Almost 9 months old and reay struggling with weaning

[mancbird]

My ds is now almost 9 months old and I am really struggling to get him to eat anything that isn't fruit or yogurt. He hates vegetables and refuses point blank to eat them.

We started with blw at 6 months but he didn't seem to be eating anything at all so we started on purees. He loves Ella's Kitchen but will not eat anything I make :( He will eat anything fruity but vegetables make him retch and he won't open his mouth to eat them. I've tried doing a spoon of fruit, a spoon of veg but he gets wise to it and won't open his mouth for either :(

He is having between 600 - 1000ml of milk a day (more often than not it is around 800ml).

He will eat pureed fruit and yogurt no problem, but I know he can't live on just that!

So, wise mumsnetters, do you have any tips / suggestions for things I should try to get him to eat a more varied diet? :)

What does your almost 9 month old eat? Really looking for ideas! Thank you :)

We're struggling here with our 9mo DS too. We were making progress with 3 meals a day, some days he'd et the lot and others barely a thing. Then 3 weeks ago he got gastroenteritis and thy was all our hard work down the drain. He's only now starting to accept solids again, and generally only yoghurt or fruit. All we're doing is offering meals and snacks as usual, and trying to give a variety, and just hoping he gets the idea again. Sorry I'm not much help, just thought you'd like to know you're not alone (contrary to what my ILs would have me believe, there's nothing abnormal about solid refusal) but the best advice I can give is don't stress about it, they get there in the end

Hey OP

Have you tried mixing fruit and veg eg apple and carrot or squash and pear? Sounds a bit odd but we did this with DD1 along side BLW and gradually reduced the fruit in the puree - it worked for us.

HTH

At 9mo, my DD started picking up on eating, and dropped all her day feeds naturally. It did take my DD 3 months to get the hang of eating normal meals. We did BLW so it probably was longer than purees. She's at nursery also at 9mo, she ate whatever we ate at home, and also whatever the toddlers and preschoolers ate at nursery. She would also ate the same stuff as us when we go out. (I usually ordered an extra side so there was a bit more to go around).

If I have to be blunt, what you have gone wrong on is given in on the savory, and let him have the cake (ie fruit and yoghurt). If you would have insisted on just giving the savory, then he'd be used to it by now. Pouches aren't bad in themselves, but they are super smooth and very sweet, and they'll grow to reject your homemade if you let them.

Just keep offering other types of food along side the fruit and yoghurt. And hopefully he'll get used to the look, feel and tastes of them. Remember they won't starve.

Favorite food, which is still true now, include

• burger patties (including really exotic ones like tuna, tofu and miso)
• omelettes
• pasta
• tomatoes
• soft fruits (strawberries, cherries, kiwi fruits)

Other things get chunked on the floor regularly, but she'll somtimes suprise me by putting a lump of chicken or a green bean into her mouth.

Thank you for all your replies :) It's a relief to know I'm not alone in this :)

I have tried mixing the veg with fruit, but he will only eat this if it is more fruit than veg iykwim?

I think you are right about the "giving in" as everyone kept saying, let him eat what he wants, as long as he's eating something it doesn't matter what it is but now I'm thinking I should have pushed the vegetables more!

I love the idea of burger patties, omelettes, pasta etc the whole blw, but how do they actually eat this? Do you literally plonk some pasta on the highchair and let them dig in with their hands? What about messier foods like lasagne etc?

I did try putting some pasta twirls out for him, but he refused point blank to eat them and cried when he touched them :(

I has enormous difficulty with DS (now 19m). I has expected weaning to be really easy and that as soon as he tried proper food he'd lap it up. Like you I found that he would only eat sweet things. Gradually altering the ratio of sweet to savoury didn't really work.

What was most successful for us was BLW. Try:
meatballs
burgers
goujons
strips of red or yellow pepper
polenta chips
carrots
sweet potato
parsnips
cucumber
omlette strips
risotto balls
croquettes
peas
baby sweetcorns

There are some recipes on the Annabel Karmel website. I found the River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook really useful too.

Don't worry too much about it - he'll get there in the end.

Also, avocado

mancbird yes, just plonk the pasta on the high chair tray. We started with fusilli. But at 9mo, he might have good enough dexterity to handle macaroni too. I still don't really give spaghetti at 15mo because I hate the mess it creates.

I forgot to say that DS will (when he feels like it!) eat pasta like fusilli, usually with tomato based sauce. I just stick some on his tray and he helps himself

Mine likes them with tomato or pesto sauce.

Invest in a ground sheet, we got ours from wilko, it was under £5 and more than 2 years later I still use it every day.

I gave DD mash, cottage pie, lasagne and all manner of sloppy stuff. We just put it into small lumps or mounds dotted around her tray. Messy, yes but great fun. IMO you cant beat the kodac moments created by BLW