Nearly 8 month old, will eat fruit and veg till it comes out of his ears, but won't touch a 'proper' meal??

[NatalieJane]

DS2 is coming up to 8 months, he is BF with no problem, he has been a little bit slow to catch on to solids, he won't eat any breakfast, but has been on a solid lunch and dinner for the last few weeks. He gulps down fruits and vegs till he literally can't fit any more in, and he will eat things like lumps of mild cheese and the odd bit of bread, but when I try him with any sort of meat or potato, or anything with tomatoes, he takes one bite shudders and pulls a face and then he clamps his mouth shut and there is nothing that will make him open up. He has had some chicken and mushroom pasta that went down fairly well, but it is quite a soft flavor, he seems to hate anything with a stronger flavor.

What can I do to encourage him on to a better range of foods? Is it just going to take time?

It sounds to me like you're doing the right thing. DD hated being spoon fed and preferred to use her hands to feed herself. Even so, she had very little "proper food" for ages. She liked pasta and the odd omelette but preferred more familiar stuff, cheese, breadsticks, veg, fruit. I just kept giving her the "proper" food plus the stuff she liked so at least I knew she'd eaten something. It usually took 3 or 4 goes of something new before she'd accept it so do persevere.
PS she hated and still hates potato - i thought it was the blandness rather than it being a strong flavour.

Well, yes, to be fair, the potatoes were all mixed in with some lamb we'd had left over from Sunday dinner, so perhaps he would be OK with potatoes on their own.

We are going on holiday in a couple of weeks time, and I really wanted to get to the stage where I wasn't breast feeding in the day at all, but obviously if he needs just some more time then I'm not going to push it.

Thanks for your advice

Smallwhitecat, I will try that thanks. In fact might get DH to do that tonight for all of us, not had risotto for a while

It sounds like you are doing just fine imo. 8 months is still quite little and being bf he will be getting a generally good diet.

tomatoes is a difficult one for many kids. My ds still won't touch anything containing them and he is 5. Try to keep the flavours mild, avoid tomatoes! and maybe try sweet potato instead of normal ones for a while.

Other than that just try to offer the stronger flavours along side the veges - in time he will get there

you're doing great. my dd1 wouldnt touch potato until about 18 months!

Thanks everyone, it has been the best part of 5 years since we were doing this with DS1, I can't remember most of it, and the bits I do remember have all changed!

Just nice to have some reassurance every now and then!!

NJ our babes are about the same age (my DD2 early dec) so happy to talk to you seperately! I even remember your birth story (i had a diff nickname then). Cat me if you like...

PMSL I think you are not the only one who remembers my birthing threads Kind of hard to forget with what went on

I haven't ever CATted before, no idea where to start with it, but if you wanted to chat some more, my email is [email protected]

he sounds like he's doing fine, NJ. my friend's wee girl never liked potatoes and my dd hasn't ever liked fresh tomatoes and we recently discovered it may be an allergy. imo the main thing is that he picks it up and tries it, iyukwim? it's rather up to him if he doesn't much like it. although what kind of cheese have you tried? dd hates anything that isn't mature and stinky.

Just mild chedder so far Aitch, he doesn't really eat much of it, but he enjoys turning it into a sort of cheesy mush

He had some pasta and veggies yesterday, and DH has made some risotto for him.