6mo clamping mouth shut and refusing all food

[catgirl1976]

DS is 6 months old. He's a big baby (99.6th percentile for height and 98th for weight). We have started weaning at 24 weeks on the advice of the HV. He is super hungry atm, sitting up, has 3 teeth and has been trying to grab our food for ages. We thought he would be more than ready for it

However..........so far we have tried baby rice, baby cereal, apple puree, carrot puree, butternut squash puree, avocado puree, mango puree, mushed up bannan and milk - all with the same effect. I have the AK weaning book and have been lovingly steaming and blending all week :)

As soon as he sees the spoon he clamps his mouth shut. We have managed to get tiny tastes in his mouth but thats a struggle. We have never got the spoon in and he wont open his mouth. After both mango and butternut squash he massviely projectile vomited - I am not sure if thats coincidence, severe dislike, gagging, allergy or nothing at all.

I am worried that he won't eat and also that we are going to create a negative association. I was going to leave it for a bit but HV said "oh no - you must persevere, small window etc" so ok.

I am now thinking BLW seems like a good idea but I don't know a lot about it and am scared to give him a chunk of food in case he chokes or something.

Does anyone have advice on whether I should carry on with the purees and if so how to get him to open his mouth or if BLW is a good idea and if so - what do I do and can you allay my fears?

Thank you!

I would stop the spoons, & Give him cooked pieces of veg, rice cakes & fingers of buttered toast. Don't leave him alone with food. They do have to learn how to eat & not choke, so help him learn on your terms, with you around whilst he's getting hang of it.

Thanks ragged

What sort of size should these pieces be?

What do I do if he chokes (scared PFB novice mum symbol?

Yes I agree. Go the baby led route for now. You can soak chunks of bread in his purees or soups and leave one or two peaces on the high chair table. Same with soft fruit or cooked veg.

Let him do it all on his terms for now and watch you eating.

One tip is to make sure he's not actually that hungry when you sit him down for tasting solids. He'll be more likely to try things if he's not desperately hungry.

OK - so I am looking at soft food then - ie the veg cooked till it is mushy but just holding its shape so he can grab it / soggy bread / or soft fruit like a ripe banana

What sort of size? I saw something that said "fist size" but didn't know if they meant mine or his

I had this with DD. I did BLW for a few days and also gave her spoons to play with. HV suggested giving her solids before milk rather than milk first (she's BF) and since I tried that, she's scoffed food like its going out of fashion. Try to stay calm, easier said than done i know, but if he picks up on your stress it'll just make things worse.

I've tried really hard not to look stressed and make it all seem like fun

He reaches for the food but just doesn't seem to recognise it as food IYSWIM - just as something to grab, but I think if he did get hold of it, being a baby, he would end up putting it in his mouth

I am just so irrationally spooked by the idea of him putting something solid in his mouth! I don't know what's wrong with me - I know he has to learn to eat and DH (who has never heard of BLW) said "What did they do in the olden days before blenders? Surely they just gave them little bits to try - how come we can't do that"

nothing can substitute for going on a real course, but there's a really good outline at the bottom of this piece. www.babyledweaning.com/2012/baby-led-weaning-diary-and-its-goodbye-from-siobhan-and-some-stuff-about-choking/

sorry, real resus course, meant to say.

Arrgh that link is useful but the thought is so scary.

I think a course is a great idea and might just boost my confidence - I shall have a google and see if there are any near me

The thing is Catgirl he doesn't know it's food does he? I think it takes a good few weeks or months for them to connect solid food with the fact that it will stop them being hungry IYSWIM. If they are starving hungry they want milk. Not unreasonably really as it has been the deal for the previous 6 months :)

Honestly, have faith in his ability to decide what to put in his mouth. You'll be amazed - I was when we tried it. I remember some friends of mine being gobsmacked at DD feeding herself a banana, albeit somewhat messily, at around 7 months. It just takes all the stress out of weaning - albeit at the cost of a clean kitchen floor.

