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Weaning

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

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Original poster

7 month old mouth clamps shut when spoon gets near :(

23 replies

Wishingonamoon · 01/08/2013 08:53

I posted a few days ago about book recommendations but since then my 7 month old wont take any food at all from a spoon. I've got myself so stressed about it and feel bloody useless when everyone else seems to know what they're doing.

I tried her with a bit of banana this morning instead - she desperately tried to pick it up and i think it would have ended up in her mouth (like all her toys do), but she chased it around the tray and then it fell on the floor.

So I'm thinking blw might be better for her?

But I really want to have a meal plan each week as I'm not the sort of person who can just go with the flow. I want to know exactly what and when to feed her different things.

Help! Is the Gill Rapley book any good? Will it give me a menu plan? Or should I just keep trying with a spoon?

OP posts:

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 08:57

Hi, sorry cant post at length as I'm running after destructive toddler, but it certainly sounds like he might prefer to be BLW.

You can definitely menu plan with BLW, especially if your DC was the same as the rest of the family (you just need to be careful re. salt and adjust adult meals after serving your DC).

I never spoon fed, but imagine that would be harder logistically than BLW.

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 08:57

Was the same= has the same

Original poster

Wishingonamoon · 01/08/2013 08:58

An extra question - but with blw if she keeps dropping things on the floor but is hungry, won't she get really stressed? Or do I breastfeed her first? In which case she wouldn't then be hungry?

Argh I'm sure I'm over complicating things but at the moment I wish I could just breastfeed her for another few months.

OP posts:

onedogandababy · 01/08/2013 08:58

My dd accepted pureed food off a spoon for about 10 days. Then refused.
Ended up doing blw, and she was away! I cut banana into chip type shapes, pear with skin on so there's a bit more grip. Then stuff like toast (again into chip shapes) carrot, broccoli parsnip potato, sweet potato. Then maybe at around 8/9 months added fish & meat.

Can't advise on a book though, we winged it a bit!
Good luck!

onedogandababy · 01/08/2013 09:02

Wrt food on the floor you can either cook more than you'll know you'll need and replace (if not needed save for next meal) or put a plastic sheet/oilcloth under highchair and pick up and serve it again!

I always over did amount needed. I was never going to beat the spaniel to the spoils on the floor

byhec · 01/08/2013 09:04

My advice would be to plan your own menu making adaptations where needed and then just give her bits of what you are having (pureeed or not depending on what she prefers) and see how it goes, the important thing is not to stress about it as that will make things hard work.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 01/08/2013 09:11

You can give her a bit of a breastfeed first, so she's not deperately hungry, and then give her the food to mess around with. They still get most of their nutrition from milk at this stage - "food is fun till they're one" and all...

Try not to get too stressed (easier said than done I know!) and just treat this stage as introducing her to different tastes and textures.

Pinebarrens · 01/08/2013 09:13

sounds like BLW could be work for you.

foods both my DC food easy in the early days were fingers of toast, porridge fingers (3 tbsp of real porridge oats, 3 tbsp of milk, mix spread out like a pancake on a plate, micro for approx 1 minute, remove slice into fingers and let cool the give to baby), pitta pockets with philadelphia, roast potatoes, steamed carrot batons, steamed green beans etc

we found bananas too slippy for the first couple of weeks but mashed on toast was fine or banana bread.

check out the baby led weaning website for recipes, its rally good.

easy to say but try to relax, food for fun until they're one

Longdistance · 01/08/2013 09:15

I was gonna come on and say BLW, or maybe sit her on your lap at dinner and see if she picks at your food.

Pinebarrens · 01/08/2013 09:29

could work for you, not be work for you!

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 09:49

Yeah, she'll drop things for a while but you'll be surprised how quickly she picks it up.

I bought pretty oil cloth (sold by metre) and put it under her highchair; I also got used to cutting 3 or 4 pieces of whatever DD was eating so I could replace it each time she dropped it.

With the oilcloth you can also just pick it up from the floor and replace it (but I'm lazy, so had 2 or three replacements before resorting to the bits on the floor).

I wash the oil cloth (and her Ikea chair) with a mixture of plain vinegar and a couple of drops of eucalyptus.

Agree with poster upthread, you might want to start with less slippery things to set her up for success. Good luck!

mrsmartin1984 · 01/08/2013 10:16

That's the beauty of BLW. You don't need to plan meals for your baby, you plan meals for the whole family and your baby can just join in. Read the Gill Rapley book and it's very good. As long at it's not high in salt, no whole nuts and not junk/processed food then your baby can just have what your having.

