8 month old hardly eats anything solid, drinks bottles like a newborn

[sleepwhatsleep]

I've tried blw and if he gets any bits of food in his mouth he just spits them out. With spoon feeding though he just tries to grab the spoon so that's hard work to get anything in either. The only things he'll eat are biscuits (especially with chocolate on) or milky puree food like rice pudding or porridge - but only if it's the jar stuff. Savoury puree he will maybe have a few spoons, but the fruit ones he won't touch.

When giving him a blw meal it's an event if he actually swallows one tiny piece. Everyone else i know has babies who seem to be good eaters. But i go back to work in 3 weeks and he's still having bottles every 2 hours in the day (weve tried him with water in every type of cup you can buy). HV told me to try and drop some bottles! (Insert crazy laughter here).

Help? Was so frustrated this morning I've had a little cry.

Oh poor you.

Dd was a great eater but ds was a slow starter. He refused virtually all food until 8 1/2 months. Then he suddenly wolfed down some lasagna.
He's always been better on home cooked food than jars - which was a pain.

Good luck - he'll get there

Don't cry! That's not going to help anything. Have some .

Bottles every two hours seems totally excessive for an 8 month old. How big are the bottles?

I suspect yours is not eating food because he's full of milk (and chocolate biscuits )

I have an 8 month old and our day goes like this:
7 am milk
7.30am toast and Weetabix
9am nap
10.30 milk (but she doesn't have much)
11.45 lunch
12.30 nap
2.30 milk
4.45 tea
6.30 milk
10.30 milk

What happens if he doesn't have a bottle every two hours? Is he getting enough sleep? If not, he might be tired crying rather than hungry crying but drinking milk is soothing so it seems to help.

I would try and cut back on milk. Especially around lunch time as I find that the least stressful meal of the day. Sit down with him and give him some of whatever you are eating. Eat your meal and let him dick about with the food. Don't analyse or worry about what's going in. I think you need to de-stress the situation at the same time as reducing the milk.

It can feel very dispiriting when you see other young babies wolfing down seemingly endless amounts of solid food when your own is stuck to a bottle. I had the same problem with mine (barely ate but was happy to cling onto a bottle 24/7 until she was 2) but she is thankfully healthy.

Just remember that all children develop at their own pace. Some kids just hang onto the comfort of a bottle for longer, that's all! DS will eat in his own sweet time, just make sure he takes his supplements.

If there's an upside, maintaining a healthy weight as a child will stand DS in good stead as an adult.

So typical day for DS -

6am - 7oz bottle
8am - throw toast on floor
930am - 7oz bottle which he sleeps on (or falls asleep in his jumperoo after lol)
1130 - 7oz bottle
1230 - maybe a few spoons
1330 - 7oz bottle
1630 - 7oz bottle
1715 - maybe a whole small jar of rice pudding
1730 - bed
2am - 7oz bottle
6am - wake for morning 7oz bottle

He will sleep from 5pm until 6am waking once as you can see above. I struggle to get him to nap in his cot and all but given up - it's either on my lap after a bottle or in his jumperoo , we go out every day so he will sleep in his pram at some point too.

He doesn't have biscuits every day! Lol but how do i reduce the bottles if he's not eating anything? I think part of the problem is he has bottles for comfort but never took to a dummy. I try to eat the same as him or similar looking food but i find it really hard to think of things for us both to eat. But most meals i do end up just sitting there staring at him which i guess is a bit stressful (or wierd) for him.

He is having lots of milk, which will reduce his interest in food. I would possibly offer breakfast first thing, so before his morning bottle. Lots of different choices, pancakes, crumpets, yoghurt, milky cereal like weetabix (made with formula) and then offer milk. Don't stress about how much food he eats.

Then I would suggest a snack at 10ish (again offer different things everyday...fruit, crackers, breadsticks, biscuits, cheese etc). Offer water in a sippy cup continually throughout the day so he's not getting thirsty and wanting a drink ie Milk

Try to hold out until 11ish for a bottle. So basically combine those two morning bottles.

Offer lunch around 12, some babies don't last this long initially so can be earlier. Do whatever you fancy (I normally give their 'main meal' around this age so a jar or homemade meal). Again don't stress, let him feed some to himself and you have some on a spoon feeding him. Lots of talking and laughing and being relaxed. Then you can top up with milk if you want? This bottle can eventually be dropped.

Then nap time and bottle again afterwards around 2/2.30. The offer an afternoon snack (boots have lots of baby snack ideas, little puff crisps and wafers etc) So you are essentially combining the two afternoon bottles as well.

I would then offer an early tea at 4.15/4.30 (toast, eggs, sandwiches) and milk before bed.

