Baby refuses spoon

[eveholt]

I'm trying to head off the replies I think I might get with this so please bear with me!

This is my second child, breastfed since birth, have been weaning for about 5 weeks. He got the hang of putting finger food in his mouth quite quickly and would gum it although hardly any would get 'eaten' apart from really soft stuff like nectarine.

He absolutely refuses to be spoon fed and even trying to get vitamins or Calpol in him from a syringe ends up with him spitting most of it out. Even yummy smooth fruit puree on a spoon - he clamps his mouth shut, blows raspberries etc. He is interested in using the spoon himself but runny stuff gets flicked everywhere and doesn't make it into his mouth.

Fine, you might say, give him finger foods. Well, hardly anything seems to actually go down. I have taken to giving mashed food (avo, chunky purees etc) on finger food like broccoli florets, pitta strips, etc. But he hardly eats any quantity like this still, it all ends up on the floor or over himself.

I know people will say 'food before one is just for fun' but I have read so much that says this is not true - they need nutrients, iron etc (see my link below) Plus despite all my attempts, DC1 self-weaned from EBF at 10 months so was only having solids which clearly weren't just 'for fun' - this 'food is just additional' advice made me feel awful as though he was being starved. So I do believe they need to be eating.

I found this link helpful: breastfeedingwithoutbs.blogspot.com/2012/09/bullshitometer-food-before-one-is-just.html

My problem is that all the guidance/books assume spoon-feeding as the 'easy' option to get food into them, with BLW as the more exploratory option that will help them like new tastes even if they don't actually eat much. Is there anything I can do to help him eat a bit more? I would say at nearly 7 months now he's eating about a teaspoon full of 'mush' (mashed food or gummed food) a day which surely isn't enough.

Sorry if this post seems a bit garbled. It's just he made progress over the first couple of weeks but now doesn't seem too interested in eating.

Could of written this myself!

DS also second child and has refused the spoon from the start. He does the same thing with finger foods, maybe gets a mouthful down but that's it.

I stopped bothering giving him any food and just let him have his milk for a couple of months.

He's almost 9 months now and the past week or so, he is super interested when the rest of us are eating, so today I thought I'd give a yogurt a go. I gave him his own spoon to hold and for the first time he opened his mouth and let me spoon feed him! Ate the whole thing as well, so it's a start.

Your DS will be ready in his own time, if your really worried about his vitamin intake, maybe try mix some with milk?

My ds hardly ate anything till 8months+. I was really stressed but by 9 months he had taken really well to it. If there is a next time I won't be worrying so much

You know those chunky Organix carrot/corn stick things? Rubbish I know but they are great to use to dip into food and let the baby hold them..more food will go in that way. I like them because they are really safe and just dissolve so they're a nice introduction.

Otherwise I'd say he's doing fine and will probably pick up pace soon.

My DD wouldn’t be spoon fed and just played with finger food. She also refused a bottle or cup of emb or formula. I was very worried about her iron and about going back to work. Like you I wasn’t convinced by “before one is just for fun”.

However in the end it didn’t matter. There was nothing I could do to make her eat. All I could do was offer food regularly. She eventually started eating at 18 months or so!

My DS is also my second, EBF & spoon refuser, afraid I still don't have much advice for you though!

My DS eats plenty now at 16m but when he was smaller all I could really do was let him grab at the food with his hands and try and sly some in his mouth myself while he was preoccupied with it. Will your DS hold a spoon himself? Mine liked to mush the food around with his spoon and occasionally find his mouth with it, so I got away with slipping bits in with 'my' spoon as he though it was his spoon.

Dd didn’t start eating decent amounts of food till 10/11 months. We did blw. For the first 6 months it’s more about learning new textures and flavours rather than nutrition. Milk is still their main source of calories until 1. So don’t stress! Babies pick up on emotions so easily and making mealtimes a worry will only cause more drama later.

Keep putting food on his tray when you eat and just let him get on with it. Eventually it will just click and you’ll wonder what you were worrying about.