How do you encourage a reluctant eater?

[SoupDragon]

Because BabyDragon is 7.5monts old and really not interested in weaning onto solids.

Whilst I'm not worried (she's huuuuge) I do need to think of how to encourage her and, quite frankly, I'm clueless. The look on her face when she gets given stuff is a picture - very much "you expect me to eat this muck???"

I've tried BLW, spoon feeding, putting bits in her mouth and a mix of all 3 at once. BLW is a joke as she has an innate ability to identify if something is edible and therefore should not go anywhere near her mouth. Give her paper, playdough or sand and it's right in there but food? Ho ho ho. (She has actually got better at that actually but she's still not very cooperative.)

She won't eat oatcakes, "porridge pancakes", rice cakes, apple latkes, potato latkes (both amended from Nigella's "Feast" book and really rather nice), banana (unless put in her mouth in small pieces by her Doting Mother)... it's all getting rather tedious as I can't be ar$ed to do it any more and she wakes up every 3 hours in the night.

Oh soupy, that sounds like a bit of a nightmare.
OK, none of mine were really unwilling, but here are some tricks:
Eat with her. Maybe even put her (actual) food on your plate and see if she wants to nick mummy?s - or make a big deal of ?no you can?t have this it?s mine?.
By 7.5mo she can have just about anything anyway and should be able to manage finger food which looks better than mush!
How about a picnic - get the teddies out, mat on the floor, food on play plates.
Put tiny bits of food (a pea, a raisin, half a breadstick) in the holes of an ice-cube tray to make it look sweet and appealing.

Unfortunatly if I put anything on a plate or bowl she picks the plate/bowl up and bangs it up and down on the table, food everywhere We do eat together and she has bits of what we're eating so we're really all having the same. I rather suspect that at a teddy bear picnic she'd eat the bears She's just so contrary compared to the boys!

I think I've got some breadsticks somewhere, hadn't tried those. She wasn't overly keen on toast though.

Before weaning, she always looked as though she would bite my hand off at the wrist if it had food in it. Now its actually an option, she's really not fussed.

Anyone else?

Another clamped-tight-shut-mouth-foodon-the-floor lunch.

I know she's fine but I'm not.

Boy is about 4 wk younger so hopefully not so set in his ways-BUT we eventully got him interested in teh spoon by playing spoon games - boop on the ears, the the nose then the mouth and then in when he laughed !1st with empty spoon then eventully got him going on stwarberry fromage frais for a week before introducing porrige, no longer have to boop on teh nose but its still very hit and miss weather he will open mouth at all. Finger foods seem to go in better if I'm " ignoring" him rather than encourageing.
Good luck.

Thanks. I do try stuipd spoon songs, might try games. The boys were not this difficult!!

I've had some success putting the finger foods just within her reach so she thinks she's not meant to have them.

Thank goodnes I'm not a newbie or I'd think that people are ignoring me...

no advice for you SD - mine were fine as babies - it's just now (aged 7) that ds1 is a reluctant eater

SD! I could've written this post as recently as a week ago.

DS2 has just discovered that food's pretty nice, actually. So much so that he gets cross if I don't give him bits off my plate.

Can you give her an arse-cheek of peach (this went down very well with DS2 yesterday) - I'm loving the description of the piece you give as "an arse-cheek" - think Aitch said it? DS2 had a piece of orange that he ADORED yesterday - I know citrus isn't necessarily the best idea for babies, but he really loved it.

He's still waking at night though - hate to tell you that... But DH did settle him with a drink of water and a bit of teething gel last night (never-to-be-repeated, I bet!).

Things that have worked for him - pasta (wholemeal fusilli - think wholemeal holds together better for them and I prefer it, but I know it's a bit of a kick-off thing on MN to say you prefer wholemeal pasta... ), peach, orange, banana, carrot sticks steamed, strips of chicken.

He also adores Boots banana rice jars as did his brother

She eats paint quite happily.

And now she's munching on a Organix wotsit lookalike which claims to be Carrot.

I know it won't make her sleep through right now but it will eventually stop her waking through hunger. Both DSs slept through from about 4 months . And weaned fairly easily come to think of it (after they'd begun sleeping through!!).

