HELP! Baby wont eat anything!

[m4ya]

Hello everyone,
I've been trying to wean ds 6.2months for over a month now on the advice of the doctor because ds is under weight.
But I have a really big problem because he wont eat anything I give him. I cook all his food at home but after all the effort, I'd be lucky if he eats even a spoon.
I'm thinking Im doing something wrong but I gave some of my cooked food to my nephew 7months and he finished it all!
Anyone got any advice of when or what I should feed him! Im getting very worried because he still isnt putting on any weight!
Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks.

are you pureing food? if so i would try some finger food such as cooked carrot sticks, toast finger or cubes of cheese

Yeh im putting the food in the blender but i am leaving some bits. I'll try the finger food idea. Thank you Jodie1984

Some babies are just anti-spoon. My DS2 never took to a spoon.

What else is he eating - breast or bottle? Whichever it is, you should try increasing his intake, as milk, of either sort, is higher calorie than any of the early foods.

He is being bottle fed, and he has about 6oz feeds about 5times a day, no matter what I do he refuses to have anymore. I do offer him ocassional 3-4 oz feeds in between but he will not have it!

My ds wouldn't eat from a spoon at first, so dr told me to give him pureed veg using my finger. Very messy but within a few days he was eating and I then tried a spoon again and he took it well.

Maybe leave the bits out for now?
Is he teething?

He sounds like he's having enough milk, I think it's something like 20/24 fl ozs a day for that age (check because I can't remember exactly) and maybe he's having too much milk and so he's not hungery.

my ds was exactly the same as you describe, he's now 11mths and until he took solids, he would take very little milk, at the most 4-5 fluid ozs per bottle. he would not eat from a spoon, wouldn't open his mouth for it, then just used to get upset. his weight was a problem too as he was ill with an ear infection and lost over a pound in a week.

to be honest, i gave up weaning, just gave him milk until his weight was back on its way up again, the milk has more calories in it than the food. then i started giving him bits of finger food to try, carrot, banana, rice cakes, the odd rusk. this got him a bit more interested in food and after still trying him with a spoon every other day, he began to eat. by this time he was 7.5mths. so with him finally eating, day 1 he had lunch, day 2 - lunch and tea, day 3 - breakfast, lunch and tea, day 4 - he was well away .

still doesn't have alot of milk, only 4ozs at both morning and bed time, and sometimes a bit mid afternoon. i put milk in with his food and a bit of cheese to make up for it.

hope that helps

Thank you everyone. The advice is very helpful, it helps to know that its not something I'm doing! And that there are other babies out there who had problems getting used to food.

Oh no m4ya, my ds is the same no matter what i try he just refuses to eat anything, i think they're probably not ready to have food. I get really teary thinking its something im doing. But Jus keep trying, and hope thing get better!
Good luck!

Don't worry, easier said than done I know but I saw a really helpful website that said that some babies take to food later or very slowly as a way of protecting their little bodies in case of allergies, and that actually you only need to be giving them 25% of their calories in food rather than milk at the end of their first year. Just these two things have really helped me calm down over the fact that my 7 month old ds will hardly eat anything, and actually since I've relaxed things have improved a bit! We will all get there in the end...

thank you Groveregg, could u please let me know the website address?

Sorry it's taken me so long to look at this again, the website is this one - \link{http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html}. I have a feeling I first clicked on the link from another mumsnet thread so I apologise if I'm stealing someone else's thunder.

\link{http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html\grovereggs link}

Thank you, not sure what I did wrong there!

m4ya, it is pretty poor advice of your GP to wean as your baby is underweight.
Lets put this into perspective,
How has your GP determined you baby is underweight, I really hope he is not using hose centile charts...
Additionally is your baby bottle or b fead?
Has your wee one been measured to ensure he is thriving, height weight, head cirumference etc.
dieticians will tell you that initially babies weight will plateu if not drop when you start to wean.
The most improtant thing is that you dont get stressed over it (they can sence your fear you know)
I found that my wee chap absolutely hated any lumps what so ever untill he was about 8 months.
Things that put them off food are colds and blocked noses.
Does you wee one still have a tongue thrust reflex? is he sticking his tongue out when you put the food in?
Have you tried baby rice?
I used baby rice as a fist food and then gradually introduced different tases to it. I can immagine a carrot on its own would tast rather foreign after six months of milk.
make sure the spoon you are using is not to hard or to big. Let him play with the spoon. I saw a speach and language therapist who let us feed oneanother and it was the most horrid experience to have a spoon shoved in your mouth and worse than that, the food scraped off your face with a spoon.

Have been rambling on a bit now...
bottom line yes six months is a good age to wean but a child being underweight is not the biggest incetive to wean and can be couterproductive.
If you are concerned about your babies weight have him checked to see if he is growing and thriving, my wee chap was constantly below the second centile, but never failed to grow.
simple food and making dinner time fun is the way to go, dont pin all your hopes on him eating a big plate of mush or you will feel dissapointed.

HTH

Agree with chapsmum. So long as your ds is growing on the same centile (in my dd's case, she was below the 0.4th!), I don't see any alarm bells with weight at all. Those charts are just a guideline, hardly the gospel. FWIW, I think they are evil. If your ds is otherwise developing nicely, generally happy and active, what's to worry?

BTW, 6oz feeds 5X a day is A LOT, at least by my book. My dd at that age was breast-fed so I could not tell, but I am almost certain she did not take in half of that amount.

I was also asked to give solids to dd at an early age by all health professionals. Despite our best efforts, dd never really took to solids until she was more than 9 months, and even then it was a slow slow slog.

At 6 months, your ds' digestive system is so immature anyway he will absorb more calories from milk than food. So long as your ds packs away the milk bottles, again, I wouldn't worry about the fact he is not taking to solids at 6 months.

For solids, you don't have to use a spoon. Just put a bit on the tip of your finger. Different children take to solids at different times, but always when they are ready. Easier said than doe, but try not to compare with your nephew!

If read in Annabel Karmel that if they refuse it you should make it runnier and try again.

Mine really liked stewed apples and stewed dried apricots. Ds2 was unenthusiastic the first couple of times, but then I realised that the carrot I was trying to get down him was weirdly grainy and tasteless, so not very surprising Try giving him something pretty runny when he's quite hungry, not after a bottle of milk.

But relax about the whole thing as it just carries on the same. Ds1 (4yo) sometimes eats almost nothing at all for weeks on end. He doesn't grow much in those periods, and sometimes loses a bit of weight, but then he makes up for it at other times of year. His growth chart is a bit of a zigzag, but averages out on an identifiable curve. Anyhow, you can't make them eat if they just don't want to. You can only make sure they're not ill, and offer them things that taste nice (try it yourself to make sure!). If you make a big fuss then they'll probably stop eating on purpose