Baby won't open mouth for spoon!

[cheshiremama89]

DS is 6m tomorrow!
We have been weaning since mid June!!!

He is breastfed and I try a bit of Purée 2/3 times a day.

He opens his mouth for finger food and little bits of what I'm having no problem.

However when I try and spoon feed him he is just not interested and I have even tried sweeter things such as yoghurt etc and even that doesn't entice him!

Can anyone help??? I'm feeling pretty terrible about it!

Some babies don't like to be spoon fed. Jump dump it out in front of them and let them lick it off their fingers. Look up baby led weaning.

just dump it out. We used total yogurt fwiw as it's quite thick.

@honeysucklejasmine can you do baby led weaning with a puree? I just presumed it was with finger food!

I will try this at lunch!!!

Don't do it then, he will be perfectly fine with breast milk and finger foods.

Yeah sorry the answer is to stop trying to spoon feed him at the moment.
Put a spoon there (short handled) and some of the puree in a small bowl and see what happens. Also but some harder weaning food that you know he likes

Have you done the aeroplane?

It's a classic because it works.

Why use purees at all? Baby led weaning. Put some of your good in front of baby

(& NHS guidance is to wean gradually from six months not before)

You can put some puree on a spoon and let him pick the spoon up himself. Or put it on toast fingers.

Or why not skip the puree if he doesn't like it, and give him whole fruits instead?

He can get purees in himself just with his hands. Let him feed himself

Yep, let him feed himself, if he wants to eat it, he will. We used bibs with sleeves for DD from about 6 months to about 18 months, they're really good.

@Ullupullu paediatrician advised differently for my son and so we introduced earlier.

@RJnomore1 haha yes and every other transport method!

Offer the food on the spoon to baby. If he closes his mouth or ducks, put the spoon in your own mouth, eat the food off it and make lots of yum yum noises. Repeat. He’ll soon get annoyed that you’re pinching his lunch, and will start eating it himself!

Just forget about the spoon and let him feed himself; really isn't important how much goes in at this stage-more important that he learns textures and has time to handle and play with the food
His main source of nutrition is milk anyway

Give him finger foods to play with/eat and the. Spoon bits of purée in while he’s distracted. He’ll get used to it.. but mainly do finger foods and steamed veg/fruit that he can easily munch

When i used puree pouches for convenience I used strips of chewy bread like ciabatta or sourdough and dipped them in for DD to help herself. I did the same for beans, soup, curry etc

Unless a baby is underweight and the parents have been advised to bulk them up I don't understand why people engage in aeroplanes, eating off their spoon, waiting til they're distracted and then pushing the spoon in etc.

Isn't it much easier to just relax and let them eat?

We were told categorically to not trick food in, so no waiting for distraction then shoving it in. Aeroplanes are fine if they can see the food coming and choose to close their mouth but they do not need to be force fed or tricked into eating what foods you think they should be eating, and especially not at 6 months

I agree that if the baby doesn't want to be spoon fed then don't. Just do easy to pick up solid foods - sticks of cooked veg like carrots or courgette, strips of toast, chicken, omelette etc. If you want to do yoghurt etc you can put some on a spoon on the high chair tray and let them feed themselves.

You started weaning fairly early (4.5m?) so it may be he just isn’t interested. It’s not new to him and he prefers milk.

Like the others have said let him feed himself, experiment and learn to like the different textures and tastes.

Don’t give him sweeter stuff in an attempt to make him eat more- remember until 1 the vast majority of their nutrition is from milk, weaning and solids is all experimentation, it doesn’t matter if not much appears to go in, what’s important is he learns to chew, swallow, practices pincer grip, using a spoon himself etc.

I barely weaned mine. They were about 5.5m when they started grabbing food off my plate or out of my hand and shoving it in their mouths. They just went from there. Didn’t bother with puree at all.

Is there a reason you weaned early?

Advice here will be based on babies with no medical issues. If he is under a paed the advice may be different.

pediatrician advised differently for my son and so we introduced earlier in that case a lot of the generic advice on this thread might not apply to your baby. Was he premature?

Baby led weaning relies on your baby being able to sit upright and use his hands to feed himself. If your baby was premature, he may not be able to do these things at 6 months old, so baby led weaning might not be appropriate.

I'd make a guess at bad reflux, a common reason for early weaning. But you still can't make him eat what he won't do relax, fed him what he'll enjoy and offer different stuff, leave spoon out and don't his sense your anxiety

I used to eat in front of then at the same time with a spoon (different food!) show then what to do

And the train /aeroplane thing too of course!

Baby led weaning, it's messy but it works .
I've done it with 3 out of 4 DC and they're brilliant eaters (not guaranteed to be honest as the purée weaned DC1 eats well too) know when they're full and I just give them what we're eating. I make curry and chilli a little milder for them and I don't add salt but otherwise it's so much easier.
Get some long sleeved bibs, a washable high chair ( this IKEA one is recommended as it's easily cleanable www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/chairs-stools-benches/high-chairs/antilop-highchair-with-tray-white-silver-colour-spr-29067293/) and just go with it.