Baby has a sweet tooth

[coragreta]

My 8 month old will only eat sweet things. Yoghurt and fruit. That's it. Anything else is thoroughly dismissed. He is ebf and I have been trying him with solids for about 2 months. I don't know how to get him to eat anything else. I do a lot of finger food which is mostly sucked and then thrown away. Any purée that isn't sweet isn't entertained at all.
My husband thinks I should keep giving him the fruit as at least then he's eating something. I get the feeling he's not eating savoury in the hopes that I'll then give him something sweeter.
Any advice would be helpful.

will she eat sweeter veg like peas/swede/parsnip/carrot?

Aren't all babies naturally sweet toothed? I think that's why there's a new thing about first solids being veg?

Anyway, I wouldn't worry. It can take something like up to 10times of trying a food before they know if they like it. I'd continue to offer veg/savoury but fruit/yoghurt for afters. Least they know it's not going away?

Not much consolation but I have a very fussy just turned 1yo. She'll eat only peas, strawberries & buttered bread
My older DC ate and still do eat everything. I've done everything the same so no idea where I go from here other than to continue to offer what we are having. She did eat pasta but has gone off that now too

Thanks for replying. It's hard because I'm a first time mum and all the other babies j know seem to eat really well.
He once ate avocado. But won't anymore.
The problem with him being fussy is that he also won't drink formula milk and I'm back at work. He's waking 5+ times a night and the HV said that he needs to be eating more food to make up for the lack of milk.

Continue offering finger food, but if you're also doing purée, then you can mix a teaspoon of savoury in with sweet. You may want to start with carrot and sweet potato mixed with Apple etc before progressing to broccoli, courgette and the like

With the finger foods, have you tried giving sticks of roasted veg? She just might be more keen to eat them given the roasting brings out the sweetness on the veg more. Chunky chip size carrots, courgette, parsnip...

Or you could try blending a load of roasted Mediterranean veg into a pasta sauce and try her on that with pasta and a sprinkling of cheese? Have you tried things like risotto? Goes well with roasted butternut squash eg.

Agghhh! Sorry! Ds not dd, thought I'd read dd!

The HV isn't being very helpful as current advice is food before 1yr, is for fun! He shouldn't be eating vast quantities. If he isn't having milk during the day he will make up for it overnight (sorry!) However maybe try him with a bowl of porridge or instant oats before bed ( you can sweeten it with some fruit) as he will have some extra milk and a full yum so he may reduce the night feeds!

Yeah my dd doesn't sleep great either if nothing else, we're in it together!
I'm stealing these tips & trying risotto/roasted veg next few days.

I've also heard of the Food Is For Fun Until One. They're really big on it around here.

Hope you get on ok OP!

Thanks for all the advice. We actually had risotto with butternut squash yesterday. No joy. but I'm definitely going to try roasted veg. My current plan is evening meal what we have and then purée at lunch/breakfast. I'm going to give the sweet option at tea so hopefully will get a good nights sleep.

Have you tried him on weetabix? My dc3 loves it and in the early days of weaning enjoyed it with stewed fruit or berries. Maybe an idea for evening supper? I find them naturally sweet tasting so he might take to them. I totally appreciate you want to move away from the sweet stuff, but for now if you manage to offer a wide a range as possible of all different flavours it might help.

Also rusks were another good one for dc3 (often frowned upon here for the sugar content, but he's dairy intolerant, so I tried anything that bumped up the calcium, including the reduced sugar rusks, as fortified!) he'd happily munch one or have it as a pud softened with oat/almond milk, again sometimes with stewed fruit mixed in.

Melon is a good one too (cantaloupe is a fave with all three here), and great in chunky fingers and soothing when teething. Also cucumber might then be a natural progression.

How is he on bananas? For some reason all three dcs took a few months to be able to tolerate bananas, they had upset tummy / trouble digesting them initially, but a great filler rather than just a fruit purée.

Dd was a slow starter food wise. Didn't really start eating properly till 8-9 months, just went at her own pace.

It sounds like mixing in fruit with other savoury stuff might be the way forward.
Fruit with cereal, porridge, fruit with veg. I'll try that. Maybe he's just taking his time. I just really wish he would sleep a little more.

Dc3 still doesn't sleep through at 21mo, so I'm throwing any suggestions I can at you in the hope of helping

(A lot of our issues are down to the dairy intolerance not being diagnosed until 9mo though, despite me insisting from a few weeks in his tummy wasn't right- HV GP etc wouldn't believe there could be any issues with a BF baby )
Good luck!

Not sleeping through is a nightmare. Can't imagine still being like this at 21 months!
The sad thing is that he sleeps like an angel when I'm around to feed him. Usually only waking once. It's like he reversed his day to catch up on his feeds.
Hopefully we will crack it soon. I really appreciate the advise and will get cooking first thing tomorrow.
Hope your little one gets the hang of this sleeping thing soon!!!

food is only for fun and not calories at 8 months. Milk is the main source up to a year. I would steer away from giving sweet things at all and ensure a savoury palette is firmly established before introducing occasional sweet things once or twice a week after his first birthday. You're much better off giving a wide changeable variety of savoury foods and letting the baby experiment with flavours. Accept if he doesn't eat, let him eat as little or as much as he likes. Don't push the food! I've never met a starving baby in the uk, they are all huge! Don't offer puddings and he will realign his taste buds. Sugary things will only give a quick sugar fix and won't see him through the night. Long term you will be setting up childhood food issues if you are reliant on sweet stuff.

I've 4 kids, they eat a wide mix of home cooked things.

This was my instinct and now I'm confused.
I must repeat I'm not feeding him anything with added sugar and when I say sweet I mean- Apple, pear, mango, other fruit and yogurts.

I concerned as he will go 10hrs when I'm at work without eating anything. No milk, no food. It does worry me and makes me want to give him yogurt and fruit so I know at least he's had something.

If you were trying to 'realign his tastebuds' would you skip sweet veg too like sweet potato? And things with fruit In them. Like porridge with fruit or an apple and spinach mix purée?

Thanks for all the help. I feel like I might be overthinking this but as I've struggled with food myself I'm desperate for him to have a good relationship with food and a healthy balanced diet.

Also I should add that he he is small for his age. He also dropped a lot on his percentile now I'm back at work as obviously he isn't eating enough in the day.

Just to say thanks for the help. He just ate almost a whole weetabix with nothing added to it to make it sweeter. Yay. Hope this continues.