Dd2 (7 mo) is leading her own weaning, much to my surprise, as ds1 couldnt even pick up food until about 9 months old. She had barely had more than 3 spoonfuls of mush at any one sitting yet will happily munch on rice cakes, toast, spiral pasta etc, She does gag occasionally but I ve never had to help her- apparently the gag reflex is further forward in babies so it might look worrying but it's actually better they gag than let food go further back to choke.

I dip all the finger foods I give her in the purees so at least I'm not wasting them. They also soften it too

my local maternity hosp ran a free one, in fact i wrote about it www.babyledweaning.com/features/gagging/the-gagging-thing-v-the-choking-thing/, it was really comforting. the thing about choking imo is that you would have to be CRAZY not to want to know what to do if the worst happened, but that there are a lot of people who just don't want to confront that fear.

my pal told me about blw, but didn't do it because she was scared of choking. i asked her what she would do if the baby choked on something she picked up off the floor...

Agree - I need to learn how to deal with chocking with or without BLW

Will find a course

Are there any good BLW books (or do I not need that?)

Catgirl, your LO sounds like my DD. I also started at 24 weeks, lovingly created purees of all sorts. I also had the AK book, and all the mums I knew followed AK. But my DD just closed her mouth shut to the spoon. (Or she grabbed it and then catapult the purees across the room). On the advice of my HV, I started BLW instead.

Aitch website www.babyledweaning.com has all the info you need. It's really as simple as give whatever you eat to your baby. You just can't give whole nuts (choking hazard) and honey (botulism). And obviously watch the salt and sugar. You can start with the same food you'd puree for your LO. Carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squashes. I weaned my DD over winter so we did lots of roast veg. In summer, maybe boiled would be easier unless you are doing a roast too.

And like your DH says, what do they do before blenders!

As pointed out upthread, it'll take them a while to understand food can satisfy hunger. So I kept bf on demand, and have meals with her when we have it. I never timed the two toghether until much later. My DD got eating around 8-9mo.

As for books, you don't need it. But I love cookbooks, and so I got the baby led weaning cookbook, river cottage baby and toddler and my daddy cooks. There are quite a few burger patties type recipes in the BLW cookbook which I used in the early days. They are soft and easy for DD especially since she had no teeth. (My usual burger pattie recipes are all flavoured with salt, so not that great for babies). The other two books have more family type meals that are much tastier, IMHO. I'm still cooking the fruit muffins from the river cottage one every week as it's much lower sugar than the muffins I used to make.

I also did a first aid course with the red cross. It's really worth it. Especially when you see the reckless behaviour your LO can get up to when they are mobile.

Thanks onelittlebaby:) - really appreciate the advice and support! Like the cook book reccomends too

Tonight we are going for a little bit of banana! God knows why I feel so nervous!

I just used to sit DS in my lap when I was eating, make sure my food wasn't too hot, and let him get on with it. The good thing about that is you can't see what he's eating so you don't get fixated on amounts.

The downside is he now hates highchairs. But that might just be him!

lololol NOT BANANA! it made both of mine quite gaggy and chokey. try some steamed carrot or broccoli, steamed to the point where it's bendy and you can squish it between your finger and thumb.

Hi, great to everyone's views on this as I too have a 6 month old who doesn't want to eat. He has occassionally eaten baby rice and porridge, but he's just not interested. I have a freezer full of ice cube sized pureed veg lovely prepared and all going to waste. I have tried BLW, he will occassionally eat something. I'm not stressing about it anymore as all babies develop at different rates. My little one has had a tooth for nearly a month, yet his cousin who is 8 months older has only just cut his first! I think you just need to keep perservering, one day I'm sure they will just decide to have three meals a day and will have worried over nothing.

goodmummy sounds like our DCs would get on :)

I agree with you - lets not stress and let them work it out.........

Tried the bit of banana.

He sqooshed it in his hand and threw it on the floor - no interest in putting it in his mouth at all! :)

both of mine started eating fairly early but even at that weren't on three meals a day for months...