the case here but he enjoyed all the flavours I gave him to start with and it's not like he refuses the same thing each time so I'm not sure it's because of the flavours.

I did try BLW but he kept trying to swallow bits that were too big without chewing and ended up with red face/watery eyes and sometimes sick on the highchair and I just didn't have the nerve for it! The amount it panicked me I figured I'd end up giving him massive food issues if I had a heart attack every time he ate something.

Any thoughts? I'm loathe to just not give him anything if he refuses his dinner because then he just wakes up more in the night for milk and to be honest I'm knackered enough as it is!

Any help greatfully received!

Maybe just keep giving him sloppy foods for now? Perhaps he isn't keen on lumps yet. Will he eat scrambled egg, mashed potatoes, mashed up fish, that sort of thing?

I would keep trying him, and if all else fails he can have weetabix twice a day while he gets used to more flavours! Do you add puree to it? That is a sure fire way to get fruit into my 2.

When mine screams it is cause he wants a drink but still needs help holding water bottle or cause he wants to hold the spoon or has had enough. Sometimes sitting him on my knee for a few mouthfuls then back in high chair works....

Thanks for your replies. If I take him out and put him on my knee that sometimes works but he really cries if I try and put him back in his chair.

Having said this, he's actually been fine over the last two weeks! It always seems to work like that, I get to the end of my tether with something that's been going on for months and then as soon as I get my finger to ask and find out what's going on it stops!

Fingers crossed it doesn't come back?

Reflux? Check the reflux threads... I've done enough lol.
My ds has severe reflux. He's 18 months...
Does he gag?
Be sick?
Uncomfortable after feeds?
Refuse foods a lot?
Don't fuss about him leave him to it

Mumtomoley! It's as if youve written my exact situation. I completely sympathise.
I've been tearing my hair out (and crying my eyes out) lately with frustration and despair over the exact same set of circs (10 m/o, initially ate everything, but now screams and cries and throws his food unless he gets a fromage frais or yogurt). He hits at my hand when I try and spoonfeed him, and this sometimes pushes me to the edge of what I can cope with, when I end up being hit and whined at whilst splattered in lovingly-prepared homemade baby food.
I'm absolutely sick of it, and no idea what else to try. I'm really trying to not cave in and give him dessert (which is what he's hankering after), and to be firm with him, removing him from the table and removing the food from the equation, in the hopes that he'll realise what he's missing. At the moment though he just wines and howls in response. Seriously, I feel that this one issue alone is pushing me into PND-territory. Many is the meal time I end up weeping with my head on the table. I can't face many more mealtimes like this.
Have you tried with-holding desserts? How has that gone?
Can I also ask you a queuery? Are you giving your baby much milk? We give him sips with meals but also an 8oz bedtime feed and an 8oz dreamfeed. Been worrying that I should probably be dropping the dreamfeed by now - have you? Bit scared to, but maybe that might iron-out the feeding issues. Just a thought.
Good luck. It'd be good to hear back from you about how your situation is going.

teething? My 9 mth old goes right off food when her gums are sore, first to be refused is anything spoon fed. She will usually eat her yog tho. Best things I've found to give her is cold cucumber sticks or crunchy breadstick to munch on.

I know you say you found BLW too stressful but might you consider giving it another go? Stick with softer foods to begin with, well cooked parsnip and broccoli florets are a great start. Its just I found it absolutely and instantly soul destroying when DD refused spoonfed food I'd lovingly prepared but other than the gagging (which very quickly gets better) its totally stress free when I can just chuck a few bits of whatever we are having on the tray and let her get on with it.

Lifescomplicated sorry to hear you're experiencing the same thing. Funnily enough DS still has quite a bit of nighttime milk.. 7ozs at bedtime then another 7oz feed at some point in the night most nights. Every now and then he'll go all night without but not regularly. Last night for example, he had a feed at 7.30, then 1.30am and then drained another bottle at 5am..

People keep telling me that 'he shouldn't be having any milk at night now'.. which is great except that he cries and cries and I can't get him to settle without it. The odd night when he goes without keeps me hoping he'll grow out of it in his own time.

He got better with his food and then end of last week the crying came back. He totally refused to have any dinner at the childminders but when I tried again an hour later at home he was fine, and opening his mouth up like the channel tunnel.

How are you getting on? My current theory this week is that he just doesn't need that much food so he is crying because he's not hungry. But then if he doesn't eat then he wants more night time milk. The added complication is that Mon-Thurs he's at the childminder so I have no control over the milk he gets. He seems to refuse to have any milk at all in the day from the childminder.

I have sort of tried withholding dessert but I think I'd rather he ate something than nothing. And in my heart of hearts I don't feel like he's just messing me around because he wants his pudding. Maybe I am being naive!

fazsaeed
He doesn't seem uncomfortable after his feeds and it only seems to be with solids. The sickness only happens when he's gets something stuck in his throat, other than that when he eats he's actually fine.

domesticgoddess I have wondered about teething, he still doesn't have any teeth so something must be going on there!

Mumtomoley - Hi there. Thanks for your reply, and it's interesting to hear that your DS still has the same amount of nighttime milk as my DS does. I've been talking to a friend today about how she dropped her DD's dreamfeed, and she did it by re-instating a pre-breakfast bottle of milk instead. It feels like a bit of a step backwards re-introducing bottle feeds in the day after him being on solids and beaker only for so long, but if it means being able to drop the night feed then I'm in! She also said that apparently having a good filling amount at breakfast can be the key to getting them to eat well throughout the day. So perhaps having his bottle of milk first thing (6.30ish) followed by some breakfast at 8ish might help our little ones work up an appetite for the rest of the day.??? Well, that's the theory anyhow!
I agree about it being so hard to withhold dessert. I find myself caving in each time and filling him with fromage frais.

DomesticGoddess - I think you're probably spot-on with the teething theory! I do think a lot of it with mine has been teething-related, but less from the fact that it's painful to eat and more because the pain's been making him generally ratty and whiney and angry 24/7, so he's using his food as a bit of a weapon to have a strop over. I generally combine BLW with spoon-feeding, but the BLW has ended up being thrown like missiles recently!

Having said all this, the past 2 days have been totally different! It's like a cloud has passed and he's now eating much better and less grouchy (hooray)!! I'm just praying this lasts.

Fingers crossed for the rest of you that you get a reprieve soon too.

can i ask how your little boy ended up my little girl going through the same thing just screaming when eating and she used to love her food x