*Help - can't get weaning going with 7 month old*

[SarahOxon]

This is my first time on the board and I'm hoping you can help! I've been trying to wean my ds (who is nearly 7 months) for 8 weeks on and off. He doesn't sleep through the night and is clearly v hungry but he has never willingly swallowed anything other than milk. I've tried every fruit or veg puree imaginable and a little bit of finger food. I've also tried different times of the day. But he clamps his mouth tight shut and if he ever does swallow anything he gags it up, often bringing his milk up too. Weaning my first son (now 2) was a breeze and I am at a loss as to what to do. HV is absolutely useless and says he should be eating loads by now. Is anyone else in the same boat? or has any advice?

hello saraoxon, welcome to mumsnet. lots of good advice here (thanks mum2funkydude for putting the link to my blog up) but the best, the absolute best has to be hunkermunker's "I'm being v relaxed about it because I know the alternative is to get v stressed about it and still not be able to change anything!"

so true...

i have a friend whose baby really did not like food to begin with and only started eating anything like properly at about 11 months. he's now 2 and a right wee tearaway. my friend says that she wished she'd just waited for him to want to eat rather than stressing herself out for, because at that time the weaning advice was four months, seven months altogether. and he was pretty stressed too...

i can't understand these HVs being so definitive about what babies 'should' be eating... it's nuts. with every other area of child development they give you months of leeway either side and tell you NOT to compare with other babies, but with weaning it's so prescriptive. drives me crackers...

good luck with the rest of the weaning thing, if you do try BLW it's great fun. it's not about NOT eating purees, really, it's about letting the child eat what they want, and obviously it's hard for them to feed themselves purees (although DD at 8 and a half months is getting the hang of spoon feeding) so you're better offering them stickshaped things.

and that has the happy by-product of meaning that you get to eat your own meal hot and it's no hassle. (but of course that's not the reason i'm doing it, of course, i'm a martyr to this child... )

My ds (now almost a year) didn't get interested in food at all until about 4 weeks ago. I spent about 6 months tearing my hair out with it and trying everything I could. In the end I ordered a book called "My Child Won't Eat" by Carlos Gonzalez and what he had to say relaxed me so much. I don't know whether it was a coincidence but as I had just about two pages left to read of it, ds suddenly got the idea! He still only eats a tiny bit compared to other babies but it makes me so happy every time he does eat - it almost makes me feel sorry for mums of normal babies because they dont know how magic it is! Sorry that sounds really cheesy...

Thought I'd update. Well, since posting I'm a lot less stress. I tried the puree on the fingers and he loved playing with it so will continue. Also, begun BLW and although most goes on the floor, today he picked up and ate a rice cake!! Major achievement. Also, I decided to try some organic pre made (shop) puree this evening having spent so much time and effort making my own and he swallowed a little bit which is a huge leap forward. Thanks to everyone for their fantastic advice.

brilliant. you may find that he makes great progress and then the next day won't eat a thing. they do that, sometimes, just to keep you on your toes.

Well done Sarah, glad it's going better - the important thing is that you're less stressed about it.

Great!!! I'm afraid ds still thinks porridge pancakes are meant to be on the floor!!!!He sampled some slightly cooked organic apricots smothered in greek style yogurt...don't know if it was because dh was busy eating it?!?!? I was a bit worried, but his chewed it up and after about a minute of chewing he kindly deposited the skin in dh hand!

so good to see i'm not alone with a baby who just ain;t interested in solids. I've decided to stop trying so hard for now, keep giving him finger food to play with and having him at table with us at meal times. but stop pestering him with a spoon.