is it normal for baby to be uninterested in food? and other Q's...

[beccala]

Hi,

Am very fed up with weaning. Been doing it for just over 2 weeks now, started on LOs 6 m birthday. I understand that milk (bf in our case) is main food still so am trying to ensure we don't drop any milk feeds, so am doing half bf, then solids, then rest of bf. So as bf take up to an hour in our case, introducing solids means that it takes 1.5hrs. Just added in breakfast as well as lunch and dinner so this means that 3 out of 5 feeds a day take 1.5 hours each. Which makes me virtually housebound.

Thing is, if we don't drop any milk though, and are just adding in solids on top of normal bf will I end up in daily mail with a 3stone baby? She's already a right porker, started life on9th percentile and is now on 75th at a substantial 17lbs. I know they say you can't overfeed a bf baby, but with solids on top, is it too much?

Since weaning sleeping through the night has become a hazy memory (except last night fingers crossed she sleeps through again tonight).

But the worst thing is she doesn't even seem to enjoy eating. I wouldn't say she's rejected anything I've given her as such, but she only occasionally opens her mouth for the food. More normally she screams (a very annoying phase of high pitched window shattering screaming that she does all the time) and I quickly shove the spoon in. She'll then make a chewing motion and swallow it. She mainly looks bored through out, perhaps my train impressions aren't very entertaining? Eventually she starts to cry and we give up. It all takes about half hour to eat about 3tsp of various puree/baby rice concoctions.

So, is this all normal or will she never like food and I'll still have to breastfeed her on her wedding day? Am I doing anything wrong?

I can't answer all your questions but I can say that DD wasn't remotely interested in food until she was about 8mo. She ate some, but she fussed a lot and I know I did that hastily shoving the spoon in trick. I bloody hated weaning

As she's so new to it all I would just stick with more finger type foods and let her play and experiment. You can try and get some purees in with a spoon if you want to, but if she's not interested then don't press it. I used to let DD put her fingers in puree to taste it and then sometimes she would take the spoon. When she did finally get the point of food, for all the finger food she had, she went spoon crazy and wanted to be fed by us - not that it's made a jot of difference to what or how she eats now, she's a gannet...

I remember at about the same point as you're at wondering if I should give up. There's no need for you to do that, but also there's absolutely no reason to push it. She will move to breastfeeds to solids at some point. Just let food be fun, and let her experiment, and keep offering the milk.

As I understand the NHS advice, it's that while you should start them on solid food from 6mo, it's fine to only give it once a day at that age, and you only need to reach 3 meals a day by 12mo.

They also advise that you shouldn't force your baby if she isn't interested.

I found BLW worked well. Basically just give them a bit of your food to play with, and chances are they'll stick it in their mouth and gnaw a bit (DD did that with all solid objects at that age!). Treat the whole thing as a game, a chance to practise motor skills and explore textures.

Just try giving solids once or twice a day and just keep it short - a couple of spoons and a bit of finger food but no longer than 15mins in the highchair

my ds didn't eat til 8mths btw - just not interested

I always started with lunch and didn't introduce a second or third meal until that was well established and they no longer seemed satisfied by their late afternoon bf (for tea) or morning bf (for breakfast).

How is she after a bf? Does she seem to still be hungry? If she's not really bothered I would maybe leave it a couple of weeks and then try again.

My older two were really really keen on food - dc1 used to cry between spoonfuls and dc2 wolfed down anything I could give. Dc3 was really not very interested until about 8mo. We took it much more slowly. Actually he only really got into eating when I stopped giving him baby food and gave him normal food with much stronger flavours.

Also agree with cotherstone and rhododendron - try her with some finger foods and let her experiment a bit.

Another here with dc not intetested til 8mths+. Just slap a bit of your food on her high chair tray while you eat and let her play/eat if she wants.

Hi beccala sympathies, I came to this topic to pretty much write your post. My Ds is a food refuser too.

So bloody sick of the faff.....high chair out, him in it, him kicking the crotch bar and getting annoyed with it seems to think someone has put it in the wrong place , refuses food, decides he'll taste some food on lips, gurns, gags, sick, screams, remove ds from high chair, change clothes, clear up sick, put all away, bf again.....repeat later.... Not pleasant for either of us.

Have been told to persevere, it went OK for the first 2 weeks then he went off the idea. Got a freezer full of ice cube size portions the little sod won't even consider eating

I'd go for more finger foods, much less hassle than purées.

Dd was ff but I used to give her a bottle, then about 30 mins / hour later have lunch with her. Which involved her mainly playing with food but I figured she'd had her milk so if didn't matter what she ate as long as she had fun.

I would also say to cut back to 1 or 2 meals a day. You've got months before you need to move up to 3 meals.

Also, NHS advice is to offer food about 1 hr after a milk feed, so I wouldn't bother with the faff of doing half a feed, solids, then trying to finish the feed. So, you could just do lunch for a couple of weeks, about 1 hr after a bfeed.

As others have said, you'll be onto a losing wicket if meals become a battle of wills and stressful. Perhaps try doing more finger foods, and don't worry at all if not much gets eaten.

Thank you all for your replies. I will certainly take on board your comments and try the finger food. Many thanks.

I have no advice or answers but am in a very similar boat with my DS. I spoke to the health visitor last week and she suggested that we try finger foods and forget about spoon feeding for now. DS is still not really interested, although he did lick a stick of cucumber a few times on Saturday.

I keep reminding myself that the human race did not evolve to where it is today by babies not being bothered to eat, and that we WILL get there eventually. Something will click in his brain at some point, and he will realise that certain things can be put in his mouth, chewed and swallowed, and that eating might actually be useful, and indeed fun.

Finding it so hard not to worry myself though. Food and eating are so loaded. and for you. Good luck.

If babies aren't interested in food until 8 months, do you have to worry about their iron, protein, carb etc intake?

Just wanted to check as I have just started weaning 6 month old DD.

If they are breastfed only, then it is advised to give a multivitamin daily. If ff or getting a decent amount of formula (can't remember the exact amount sorry) then that contains enough vitamins and minerals.

I have always just bfed as normal. Then when I am eating give some to the baby to eat, mush, throw as they like. I usually find it quite freeing as they can sit next to me enjoying themselves in a kind of messy play/eating opportunity. Do they eat, not always, and most of the time I'm not sure what they have had. But you need to accept the not knowing what they've had bit soon enough anyway, you can't mush and measure forever.

It's your job to provide good food at regular intervals, their job to decide what and how much, or whether to eat. It's not an easy thing to let go of but I find it much easier if you can, be that at six months, twelve months, toddler, when they are 15 and living on pot noodles and mars bars...