Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

will not eat breakfast - again

30 replies

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 10:46

dd is off her breakfast again. ON the HV advice I have stopped 11am bottle, she wasn't drinking it anyway. she has a 6oz bottle at 8am and then will not eat breakfast, and is happy until about 11am, when she has a cup of water and snack then lunch at midday. The HV has advised I stop the morning bottle too to get her to eat brekky but then she would only have 12 oz of milk a day, no where near enough and no way I can get her to eat 8oz worth of milky food. I am inclined to carry on the morning bottle and stop offering the breakfast (cereal) for the time being, may be just give her some finger food to fiddle with in high chair at breakfast.

It ios really doing my head in to have her refuse her breakfast every morning, really not a good start to the day when I am already feeling so crap.

DH seems to think I should just stiuck to routine and continue offering but her is not there every morning having weetabix flung at him and screaming baby.

feel so fed up and this is not helping.

she is now screaming in cot, better go and fish her out

OP posts:

misdee · 03/04/2006 10:47

how old is she?

jmum6 · 03/04/2006 10:54

Oh dear my ds does this with his bottle in the morning. Apparently baby's are so desparate for milk in the morning that they aren't happy to eat breakfast.

What I do now is give him the bottle straight away, then after an oz I pull bottle out and spoon a spoonful of cereal in (he opens his mouth because he wants the milk!), then offer bottle then repeat.

So he takes alternate spoonfuls of solids and drinks of milk. It's probably not advisable to do this but it works for me.

I'm happy, he's happy! :o

Twiglett · 03/04/2006 10:55

stop worrying about it .. some kids just don't eat breakfast .. my DS would never eat first thing in the mornign .. it took him a good hour for his tummy to wake up

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 10:55

she is almost 7 m

OP posts:

VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2006 10:56

Im afraid i agree with your DH.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2006 10:56

Im afraid i agree with your DH.

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 10:57

thanks twiglett i know she can't be thast desp for anything in the morning as she is happy to wait til 8 for milk after her last feed at 7pm at bedtIME. am i right in thinking it is milk that is more importsant anyeway at this age?

OP posts:

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 10:58

why vvv - not saying its wrong but wondered

OP posts:

misdee · 03/04/2006 11:17

what about offering her some toast in the mornings after her bottle?

VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2006 11:18

Because, my two both used to (well DS still does - had weetabix flung at me this morning) do this with food on and off.

Come to think of it - DD still does too but i pay no attention to it now - she is nearly 3. I have found that their appetite just goes up and down. Some days i feel like she is going to eat me out of house and home and other days she hardly eats at all.

If you dont make an issue of it, ie offer it and if they dont want just leave it and carry on with the day. Its a much more worrying experience with a baby when they refuse food but the less stress involved around dinner times the better.

I have never found it helpful to make a battle out of dinner times - it just escalates something small into becoming a problem IMO.

So i would still offer breakfast, if she refuses it then leave it, if not then thats great.

Try not to worry if she is gaining weight well enough.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2006 11:19

And yes - her milk feeds are more important than anything else in the first year.

moondog · 03/04/2006 11:20

Gosh,leave her with her milk.
She's awfully young. A lot of babies are taking no food at all at this age.
Save yourself the aggro and ignore the HV.

Spongebob · 03/04/2006 11:21

My DS went through this stage at about the same age. I found that giving him his morning milk about 7, then waiting an hour until he was hungry before giving breakfast....then varied it....one morning porridge, then weetabix, then yoghurt and cut up fruit etc....btw, he grew out of it and now guzzles milk and breakfast one after the other.

Littlefish · 03/04/2006 11:22

Agree with Moondog. Milk is more important. My dd didn't get really established with breakfast until about 10 months. She's 16 months old now, and I still give her milk at about 7.00am, but leave breakfast until 8.00am.

tiktok · 03/04/2006 12:12

And this (refusal of breakfast at 7 months) is a problem because.....?????

Sorry, ginger, I can hear you are frustrated, but honestly....why bother getting in a stew about it? Doing your head in? Getting fed up? Making you feel crap? Why????

Offer it briefly and if she doesn't want it, forget about it.

Like....what's gonna happen?

