I am a rubbish weaner and don't know what the hell to do

[NineUnlikelyTales]

My DS will be 7 months in a few days. At 26 weeks he was showing all the signs of wanting solids - grabbing food, more hngry etc. I handed him rice cakes and chunks of banana, etc and he ate quite a bit. Then he started to look like he was struggling to eat it but still hungry and frustrated, so I gave him some mashed stuff that I was having, like avocado - but I just put it on the spoon and let hom either eat it or not. Mostly he wolfed it down.

But he has been progressively less interested in both the finger foods and the mashed stuff, to the point that he hardly eats any solids now. I also thought that wheat and dairy products were giving him a bad tummy in the night, so I cut them out even though he likes toast and cheese.

Now I don't know whether to keep just offering finger food, to go down the puree everything route, to offer wheat/dairy, or what the hell to do. I feel like a crap mum in this, and many other respects. I feel like I am letting my poor DS down by not knowing how to feed him All the other babies I know of the same age are eating tons of pureed food but I thought that BLW was the way to go..until now.

Please help this feeble mother.
nut

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Thanks for asking

Poor DS was awake crying most of the night teething, so my expectations haven't been that high TBH. At breakfast he ate a couple of shreddies from his dad's bowl (so with cow's milk). Well, I say ate but smeared would be a more accurate word. I think he ingested some though! We're having a late lunch so he has just eaten, with great relish, a piece of toast with unsalted butter..he ate really well and chewed it and everything. I was very proud

DH and I are going to have a junk food lunch because I've got a cold, so he can't have any of the oven chips, veggie burger and baked beans extravaganza - but we are also having peas in attempt to get some vitamins, so I'll try him with that.

Basically after your kind posts yesterday, and everyone's support, I am much less stressed and just happy to take it as it comes. It's a great relief to me not to be worrying about salt so much.

Thanks again
nut

[BizzyDint]

how's it gone today?

[Manictigger]

Blimey, he eats more than me at the moment (discounting choc of course....)

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Oh, and just to prove me wrong, at lunch DS had some pitta bread with a tiny scraping of houmous, some very ripe pear which he wolfed down and the last of the pureed fruit. Babies, eh?

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Thanks Bizzy, that really puts my mind at rest (especially re the salt) and I will just carry on offering bits of what I'm having and not worry about it as much.

Thanks chocolatesucks for your concern re the soya milk. I haven't given any to DS but I didn't know I wasn't supposed to either, so I'm glad you raised it

Thanks Tatties, Belgo, VandT and katewilson13 for your kind words and for making me see that 7 months is not really all that old, is it? It's just that when you get a group of mothers today and half of them are boasting that their DC are eating pureed eggs benedict for breakfast, cod and chips for lunch and steak tartare for dinner, it makes you paranoid

I feel a different woman, many thanks
nut

[katewilson13]

Wow. Nineunlikelytales you are brilliant. My DS is 8 months old and I haven't succeeded in getting him to eat half as much as you have! You sound as if things are progressing really well. Yours is eating a variety of foodstuffs and flavours, mostly at the time you are. Babies do seem to go off doing things - some days I can get mine to have 2 lots of pureed food, and some days almost none at all. He's most definitely taken against savoury foods of all sorts! Grr.

[ChocolateSucksWithoutSugar]

Ah, I'm with you, sorry! I thought that was a good day if he'd had all that!!

[BizzyDint]

that's what SHE had. she then said she gives him weetabix with ebm, but stopped as concerned re wheat allergies. i specifically asked what milk she's giving as i too was concerned about the soya, but didn't want to cause unecessary alarm for a mum who's already very stressed out.

[ChocolateSucksWithoutSugar]

Bizzy - see yesterday's diary - says soya milk with shreddies.

[VandT]

I seem to be experiencing exactly the same thing with my DS (have posted on another thread about it). weaned at 6 months DS loved nearly everything we gave him (puree) but since a nasty stomach bug has pretty much refused everything, especially things on a spoon. I have been giving him finger foods but to be honest he mostly plays with it - might end up eating 2 or 3 bits of pasta - a finger of toast etc but not much beyond this - and we often have to feed him these bits ourselves. He does like sitting on my lap and grabbing food from my plate though!
If it wasn't for MN and seeing all these discussions I would really be panicking, but i'm reasurred that others have been in this position and got through it. My only concern is that he is far too fond of his milk and only associates this, not food, with being able to relieve his hunger. Do people who are BLW give milk before food? After?

[belgo]

you're right about soya milk not being recommended

[BizzyDint]

she's giving cereal with ebm.

[ChocolateSucksWithoutSugar]

At the risk of making you feel crapper (but please don't - even lots of GPs are ignorant about this), soya milk isn't suitable for children under 2, especially boys, due to the phyto-oestrogens in it. If you want a non-dairy alternative to breast or formula milk, then you should use rice or oat milk with added calcium.

