at a loss

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

DD2 is 29 weeks/7 months. I have posted before about her reluctance to wean. But now its getting silly.

She can eat. She will eat fruit puree. She will eat organix carrot sticks. Last night she ate a roast potato, albeit while screwing up her face in a "eww" manner.

But put anything in her mouth that is savoury mush with lumps, she gaggs and vomits.

As shes eating so little I am reluctant to change to low salt in our meals to give her some. So I have bought some Ellas Kitchen pouches. Last night she had two mouthfuls of Spag bol before vomiting up the roastie she just ate.

Today we were out for lunch and she was sleeping. She woke up while I was having dessert so I had her on my knee. She was grabbing the spoon. So I think she wants to eat too.

The HV is on at me because shes not gaining weight on the same curve and has dropped slightly again. Shes also said shes having too much milk so we should reduce that. But DD2 isnt in any routine. So what bottle do I drop? Shes usually sleeping over lunch and dinner. Do I start waking her and moving her into a routine?

Any advice would be great. I am trying not to stress but its really getting to me.

She's dropped centiles not actual weight, don't worry!

It takes some longer than others and its all normal. One of my friends dd refused and kind of food until 9 mo, no purée on a spoon no finger foods literally pursed her lips and refused point blank to let it in. She's 16 mo now and you would never guess!

Don't make it a big stress

At 7 months she doesn't need to be on 3 meals a day so its fine if she is asleep at lunch. Plus the milk will have more calories than most foods you can offer, so if you reduce the milk and up the solids, there is a chance that she will be getting even less calories.

I know you don't have a routine, but roughly how often does she have a bottle and what quantities? How often are you offering food? Don't forget that is all you should be doing at this point is offering the food. It really, really doesn't matter if she doesn't eat it.

Why are you reluctant to swap to low salt too? I'm assuming you want her to eat family meals so surely you'll have to make the change at some point?

If the problem is "putting savoury mush in her mouth" how is she with self feeding with things like sandwiches? Obviously she seemed to manage the roast potato well

Shes so fussy. And obviously vomiting is upsetting so we are offering food once a day. Usually in the afternoon. But I am now thinking maybe moving it to morning might be better.

She isnt keen on toast, I havent offered bread as I am slightly nervous that it will clag and stick to the roof of her mouth.

Shes taking around 5 7oz bottles a day.

Butternut squash chunks made her gag. I think the problem might be me. I dont offer her as much finger food as I probably should because I dont want her to gag. Her face goes bright red. I need to get over that dont I.

We dont use a lot of salt, just stock cubes and salted butter. But, we eat a lot of spicy food which isnt great for her.

Try not to worry about gagging. Gagging is normal and is different from choking. Also not giving finger foods doesn't mean she won't choke on purees either. Nif you are worried have a read of gagging -v- choking and if you are still worried see if your local children's centre do a first aid course.

Moving solids to the morning sounds like a good plan. You could keep her in her night clothes, then she won't be vomiting on her day clothes. You could offer lots of different things, it doesn't have to be toast, even leftovers from the night before. Spicy food is fine too. If its too spicy you can just mix it with things like natural yoghurt or creme fraiche. No need to go on a bland diet just for her sake

There are some breakfast suggestions on this thread. If you want to start offering food more than once why not give one finger food meal and one fruit purée meal, just till things improve?

The Mn weaning info has a timetable which might be useful and a section on milk too