Normally the only adaptions I make is just too make things easier to eat. Like cutting carrots lengthways in fingers as supposed to circles

Original poster

Wishingonamoon · 01/08/2013 10:33

Thanks everyone. What about making sure they get enough iron? I've read that iron levels start to go after 6 months and breastfeeding isnt enough anymore. I'm giving her vitamin drops now but they only have 16% iron rda so wouldnt I need to make sure she gets more from food? In which case I'm back to trying to shove a spoon in!

OP posts:

Original poster

Wishingonamoon · 01/08/2013 10:35

Sorry thought of one other thing - my baby sleeps over the whole of lunchtime so do I wait until she wakes before having mine (if I'm to go down the blw route). Or have a very early lunch? And DH is home late from work so we just don't get chance to sit down for meals in the week. How do you all manage to work around that? Is it ok to not eat with her or will that make it harder?

Thanks again :)

OP posts:

iloveaglassofwine · 01/08/2013 10:44

Hi wishing, my DD was the same and I can't tell you how stressed and wound up I got about it, which clearly didn't help her or me! So, what worked for us was just letting her play about with the food and the spoon (yes it's messy - I bought a shower curtain to out under the high chair), give her a spoon to mess with while you feed with the other. Some days she ate, some days she didn't but like someone said up thread, until they are one milk is the main food.

I would say sit down to eat with her and have a bit of what she is eating, but pretend not to notice what she is / isn't eating, try to keep it relaxed. Just keep offering different things and one days it'll click into place.

She will get there, but at the moment it's about exploring and new textures. DD is now 4.5 and eats anything in sight, but I remember how tough I found it when she didn't. Good Luck!

BonzoDooDah · 01/08/2013 11:07

This could have been written by me. DD refused anything on a spoon except fruit pots. I ended up blw. If you cut things into battons then take a nibble out of the middle it makes a grippy handle. Pasta spirals in cream cheese and pesto are good to pick up, shreddies past soaked in milk then drained - keep their shape and are perfect size. Ripe pear in strips but I'd say NO skin as it stuck to the roof of my dd's mouth and I had to scrape it off (scary). Good luck.

slug · 01/08/2013 11:20

Have you tried giving her a spoon as well? As soon as she opens her mouth to try and put the spoon in you can swoop in with a full spoon yourself.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 01/08/2013 17:59

She'll still get some iron from BF, some iron from the drops, and there's iron in lots of the foods she'll be trying too.
She might turn out to be like my DS and willing to eat half a cow's worth of stir-fried beef strips in one sitting...!

Original poster

Wishingonamoon · 01/08/2013 18:07

Thanks everyone. So I tried her with some banana which i spread on some wholemeal bread. She couldn't wait to grab it and chew it, it was great! i tried the spoon again and the little mouth clamped shut. So back to the bread....she then bit off an enormous mouthful so I dug it out to stop her choking on it. Am I meant to only put mouth sized bits on her tray?!

OP posts:

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 20:51

Wishing I wouldn't recommend "fishing" food out of her mouth, it can be dangerous as you can inadvertently push it down.

I found it really hard to have confidence in DD at the beginning, but if she bit a mouthful by herself, trust that she can handle it. Just be vigilant and never turn away, as choking is silent.

It's actually better to give her a "finger" of food and let her work it out; on the other hand, small bits of food can be dangerous (plum tomatoes, grapes etc.)

I would definitely get the Gil Ripley book; it's very informative and I think it will make you feel more confident.

There's also a great site ran by a MN'tter here

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 20:52

ran=run

PoppyAmex · 01/08/2013 20:56

FFS I should really preview - it's Gill Rapley. Sorry.

LittleBearPad · 01/08/2013 21:03

Blw is about letting her take the lead so if she takes a big bite let her deal with it. Fishing it out is likely to cause more problems. Obviously don't give her choking hazards like nuts etc.

I used to cut slices of bread into about 8 pieces, so smaller than id have but not massive. Fusilli pasta is easy to pick up and a good size. Rice is also good.

Blw doesn't meal plan in quite the same way - you can just adapt what you're having. Paying attention to salt content - I used to serve up a portion then season ours.

If meal times don't work with her naps then time her lunch to suit her but perhaps have a token amount so she eats with you.

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