8m DS will only open his mouth for porridge - any advice?

[ShutYerCakeHole]

Have been 'weaning' since 6m. Have tried BLW a few times, he just swipes it straight onto the floor.

DS is FF and waking 4-5 times a night for feeds although we have started to offer water at night. Selfishly I was hoping solids might cut out at least one feed...

He only catnaps in the day (10-20 mins, sometimes 30) so it's not easy finding time/energy to prepare anything fancy, and pretty demoralising as currently it ends up in the bin/freezer.

All he will consistently eat is porridge for breakfast. We have occasional success with banana, apple, pear... but I'm worried about him only having sweet foods!

The rest of the day/night he just wants milk. Have tried mashed veg, chicken, plain yoghurt, blended stew, soup etc, he just won't open his mouth despite being hungry.

Don't know if it's relevant, but until around 4.5m we had the same struggles with bottle feeding - he'd be ravenous but refuse to take it, we'd sometimes struggle for half an hour with him increasingly hysterical til he would accept the bottle. (I stopped BFing early on due to many problems, in hindsight probably linked)

Has anyone experienced similar, or can anyone suggest some easy and non-sweet alternatives to porridge? I'm so sleep deprived I am out of ideas!
HV says he should be eating what we eat by now, and certainly eating lumpier food - I don't see it happening anytime soon!

Sod the health visitor probably not helpful but ours said the same thing when our DS patently wouldn't eat anything, except sweet foods "ooh you don't want to do that, get them to eat savoury foods first". Of course we never thought of that. DS is still a crap eater at 6 yrs old (sorry you probably didn't want to know that)

If he will eat porridge, let him eat it. Bung on a bit of toast and some bits of pasta and let him chuck them on the floor if he wants - he'll try it when he's ready. Most of his calories should still be coming from milk at 8 months anyway, so it's just getting him used to food and eating and mealtimes.

Explore textures with him - pile of cold spaghetti, crumpet with butter, yoghurt etc. but try not to make it a battle of wills.

Let him eat what he likes. Encourage him to try other things but don't worry if he doesn't eat it.

Don't forget "food is fun til 1"

One of mine took ages to get interested in actually eating food (although loved playing, smearing, licking). At 13/14months I was really starting to worry but just kept offering varied stuff, and eventually by about 17 months they were eating lots of small amounts, then onto small meals at 18months.

I would say it's not worth stressing over and it WILL get there. Your DS is just setting his own pace, and it happens to be different from the norm. The more you try to force food issues, and the more you get stressed, the less likely he is to feel relaxed and happy and around food and the problems just perpetuate.

Sweet potato chips (just chopped up and oven baked with a little oil) might be a good way into more savoury foods. Rice pudding - similar consistency to porridge, and again with risotto? If he needs to go even slower, maybe try different flavours of porridge first. I also had success giving food in places other than the highchair so that the focus isn't solely on eating (breadsticks etc when out in the pushchair).

Thanks so much for the replies, that is reassuring.

It is becoming a battle of wills and most of the time I'm thinking sod it just let him stick to milk if that means he's happy (although the sleep situation is not great)

Out of interest, does this sound like I'm giving too much milk?

DS has (roughly):
8.00am bowl of porridge
10.00am 5oz milk
1.30pm (refuses food) 5-6oz milk
4.00pm (refuses food) 5-6oz milk
6.30pm 8oz milk
10.30pm 6-7oz milk
then bits and bobs throughout the night, plus water

Just keep offering and you are doing the best you can. That doesn't sound like too much milk, my 9mo has 21oz in 24 hours plus three meals and snacks. He has some good eating days and improves all the time. Only six weeks ago I was sobbing to the HV that he won't eat anything other than porridge, yogurt, wetabix. At that point I switched to full BLW and he did improve over time, enjoying mini pancakes and fruit or cheese muffins. Bizarrely he has had a tummy bug for 2 weeks and that has really changed his eating. The muffins he used to love he throws on the floor but will happily eat from a spoon which he never would before!! Frustrating little monkeys aren't they! Keep going - hope it improves soon

Oh and my LO is very sensitive to temperature. We had issues with bottle feeding until I worked out at about 5mos he would drink it beautifully when it's HOT not warm! I have been noticing that he likes food warm and goes off it cold - worth having a play around with.

Thanks so much fred, do you mind me asking, how long did you persevere with BLW til something actually went in?

I've kind of written it off as the food doesn't go anywhere near his mouth but maybe it's worth sticking at it...

It was fairly quick once I worked out that he wanted something that tastes nice!! Best thing we did was slice of bread bit of tomato purée spread and then grated cheese on top. Grill and cut into fingers! Also once he got pincer grip down he could pick up small bits and that made a huge difference.

Thanks that's really encouraging!

I can't imagine a baby would like Cold food, surely the best temperature must be warm, or the same as breast milk.