My dd loves sprouts too - if you're worried about the choking risk then cook them til they're soft, then just squish them a bit between your thumb and forefinger before handing them over.

[BizzyDint]

he won't be able to pick up a pea until his body is able to sope with it. his body is clever like that! his pincer grip will develop as his ability to swallow without choking does. before that, you can mash peas into potato mash, it makes the mash go green, which is lots of fun!

you're right with the salt, no more than a gram a day. but please don't get stressed about it you said you cook from scratch, so you know exactly what he's getting. no worries. he's over 6 months so you don't need to get too worried. the softly softly weaning plans are for pre 6 month olds, who aren;t really ready for food yet.

just take it easy, hand him food to play with and let him get on with it.

[belgo]

small things like peas and sweetcorn are great, and raisons. Too small to choke on, and you'll be surprised at his determination to pick them up.

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Thanks Tatties, that is so reassuring And I do wonder if DS is teething so maybe that is another reason for his lack of interest?

Bizzy - I exclusively express for DS, so I have given him Weetabix with EBM until I started to fret about wheat. I am avoiding nuts as DH family is quite allergic (asthma, excema, cats, hayfever, dust..) and have only just reintroduced to my own diet.

I do generally try to offer DS a bit of what I'm having but I worry about the salt content of things like houmous..is it okay if in very small quantities? Mostly I cook from scratch and have never used salt. And is sugar okay then? I worry about turning DS into the sugar and chocolate fiend that I am (yesterday's diet was unusually lacking in dairy milk, bounty etc).

I am also more worried about choking than I was after DS put a whole sprout into his mouth (I thought it was far too big but no..) and I had to fish it out. Are small things like peas etc okay then?

Sorry to bombard you with questions!

[belgo]

Firstly, you're a crap mum. well, if you are, then I'm crapper .

He was eating solids a month ago, and that's a great sign. Maybe he went through a growth spurt a month ago, making him so interesting in eating.

at the risk of sounding patronising, the best thing you can do is relax.

It's up to you what method of weaning you choose. BLW was the only method that worked for my anti spoonist dd2 even so, she was still 11 months before she started eating food.

As long as he has the opportunity to eat, he won't starve himself, however much it may seen like he will.

[BizzyDint]

like tatties said, it doesn't matter if he eats very very little of any of it. it's just to play with while you eat really. you're just introducing him to food, not trying to fill his tummy with food. milk does that.

[BizzyDint]

right, so how are you with having your ds sit with you while you eat and passing him bits of what you're having? he might like shreddies with whatever milk you give him. soak them in the milk, hand them over (are you giving him soya/formula/bm/cow's milk??)

then at lunch hand him a tortilla with the houmous and carrot (are you avoiding nuts for him?) then a pear would be a nice snack, as would the flapjack probably.

for your dinner just give him bits of what you're having to play with. he might like, for example a pile of mashed potato with the peas and sweetcorn blended into it. he can play with this, taste it etc..no hassle.

[Tatties]

"Yesterday - nibbled a tiny piece of rice cake (not really interested) and ate a few spoons of fruit, plus a very little bit of a potato wedge" - Sounds typical of what my ds may would have eaten in a whole day at that age. Sometimes he would eat more, sometimes less. And if he was teething or had been ill he wouldn't be interested in much more than milk.

[Tatties]

Oh, NineUnlikelyTales, don't worry. 7 months is still very young. My ds seemed enthusiastic when we first started weaning, but a couple of weeks in he more or less totally refused. We just kept up the milk and kept offering finger foods whenever I was eating something. Stayed very relaxed, let him eat if he wanted to, no fuss if he didn't. He very gradually built up the amount he was eating, but never ate as much as babies we knew of the same age, and tbh wasn't really that interested until after 12mo. Also, ds was (and often still is!) much happier to eat when he is sitting on someone's knee, helping himself to their plate! HTH

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Breakfat - shreddies and soya milk
Snack - home made flapjack
Lunch - pitta with a nut cutlet, plus a tortilla wrap with grated carrot and houmous
Snack - another flapjack and a pear
Dinner - Roast veg tart(bought), potato wedges, peas and sweetcorn

We are vegetarian, in case you can't tell from the above..

[BizzyDint]

ok and what did you have yesterday for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks?

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Sorry, that was a bit over wraught wasn't it?

Today so far - nothing yet as we have been really busy out and about, and he is having his nap at the moment.

Yesterday - nibbled a tiny piece of rice cake (not really interested) and ate a few spoons of fruit, plus a very little bit of a potato wedge

[BizzyDint]

ok calm down first of all...phew...

what have you offered him so far today?

and what did he have yesterday?