Your HV is being stupid, by the way.

gigglinggoblin · 03/04/2006 12:16

i seem to remember that mine were only on 2 meals a day at that age anyway. weaning is supposed to be a fun and happy time. listen to your baby, she knows more about what she wants than your hv. and dont feel you have to do something because someone else has said you should. mummy knows best

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 13:09

OKAY THANKS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT and reassurance, think i will give the cereal a break for a BIT BUT STILL OFFER HER LINTTLE FINGER S OF toast etc which she enjoys. Tik tok, yes it is stressing me out, sorry, will try to buck my ideas up I guess like everyone wants me to.

OP posts:

wools · 03/04/2006 13:15

Hi GNL....just wanted to let you know my ds is like this as well.....he can't be bothered with breakfast. He doesn't even like a lot of milk in the morning. He does eat a good lunch though and tea is not too bad either. I've given up worrying about it...he looks healthy. HVs do make people worry an awful lot - take no notice and give your dd what she wants.

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 14:09

THANK YOU WOOLS

OP posts:

forevermore · 03/04/2006 15:09

my dd is 8 months and breakfast is a struggle sometimes, in fact its more like brunch! be thankful that your baby has the milk, i have to give her 7 ozs in 3 bursts, the 1st being at 2am, then a bit at 6 am then teh rest at 7am (any tips on this one would be great, tried waiting till 7am but she will still only take her token 3 ozs)
Thats just to get her to drink up to 8 ozs before breakfast so that i can fit the recomnded 20ozs in the day.

i then give breakfast at 9-10am, she wouldn't have it earlier, and try and sneak about 3 ozs in then (phew that 11 ozs so far only 9 to go), then i give 3 ozs at 12-12.30, and another 4ozs 30 minutes later, she won't take 7 in one go!

yeh only 2 ozs left to make the 20oz mark!

i then give a snack at 2ish (finger food and yogurt), big spoon feed at 5ish with 2ozs milk as a drink! and water whenever throughout the day.

if any of the previous milk feeds have gone bad then i have to make up the 'shortfall' with a dreamfeed...

i anyone who can get their baby to drink a 7oz bottle in one go, i have never managed it, except when we were in the Caribbean at christmas and it was so hot she downed 7 ozs to quench her thirst...by the way, despite all of this she is developing well, just started crawling and weight gain is fine (75th centile)..i haven't quite got there totally, but i have made marvelous inroads in not being anxious about it (see previous threads and you'll see how awful feeding dd has been since day 1)

now you can think of me when you're feeling frustrtated and thank your lucky stars! oh yes and i work 4 full days a week! (not looking for sympathy honest)

HTH

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 15:17

forevermore - I know what you mean, dd was exactly like this up unitl I weaned her, so am glad that has made a diff - a bit. Hope you are doing okay, I know I shouldn't moan as lots of people have far worse problems than me. Will try ot chill out about it. I am going back to work in sept, hopefully she will be more settled by then, will be about a year old.

thank you for making me realise it could be worse, best wishes to you and your dd.

OP posts:

lazycow · 03/04/2006 15:46

Ds is a good eater but at 7 months he often wouldn't have much to eat at all. I was only giving him food one or two times a day (usually only once) and that was a couple of spoons of puree fruit/veg. He was mostly on milk. He never wanted anything for breakfast. I fed him in the evening and at about 8 months I tried giving him a few spoons at lunch too.

Honestly he eats well now but only started to be interested at 8 months plus and even then breakfast was a no no for ages.

She is so young milk is more important now. Keep offering by all means but try not to stress -easier said than done I know

BTW the differnce in ds's eating between 7 months and 12 months was phenomenal. Your dd should be fine when you go back to work.

Original poster

gingernutlover · 03/04/2006 19:00

thankyou lazycow I guess because when I started weaning I did just breakfast I assumed she would keep on wanting it.

Toady she refused breakfast apart from chewing on toast before flinging it merrily everywhere but ate a good sized lunch and dinner both with 2 courses and also drunk 18oz of milk.

I think I will keep on with the toast. At the moment she has it either plain or with unsalted butter, is there anything else she can have on it, I am assuming marmite or peanut butter are no no's. Also, any other ideas about finger foods she could have for breakfast?

OP posts:

wools · 03/04/2006 19:46

GNL, you could try spreading toast with a little mashed banana. I sometimes give my ds a rusk to nibble at, more for practice than to get anything down him.

lazycow · 05/04/2006 11:00

I sometimes give ds mashed avocado on toast as well as banana.

Also Philadelphia cheese though I think 6 months might be a bit young for that - check the salt content first.

Flip

1 2