6mo still has tongue thrust thing??

[louloutheshamed]

Ds2 is 26 weeks, ebf and weighs 19lb 11, on 91st centile.

Thus morning tried him on some baby porridge and he just pushed the spoon out with his tongue.

So then I gave him a finger of toast, he licked the butter off and then dropped it.

I like the idea of blw but dh not fully on board and I am back at work ft when he is 10mo so I will have to be down to prob 3 day feeds by then and god knows how many at night

Should I be worried about the tongue thing still being there? I just thought he would go wild for food as no one can believe he's not on solids yet, but he wasn't interested at all...

You wouldn't think I have done this before...ds1 started at about 23 weeks no bother!

Anyone?

Keep trying with no pressure for him to eat. Seems he might prefer finger food though, based on the toast. I bet he will be ready in a week or 2

I would agree with JoinTheDots that there isn't much you can do other than gently keep trying without any pressure. There's nothing to say that the tongue thrust reflex has to go at exactly 6 months, some babies may just take another couple of weeks. Your DS may just be one of these.

Also, you DH may not be 100% keen on BLW, but if that is what your baby prefers then he may not get much of a choice! Can you explore with your DH why he isn't completely happy with BLW? Maybe look at the Gill Rapley book together - it's very good at explaining the process.

I think 6 months is a sort of average age that babies are ready (ie lose the tongue thrust). I also don't think it is related to size.

My small twins were very ready at 6 months as were eating all sorts very quickly. My nephew was 91st centile and didn't lose the tongue thrust until just past 12 months. He didn't eat anything until then, just pushed it back out, but once he got going he are lots, and out eats my two despite being much younger.

Give him time. And don't worry about the reduction in feeds when you go back to work. If he's not eating by then, he'll just take more milk when he feeds and keep you awake all night catching up!.

My sister spend a lot of energy worrying about my nephew not eating until 12 months. In hindsight, he just wasn't ready until then :)