Struggling with weaning

[Ttc321]

tc321

Hi all.
My son has just turned 6 months, and for the past week I have been trying him with puréed vegetables at dinner time, but he hates it! He loves his porridge in the morning & will have a mashed up banana for lunch which he also loves. But I just can’t get him to like the taste of veggies, also I tried him with carrot & chicken to see if he liked it better with meat but he is revolted by it. He just turns his head and won’t open his mouth, if he does open his mouth he just makes a crazy face and spits it out. I know I have to get him used to textures and tastes, so I have tried to put him in his high chair and put some soft fruit in front of him and encourage him to eat but he just gets upset. I’m not sure what to do? He manages one or two spoonfuls sometimes less but that is me taking half hour encouraging him to open his mouth and try it lol, but then he gets so upset because he is hungry so I just end up giving him his formula. He is extra hungry at night and wakes up every hour or hour & a half for a feed, I have tried rusk before bed, he did like it for a little while but is now refusing it. Is he just not ready? Am I ok to keep him on his milk? Any advice on what I can do? Thank you

Hi,

He should be on milk as primary nutrition until 1year anyway. Food at this time is just for getting used to. Apparently they sometimes have to try something 16 times before they like it! Feed him his usual milk feed first and keep offering food after. 2 spoons is good :)

Also maybe vegetable sticks for him to pick up?
Have you tried sweet potato/broccoli that's always good.

Sorry keep remembering things to write...
also rusks are a lot of sugar I wouldn't bother with them.

That’s not struggling! Sounds like a fab start. My 6month old will eat nothing 😩 and I’m up constantly. I’m going to try baby led I think as she just won’t take puree maybe try that?

he gets so upset because he is hungry

You need to take a closer look at your feeds/meals timing then. Don't give a meal in place of a bottle. Give a meal in addition to all of the normal bottles he has.

For example. If pre-weaning you normally gave 5 bottles per day, say:
7am milk feed
10am milk feed
1pm milk feed
4pm milk feed
7pm milk feed

Then it becomes a matter of timing meals to be in the middle of these milk feed windows of time. For example:

7am milk feed
8am breakfast
10am milk feed
11am lunch
1pm milk feed
2pm afternoon snack
4pm milk feed
5pm dinner
7pm milk feed

Solids are for fun until one, so I wouldn't worry. DD is 20 months old, we are doing baby led feeding and she still only eats what she wants when she wants it, which tends to vary from day to day.

Sounds like he's doing well. Two meals is enough at 6 months I wouldnt stress too much about the veggie meal he's having breakfast and a lunch that sounds fine for his age. Maybe in a months time he will enjoy it more when he's slightly older x

I'd agree with the previous posters, take the pressure off yourself and him. Cajoling him for half an hour just to eat two spoonfuls is no fun for either of you.
I would sit him in his high chair at the table when you eat your meals and offer him bits of what you are eating (bearing in mind salt content and choking risks) and let him see how much you enjoy eating. He might only lick it then throw it on the floor to start with but they become really efficient at self feeding surprisingly quickly and he'll be developing positive associations with different foods.

Don't bother with purée- a good reason for waiting till 6 months is that you don't need to . Like other posters have said , let him play / explore .

My ds was not ready for solids at six months and I just kept offering some purée every day and some finger food at every meal. I sat him in the high chair at the table whenever I sat down to eat. He was I think about 8 months when suddenly it clicked and he started eating solids three times a day. It’s hard when everyone else’s baby is eating and yours isn’t but they develop at different rates and no one bothers when some walk or talk early or late

@MyOtherUserNameIsAUnicorn how many times will that now disproved myth be wheeled out about 'food is just fun before one'

OP, just offer normal food and see how he goes. A normal six month old doesn't need purees!

I didn't follow Gina Ford generally but a friend lent me her guide to weaning and it was really helpful. It gave details on when and how much milk and food to offer along with recipes and troubleshooting. I wouldn't have had a clue what to do without this book!

It's only been a week.. give him a chance! He's tasting what you're giving him and that's all you need at the moment. You don't need to think about reducing milk for a while yet. as others have said give a bit of milk then puree then more milk. I wouldn't worry about times until he's eating decent quantities otherwise you'll get tied up feeding all the time. Pick one feed when he's in the best mood!

@FoxAndBear Is it a myth?
Even if I'm still breastfeeding
Can you direct me to where it's been discredited as I want to pass it on to my NCT girls. We were told this by our HV at a weaning class/drop in!

Sorry for peddling myths guys

Oooh @FoxAndBear I just googled it. Thanks.

Unicorn.. I'd agree.. I'd be interested to know where the research is behind this.

For you and your NCT friends.. some of you will have babies that will eat well and will have naturally dropped milk feeds, others will have babies with a slower pace. I've never heard of a child of typical development that isn't eating at one.. milk is of course important but when they get to 11/ 12 months the eating really takes over and milk is supplementing it not the other way around. Don't worry about what your babies should or shouldn't be doing.. text book babies don't exist. Just enjoy.. and don't panic when your friends baby does something different. Trust me.. I was a former text book mum and wouldn't be again!

Mine didn't start eating much til about 8 months then gradually increased it. He wouldn't take a spoon so I did baby led weaning, bits of toast (spread with the veg puree he wouldn't have from a spoon...), veg sticks, pieces of fruit, cheese, bits of meat etc. I panicked a bit as all my NCT friends who were doing purees had babies who ate much more. DS now probably eats the most of the lot, he was just a slower starter 😉. Try the baby led approach and don't panic too much about amount, it will come!

Unicorn.. I'd agree.. I'd be interested to know where the research is behind this.

Here is a good summary with the link to actual research, including current WHO recommendations.

breastfeedingwithoutbs.blogspot.com/2012/09/bullshitometer-food-before-one-is-just.html

Also, if you look through the latest guidelines published by the First Nutrition Trust or the Caroline Walker Trust, both of these organisations recommend offering babies 3 meals a day "between 7 and 9 months of age". Previously the advice was to "build towards having 3 meals by 8-9 months". I am guessing the reason for the change of tone is partially due to a recent research in Australia which has shown that more than 30% of infants lack iron in their diet. Iron is a vital nutrient for cognitive development in early years but, unfortunately, some of us, parents, get misguided by catchy phrases ("food before one...") and wrong advice given by less experienced HVs.

This "food is only for fun before one" thing is something I'd never heard of before I found mumsnet. I don't know if it's something that is only perpetuated on mumsnet. Because I've not heard it mentioned anywhere else, including nearly 14 years (encounting...) of health visitor checks with my 4 children.

I think it might just be a misunderstanding.

What I do recognise and is suggested by HV as good practice is that it might take up to 12 months for food to be the main calorie source for baby.

That means that by the time baby is 12 months most calories come from a balanced diet of food. Not that food only becomes important after the age of 1.

I put all my children onto 3 meals a day (offering both puree and finger food) within weeks of first tastes, so about 6 1/2 - 7 months old. By 9 months purees were no longer needed, just finger food. By the time they were 12 months they were eating exactly the same the rest of the family. I can't see how we could have got to eating full portions family meals by one unless we started promptly with robust weaning at 6 months old.

I've heard it a lot actually, at weigh ins by HVs and by other Mums