I prefer wholemeal pasta too BTW Actually, I think she's deigned to eat a wholemeal fusilli on one occasion in the past. Thing is, she'll eat something once and appear to like it and then let it fall out of her hand with a scornful look on her face the next.

Will add peach to my next shopping list. In fact I'll write "arse cheek peach" and leave my list inthe trolley for someone to find.

I'm trying to remember what I did with my sparrow of a DD. She was never very keen & still isn't really that bothered (4.5yrs now). Fortunately, DS had scoffed like a horse, otherwise I'd probably have been fretting it was my cooking!!! I think some babies just have very small appetites. Even now as I spend 45mins encouraging her to eat something DS has polished off in 5 mins, I want to bang my head on the table with frustration.
DD definitely preferred sweet things, so pureed fruit definitely worked better for her than savoury.
Good luck SD!

Could it be the texture? My DS wasn't v. keen on lumps at this age -- which after a DD who fed herself from 10mths was a bit off I think He didn't really get into finger food until about 12 mths. So maybe stepping down the food ladder would help?

She's not great with puree either USAUKMum - jaws clamped shut.

I know she'll get there eventually - a month ago she wouldn't put anything edible in her mouth so she has made progress. I'm just out of ideas on what to try next No doubt in a few months I'll be posting for advice on how to stop her from eating everything in sight.

Well, maybe she just needs a tiny amount of food. Or lives on air like my DD .

How about dipping things? toast into eggs, toast into hummous or things like that?

My DS loves corn fritters have you tried those?

DS was tempted into eating by me saying "oh well, I guess i will just have to feed Daddy" (or DS or grandma or neighbor whoever was walking by at the time) At which time he would look offended that I offered it to someone else that he would eat it. My only other tactic is to ignore them.

I've come to the conclusion that, in part, she's lazy! She let me put pieces of food in her mouth this evening but couldn't be arsed to pick them up off the tray herself.

Not tried corn fritters - how do you make them?

TBH I really wouldnt worry at all. My DS didnt start solids until he was 29 weeks & even then wasnt really bothered so I didnt offer him food every day until he was nearly 9 months. We did complete blw - all finger foods so he could eat at his own pace from the start. He is now 26 months & eats very, very well, both using his hands and forks & spoons, eating a very good range of healthy foods.

My own personal view is there is very little point in trying to get a child to eat anything. They will simply eat when they are ready to. As long as they are having bm to provide their nutrients & calories and are happy, healthy, hitting their development targets ok then simply putting a good variety of fresh foods in front of them when you eat (preferably similar or the same foods to yours) is enough. It apparently takes 12+ tastes of a food for a baby to develop a taste of something & often babies will instinctively refuse foods they are allergic or sensitive to so its a bit frustrating at times isnt it . I found it really helpful to simply look at mealtimes in these early months as simply an extension of playtime - just with a few edible toys. If some get eaten then thats a bonus for their tum. If nothing gets eaten, then at least theyve learnt more about texture & cause & effect (how things squish up or what happens if I drop this bit etc)

The LLL book "My Child Wont Eat..." is a really good read btw & very reasurring.

ooooh, terramum, can i poach you and ask you to have a look at my blog thing here please? you are the mother of the oldest BLW baby i know and someone yesterday wrote a slightly snippy (do hope it wasn't you, soupy) complaint on the main page saying that i was being unhelpful by implying that babies take to eating immediately. i don't think i necessarily had, but... Anyway, even if you just cut and pasted what you've written here that would be really helpful for me and others..? have a think about it, anyway, no pressure.

also Soupdragon, from what i've read i'd be in total agreement with terramum, but that's based on things i've read on the yahoo website rather than personal experience. however on the days when i feel that dd hasn't eaten any breakfast or whatever (sometimes she does just completely ignore her food) i have noticed that if i take her out and feed her 'on the run' she is more distracted by all the sights and sounds and more likely to scoff her food down without noticing.

