8 month old suddenly won't eat! Help

[nervousmum]

My 8 month old son has suddenly stopped eating in the last few days! He was weaned early, at 4 month, and up until a week ago, happily munched all his meals without any problems. Last week, he started clamping his jaw shut if i so much as looked at him with a spoon, and the only way to get anything into him was to either force-feed him, or resort to making up some really slushy fruit puree and squeezing it into him with a medicine syringe, neither of which was very nice for him or me! I have tried giving him some finger food, but he just mushes fruit into his high chair and chucks vegetables straight on the floor! I had put it down to him teething, but it's been over a week, and i'm concerned from a nutrition point of view! Today, all he's had is a cut-up slice of toast with dairylea, and he's drunk more formula than normal. Any suggestions? (incidentally, he was breastfed up till a fortnight ago, and now has Farleys second milk). Thanks, NM x

Don't worry about lack of solids. It might be that the forumla is making him less hungry or something. Milk has all the nutrition required at 8 months so don't cut that out. I really wouldn't force feed as it might put him off altogether. Personally, I'd keep offering different finger foods and make dinner time fun. If he still isn't interested in another week or two I'd see your HV. Sorry - I'm no expert on this weaning thing!

Toast goes down really well with my DS - as do other carbs such as Organix Moon Biscuits and rice cakes.

don't try and force feed him... you will only reinforce his refusal. keep on offering and he will eventually develop an interest. Until 12mo solids are complement to milk.

Hiya I can so emphatise - my 9-mo dd has been doing the same the last two weeks. She used to eat just about everything we gave her and now foods that were favourites just last week (eg strawberries) she takes half-hearted bites of then it's onto the floor!

I've found that she keeps wanting to eat food from our plates so I make sure there is something on it she can hold and munch and, while she's distracted with that, I'm usually able to shovel some of her own food into her mouth. Seems easiest tho if we're all just eating the same food.

Sometimes if we reach an impasse I take her for a walk round the garden or something for a few minutes then try again and sometimes she eats some more. And sometimes I just leave it for another half hour or hour by which time she usually is a little more hungry.

Dd has got chicken pox atthe moment which is why I think she's being fussy but she was like this when her two front teeth came out as well. I worried like mad for the first few days but after a while realised that if she was still taking all her milk - and she was; usually I'd give her an ounce or two more if she hadn't eaten much - she'd probably be OK. She's still quite a chubby little thing so I was reasonably sure she wasn't wasting away.

Thanks for all the advice. It turned out he was teething - he had two come up together! Since then, he's back to eating everything in sight, and is really into finger foods now he has got teeth to chomp them with!