will not eat breakfast - again

[gingernutlover]

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

gingernutlover,
my ds is almost 11 months and still eats almost no breakfast and sometimes little during the day. He can eat most things but seems to be happy with milk. He's still fully breastfed so I've no idea how much milk he's actually taking. Since he's running me ragged with his energy I assume he's getting enough of something but I do worry too when he completely refuses food. If she's well enough I'd let her go at her own pace.

Gingernutlover - we often give our dd toast with fruit puree on - she loves the fruit, so the toast goes down too . Also, houmous has been a big hit, with toast or breadsticks. If I want to get more dairy into her I give it with full fat cream cheese, or do cheese on toast. But she has also had chicken casserole sandwiches when she was also in an "I don't want spoon-food, I want fingerfood mood"!!!

If I am feeling very generous and I have plenty of time I make eggy bread - egg dipped in beated egg with a dash of milk, then fried. Dd loves it and so do I .

It sounds crazy but it is so nice to read these messages and see that I am not alone, my ds is 7 months and despite me offering him food for about 10 weeks now, it is a struggle to get him to open his mouth for just 4 or 5 mouthfuls every day! It is so frustrating when my friends all have babies that pack in loads of food even though they are younger. I try to convince myself that I am just making food for the bin - at least the bin doesn't moan when I put food in it!

My ds2 (now 2) also doesn't want breakfast so he has milk in the morning, then about and hour and a half later he has a banana and maybe some toast. If not I give him Cheerios, based on the theory that as he's had his milk he can have dry cereal if he wants as it all amounts to the same thing in the end.

If we're going out I just take butter sandwiches and when he's hungry he'll eat them.

I totally understand why you're stressing as I was the same but if you just offer her something a little later she would probably eat if hungry.

My DS is 8 months and sometimes he eats breakfast, sometimes he doesn't. In fact, he's like that with all meals. I know it's stressful as you feel that they should be having something. And everyone keeps telling you that they need 3 solid meals a day blah blah blah. But I discovered a few weeks ago that the more stressed I became about it, the more stressed he got and refused more often.

Now I offer food and if it's really not wanted then he just doesn't eat. I've been told that milk is the most important thing until they're a year and anything else is a bonus. DS seems to eat far more when it's finger foods. I think it's probably because he isn't THAT hungry but is happy to munch away at some bits himself as it's fun.

Timing wise, I offer milk when DS wakes and then we get dressed etc, go downstairs and I prepare breakfast. Probably about 45 mins after the milk.