9 month old refusing ALL solids. Please help me 😔

[CaptainDamaged]

Hi there,

Dd is a big baby, on the 92nd percentile and was exclusively breastfed until 6 months. She’s never been a good solid eater, much prefers the boob but she’s had a few (very short) phases where she will happily it. However the past few weeks she is refusing absolutely everything. I’m so stressed out, the only things she will willingly eat are sweet things (yogurt, fruit, jam etc) but refuses anything I’ve made her. I’ve tried finger foods and she used to be much better but now it just ends up all over the floor 😔 everyone says it’s supposed to get better not worse! It also doesn’t help that my friends baby who’s a week younger eats like a machine. Her day kind of looks like this:

Boob 8ish

Breakfast 10ish weetabix/ porridge / eggs/ avid on toast / jam on toast etc

Lunch 1ish some kind of finger sandwiches and either a fruit or a yogurt

Dinner 6ish pasta with homemade sauce, homemade blended casserole, egg omelette or beef stew. Occasionally she will have what we have but that’s only if it’s suitable (we eat a lot of salads).

All of this recently has been refused, I’m scared she’s going to fade away! She still feeds roughly ever 2 hours (sometimes less) at night and whenever she wants during the day so that may be the problem, though even with big stretches during the day she doesn’t have any interest in eating. Please please help me :(

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My dd was like this, she was nearly a year before she ate meaningful amounts of food. She's now an trainee officer in the Navy! Don't worry, they get there. Offer a wide variety of finger and spoonable foods including stronger flavours, some of your dinner and eat together, my dd sat for 15-20 mins at the table whilst we ate (and her sister) eventually curiosity got the better of her, I also cut breastfeeding frequency as she approached a year

My DS was like this, don't worry milk is supposed to be their main food until 12 months. Just keep offering eating when you eat is best really and try to keep it stress free.
I can recommend a great book, Carlos González
My Child Won't Eat!: How to enjoy mealtimes without worry. Really help me relax around meal times and not worry so much.

DS is 8 years old now eats lots of different foods although won't eat cake or chocolate, strange child.

My DS1 was like this to the point that I took him to the GP who looked at his chubby face, his red book and then at me witheringly and said "well he's not exactly wasting away!!" So unless your DD is losing significant weight I wouldn't worry about that.

Food's for fun until they're one, the majority of calories and nutrition is still coming from milk. Just keep offering things and treat mealtimes with solids like she is a tiny scientist experimenting with discovering textures and tastes. Her "real" meal is still milk for now!

My DD was a bit like this, much preferred to breastfeed. As PP said, milk should be their main source of food now anyway. But I know it's stressful.

My DD started feeding a lot more during the night at around that age. I think she was filling up at night and then wasn't that hungry during the day. I think I read about this on Kelly Mom and it's called reverse cycling.

Anyway I would try to cut down the night feeds a bit. It may be that she's just not hungry. And also try not to show any irritation when you give her something and she doesn't eat it. She may pick up on that and you don't want the whole weaning thing to become a power struggle.

Good luck, she will get there!

This is your answer the only things she will willingly eat are sweet things (yogurt, fruit, jam etc)

Reduce/ avoid sweet stuff until she has developed a wider range of food. She also needs to be and feel hungry to become more interested in food and this will come when she breastfeed less. Meanwhile, try to make sure the food she has isn't sweet or processed.
Have her seating with you during your meals, if she seems interested offer something from your plate, even salads. I eat tons of salads and my children were eating it too before they were one.
Try to make some soups, risottos, polenta, some juicy meatballs cooked in tomato sauce so they are really soft, ...
The difference between fruit and veg is not only that fruit is sweet but also has a stronger flavour. Try dressing your vegetables a bit, add rosemary to some oven braised carrots or pumpkin with extra virgin olive oil.
Night feeding every 2 hours at night is something you might want to address before she gets older and for your own sanity and sleep. She should learn to fall back asleep when she wakes up without your boob. I don't think it is hunger, but more comfort.

In France, I was taught to give my child a soup at night in a bottle and to just use scissor to make the hole in the tits a bit bigger. Make a soup, blend it, add some real parmesan cheese, again some extra virgin olive oil, and put some in a bottle to see how she reacts. try carrot-pumpkin, pea-potatoes, squash-cinnamon, ....

Keep the yoghurt but the plain one, not flavoured with fruit, try to avoid the baby pouches as they usually have a high content in sweet stuff (apple puree, concentrate grape ,...)

Also maybe invert the 8.00 - 10.00 schedule. Give her the breakfast before the breast. If she is not hungry, she will never get interested in food. And how many hours gap do you have between the 10 am breakfast and lunch?
I never gave my children anything to eat/drink but water in the two hours before meals. Not even healthy stuff.

Mine didn't eat a thing until after 10 months, I kept offering those baby melting crisp things. Eventually she learned it was a good thing. Proper food aversion, didn't touch sweet stuff either.

@LiliesAndChocolate please don’t recommend people put soup in a bottle - that is a huge choking risk...along with anything that’s not milk/water

It’s also really bad for their teeth to have anything other than milk or water from a bottle