i take a sippy cup (oh, how i hate that word sippy) and make sure she slugs down some water too, but if you are bfing then you don't have to bother obviously. Also, we definitely don't eat three square meals a day, sometimes we do, but sometimes she's in the mood for milk and nothing else will do so i'm happy to oblige (as it's even less hassle for me and i am nothing if not profoundly lazy).

but basically i agree with terramum that if she's happy and healthy then giving her things off your plate to play is the way forward. actually, that's an idea, what about getting your other children to feed her? good luck anyway...

and it may indeed have been me who used (if not coined) the term arse cheek of peach. i think it's descriptive while at the same time mildly offensive, which is an authorial tightrope i like to walk.

corn Fritters

2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsl polenta flour
pinch of black pepper
pinch ground corriander seeds
2 large eggs beaten
3 tbsl finely chopped spring onin
2 tbsp cinely chopped chives
1 tbs finely chopped corriander
340g tinned sweetcorn, drained
olive oil, for frying

Put cornflour, polenta flour, black pepper & ground coriander in bown and mix. Add egg and mix to batter. Add ionons chives & corriancer. Stir in corn. Heat oil in frying pan. Ladle about 2 tbls of batter into pan. Cook for a few min on one side then turn and cook few min more. Drain on kitchen paper.

TBH I don't put in the chives & coriander. They freezer REALLY well.

This is from 365 recipes for babies, toddlers & children. by Bridget Wardley and Judy More

My 16 month old is still not really into food (also a lousy sleeper) She'll eat well for few days and then then go on strike. Will also eat, mostly okly, for her cm. I think she sees me still as the milk provider and milk is just nicer, to her. Only thing had consistent success with is pasta in cheese sauce - mix in veg and chicken/fish.

One day she couldn't eat enough satsuma - has never eaten it since!

My first also slept through at 3 months and ate anything I gave her...

Thank you all for being honest about your kids not eating much. It often feels in RL that EVERY ONE elses kid is wolfing down the baby food from the 1st time they were offered a spoonfull. I finally met someone in RL who is baby led weaning and she was trying to reassure me that its OK to ignore those who "helpfuly" tell me that " if you want him to eat solids you will have to drop a breast feed so hes really hungrey" WTF , like I want to make him cross and grumpy and then try and get him to open his mouth for a spoon.

On the plus side tho, we have had a slightly easier week with him, pear at lunchtime & porriage at tea and I think maybe a little of it stays in tho most is blown out, dribbled, dabbled and smeared. Bread sticks are disapearing , esp if I' "not watching" and cucumber and pear rings are being mangled and sucked.
LOL at babydragon who knows when its an ediable thing and thus not to be put in teh mouth. I think DS thinks bread sticks, cucumber and pear rings are teething toys.

I am coming a bit late to this thread. I wrote to the board two weeks ago with the exact same prob. My 7 month old DS absolutely refusing any food offered despite seeming very ready for it. Also waking every three hours! Well he still is but the advice I got was useful. Someone suggested putting puree on things like rice cakes. This has really interested him in BLW. Also, I shifted to very sweet things entice him (making funny savoury/sweet combinations) which has certainly encouraged him to open his mouth. I also tried some organic shop bought foods. Two weeks on it's still slow progress but food is beginning to going down. The best advice I got from MN was to stop stressing. I did and I feel better for it!

I can sooo relate to lots of what people have written here - my 6 and a half month (and huge ds) is not at all interested in food. We're doing BLW and I'd just expected him to be, well, enthusiastic! Reading the replies on this thread I'm going to try and stop stressing so much. On the good side, it's doing my diet no end of good - once I'd realised that 90% of what was on my plate was unsuitable for him I took a long, hard look at my fruit and veg consumption...

Thanks for all the comments.

Can I jsut say that I do know she's fine as shes having breastmilk. However she's having it at least 3 hourly during the night and, nice and snuggly as it is, I'd like her to stop. Stuff the nutrients she's getting, I'd rather we had sleep

I would have expected her to have made some progress over the last 2 months but she hasn't really. She's happy to let me put little chunks of stuff in her mouth but that's even more tedious than spoon feeding!

This BLW lark is so wasteful too. The amount of food I have to sweep up off the floor and out of her chair at the end of a meal is appalling.