Baby doesn’t want food!

[Tmgc123]

Before I start, I know weaning is a slow process and not expecting miracles, but...

My baby has always been an amazing eater, she latched on straight away and loves milk. We started weaning at 5.5 months and she seemed to like it, but stopped when she started sleeping badly thinking it was too soon (it was actually teeth!)

We started again and she just hates it! She will not open up for a spoon so I give her loaded spoons to play with which she spits out everything (normal) but what concerns me is she visibly shudders when she tries anything! (Accidentally tries something)

I’m happy to give her food and her spit it out, throw it around etc, but I really thought she’d be more keen as she loves milk. Didn’t expect disgust!

She feeds max every 2.5 hours (often more) even through the night, she’s a greedy little thing, just not for anything that isn’t milk.

Is this normal? I just carry on giving her bits and we’ll get there eventually? Your experiences would be greatly appreciated:)

Normal, very similar here. He's 8mo this week and finally feels like he's eating rather than mushing, sucking and dribbling out

Although we didn't really do any spoon feeding as we started with soft carrot sticks etc and he'd just grab and suck/chew the wrong end, He tries nearly everything though. Occasionally now lets us feed him yoghurt but generally bits on his tray and leave him to it

DS was like this, one of my friends told me not to stress about it, that 'food is for fun before they're 1' and it was very good advice. He much preferred finger foods so maybe try things that she can pick up herself like cucumber sticks (good for teething), omelette cut into strips, cubes of cheese, or melon strips? She'll get the hang of it eventually.

My wee one was exactly the same! I stressed and if I'm honest it wasted the precious last few months of my maternity leave! Fast forward to now and she's a great wee eater at nearly 12 months. I'd say it got better at about 9/10 months. Like your wee one she would not tolerate being spoon fed at all. Now she easily switches between both - feeding herself and spoon feeding. So, the only advice I would have is to just be relaxed about it. It will come in time.

Thank you guys! Still trying (obviously!) with soft finger foods and loaded spoons... we’ll get there eventually 🤣

Any tips on best time to try?

My DD simply would not have a spoon at all so we had to do BLW, and that’s exactly what it is, being led by baby

I’d stick her in the high chair when you eat and put some on her tray and let her just mess with it. Try not to tslk about the food or how she’s eating.

Sometimes I’d stick DD on my lap while I ate and she’d help herself from my plate.

It doesn’t really have to be soft finger food st this age either, she’ll be able to cope with most foods. Dd was eating sandwiches and Croats dinners from quite early on.

If you need some ideas try the BLW cookbook. Your local library will probably have a copy

Thank you! We have a class this morning but going to try a different approach when we get back with lunch, more BLW as you suggest. :)

*roast dinner. Not sure what a Croats Dinner is or even if it sounds that appetising...

Let us know how you get on with lunch. I found that the least appentiom my DD had the more she ate

If shes getting milk every 2.5hours then she won't be hungry enough to try any food!

How old is she now OP?

It sounds perfectly normal, she'll get there in her own time. Definitely don't be dropping any milk feeds to make her hungry, she'll do that herself when she's ready. She still needs all those milk calories at the moment.

My DD is 9 months and it's only really the last few weeks she's started eating more than just a nibble, we still have some meals that all end up on the floor though. In the early days of make sure she'd had milk within the hour before she'd have food to ensure she wasn't too hungry, but now i don't bother.

Haha I figured you meant roast dinner! Lunch was good... we had steamed broccoli and I think a tiny crumb may have gone down! She’s certainly more interested when she’s in control :)

Yes I would like to stretch out her feeds but she just gets so upset. I’ve spoken to the HV about it and she said maybe she’s just a snacker. She’s a drama queen, bought to devastated in seconds, it’s not easy to hold off a feed when she decides she wants one haha.

Glad Lunch was better, I think it was being in control that appealed to my DD too

Feeding every 2 and a half hours is pretty normal for a bf baby. I don’t see why this would stop her eating. Just offer food roughly an hour after a bf, if you can, and don’t stress too much about what she is, or isn’t eating

If you want to stretch out feeds then offer food instead of boob. If you don't then just stick to boob on demand. She's pretty young to be weaned so may not just be ready

She’s almost 7 months? The HV told me to crack on with weaning 😬

Could your HV have meant to just keep offering solids? Don’t know what your HV is like but mine had —quite scary— rather antiquated views that didn’t sit with current guidelines and didn’t seem to be evidence based at all.

I’m not saying that your HV is wrong, babies should be offered a variety of foods from 6 months, or when they meet the signs of readiness, but there a huge difference between encouraging a mother to offer foods once or twice a day at this age and making them feel inadequate because baby isn’t consuming huge quantities of solid food several times a day

Thought you might like this from Kellymom on complementary feeding. And that’s exactly what it should be at this age, an addition to your BM, not a replacement

Keep offering stuff. If she's totally not interested then try after a few days. Mine only really got it when I cut back on milk a bit x

Oh she was lovely, definitely not making me feel inadequate, I just mentioned that she wasn’t really interested and she just said to crack on we’ll get there, very much a “food is fun til one” message. I just meant she advised me to get going with it, not that it was too early.

She’ll be 7 months old next week so normal time for weaning.

I’m not planning on cutting back on feeds, she loves them, I couldn’t if I wanted too 😹 I imagine it’ll happen naturally x

It doesn't always happen naturally . You said you're baby is always an amazing eater ......but yet not interested in food? !

If she loves milk then you may have to attempt to wean her off that a bit to try to get her more interested.

More solids more sleep was my motto

She was an amazing Breast feeder and LOVES milk haha. I was very very lucky :)