I know it's not as easy as this and it's hard to not get stressed when they won't eat, but be persistent with them trying things multiple times, they may not actually dislike it, it's new and they are learning to chew, taste etc. Also if you offer them food before milk they are more inclined to try it. I got told 'food before one is just for fun!' and I think that's a good mantra.

Hope that helps (sorry it's long )

My first didn't eat until he was almost 1! It drove me mad. Things that I think helped (or at least helped my sanity) included:

Just giving him what we were having either as finger food or puree (So less effort for no end result) they can have pretty much anything as long as not to salty or sugary and moving away from the bland baby foods seemed to help

Offering food before milk

Cutting down the milk! He actually had a nasty virus just before his birthday and went off food and milk. We just didn't put the milk back and his appetite for food was much better

Finally, not stressing! It's really hard not to but they do get there in the end...

Should have included that nursery will probably help! They will be very used to this sort of thing and have lots of experience of weaning!

My ds2 barely ate food until after he was 1.
Having had ds1 start solids with relish at 16 weeks and on 3 meals a day by 17 weeks ds2 was a bit of a shock.

Ds2 just wasn't interested, either wouldn't open his mouth, or would spit it out if I managed to feed him. Wasn't interested in BLW. Yes I had some frustrated cries about it.

He's now 11 and eats everything.

At 8m I wouldn't worry to much (easier said than done), offer food before milk or at different times so he isn't full up on milk and not wanting to try. Some other posters have given good ideas for timings.
With spoon feeding, give him a spoon and have one yourself. You can feed him and he can try and feed himself - that's fine.
I'd cut out the chocolate biscuits though.

It's really disheartening when this happens, my first was the same. Remember that at 8 months, they're still getting their nutritional needs met by milk, food is more to explore unless they're interested in eating it.

I'd maybe try and pick one of your milk feeds to start with, and offer food instead. Make it when he is awake and happy, do not before nap time. Only offer milk when he has finished with his food (no more interest, not eaten it all!), and build up from there.

Is he going to nursery when you go back to work? Maybe watching other children eat will encourage him.

Just remember it is a phase. I don't know any adults who just have bottles of milk and don't eat food.

I could have written this post a few weeks ago! My 8 month old DS was barely eating (we are also doing BLW), still breastfeeding every 2.5 hours, and I was panicking about how he was going to survive at nursery, which he started at 9 months. We had the added complication that he had never taken a bottle - he had only ever breastfed. I was ringing the breastfeeding network in a panic because I thought he would starve!

He is now 9.5 months and eats pretty well (though he still has lots of milk - 7 or 8 breastfeeds in 24 hours when I am with him). My thoughts:

1. At first, babies don't really associate food with satisfying hunger - it is just about playing with tastes and textures. This was definitely true of DS. But around 8.5 months it was as if he suddenly realised that eating could satisfy his hunger and he suddenly started actively putting food in his mouth. The change was very sudden - you may find the same with your DS.

1. Since he is bottle-fed, you don't need to panic too much about him going to nursery while you are at work - they have plenty of experience of giving babies bottles, and they will feed him as often as he you tell them that he needs to be fed. He doesn't need to be weaned to be away from you.

1. I think that what really made a difference was when I started making him tastier food. I was struggling to get him to eat steamed vegetables etc - but then I thought that I would probably turn my nose up if someone tried to make me eat a plain bit of steamed broccoli. So I started cooking more interesting, more flavourful food for him. Instead of giving him plain steamed carrots, I made a little vinaigrette dressing and gave him his carrots in that. I started making vegetable fritters with thai curry paste, coconut milk and peanut butter (which he loves), and started adding homemade stewed fruit to his porridge and yoghurt. I just do a lot of batch cooking and freeze everything in individual portions. Some ideas:

Steamed veg in dressing
Homemade pork / chicken / beef patties (mix mincemeat with nice flavours - e.g. grated apple and fresh sage with pork)
Vegetable muffins
Stewed fruit (I just boil cheap frozen berry mix or prunes or pears until it gets sticky, then freeze it in ice cube trays)
Homemade flatbreads with toppings (peanut butter, hummus etc)
Frittata (basically just baked eggs with fillings - e.g. cheese and tomato, or spinach with indian spices)
Lots of fresh fruit

I basically only make him things that I would actually want to eat myself (I know I wouldn't want purees or steamed parsnips, so I figured that he probably wouldn't want them either). I feel as if this approach has made such a difference - I wish that I had done it all along!

The first few months of BLW were hellish - he wouldn't put anything in his mouth and I felt as if I was spending half my life cleaning. But he has advanced quickly in the last few weeks - making much less mess, and managing to eat much more skilfully. Stick with it! You will get there.