Baby only eat fruit

[Khtchkn]

Baby is 6.5 months old. Currently entering the third week of weaning and finding it a bit frustrating. he only eats fruit purée, but not vegetable. I bought the book “Annabel Karmel” for recipes and have literally made most of the recipes she’s given for the first stage of weaning, but unfortunately my baby just likes fruit. He will open his mouth for the veggie purée but hold it in his mouth and spit it out. I’m worried when he’s older he’ll only want sweet things, or that this will go on for a long time and he’ll be hungry/not gaining weight. He’s currently EBF and the health visitor said his weight was right on track when I went 2 weeks ago. Would like some advice please.

Stop offering fruit.

I wouldn't worry about it. Milk is sweet so babies are much more used to the taste of fruit. Just keep persevering. It can take a lot of tries before they accept the flavour or something. Just keep offering a range of flavours and tastes and don't stress about it.

It's really early days, don't get stressed about it (easier said than done!) as he will pick up on your anxiety. Keep persevering with all kinds of tastes and textures, he will enjoy the fruit best at the moment as the sweet taste is familiar to him from his milk, but that doesn't mean he can't learn to enjoy other flavours as well.
If you eat together as a family, give him some bits of finger food from your plate and he will start to explore them and see other people enjoying the same food he has.

Also my DD never took to savoury purées but eats savoury actual food incredibly well. I think savoury purées are just a bit gross in general tbh. Try him with some finger food instead.

Thank you @Dipsydoodle and @NannyR . I’m usually laid back but today I feel shattered, and him spitting out the food I made him makes me frustrated 😔 Hope things improve

Oh, seeing them spitting out the lovely, healthy food you've slaved over is soul destroying!!!

I wish I could say it gets better but DD is 10mo and now just feeds her food to the dog instead when my back is turned

It is frustrating but the veg purees just taste very different to the milk he is used to, so it takes a bit of getting used to. Keep offering veg puree and maybe just do fruit puree once a day. If he doesn't eat it, he won't go hungry as presumably he is still having lots of milk so even holding it in his mouth and spitting it out he will be tasting it.

Maybe try a sweeter vegetable like sweet potato or carrot, or try a mixture of fruit and veg - my DD liked apple and parsnip or carrot and strawberry.

At this point the purees won't be contributing much to nutrition or weight gain, just keep offering milk as often as he wants it

What are they like with finger food?

Isnt it upto 18/20 tries to develop a taste? 6.5mnths is still so young, your only just starting on the food journey, LO's still getting all they need from milk so try to relax a little around weaning- fruits fine for now, try mixing some of sweet with the savoury see if it helps at first- theres no one rule.

I've 1 & 2 year old Dd's, bought a nutribullet with Dd1 then just worked my way through a list of individual whizzed fruit and veg (sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, bananas etc), some (peas!) took a little longer for her to get a taste for (and Dd2 now), then I started mixing them, adding rice, pasta, flavourings, then into recipes...now they'll eat pretty much everything (if their hungry).

Take your time, your also allowed to be knackered (step away from the Annabelle Karmel book.....mines at the bottom of my wardrobe, and there it shall stay!! )

My daughter was like this for months. She was then a massively picky eater until overt the age of 2. Now she's suddenly obsessed with all range of foods. They are odd little things - just make sure you offer a wide range and let them experiment.
Read "my child won't eat" by Carlos Gonzales.

Two of my three both much favoured sweet foods at first. I offered both savoury and sweet but didn't make a fuss which one they prefers, just praised them lots whatever it was. They found savoury foods they did like in time. My other child liked really salty foods and that was a mine field too, although she still favours Savoury foods now.

Thank you all for your reassuring comments.

@rhymingrabbit3 you are right I’ll now start mixing fruit with veg. I remember I offered him avocado when he first started weaning and pulled a face and wouldn’t have any. But then I mixed it with banana a few days later and he ate the whole thing.
@Selfsettling3 he does chomp on finger food but rarely never gets swallowed. He still has no teeth yet. I remember he sucked some steamed broccoli floret and ate it, but when I gave him broccoli purée he hated it. I can’t wait till his actually tooth comes out!
@Taddda yes you’re right, I’ll keep persevering 🤪

They don't need teeth to eat. The chewing teeth are the back teeth and they don't come through until much later. Try normal family
Foods - my sons first food was a strip of beef with broccoli and noodles. He just gummed it

They don't need to have visible teeth to eat finger foods. Their teeth are all present, just hiding under their gums which are rock hard and more than capable of gumming food effectively.
If he enjoyed steamed broccoli then give him it. He will get better at swallowing the more practice he gets.

@coffeeandgin26 and @nannyR - I thought teeth would help but maybe not. Yes he sucked broccoli floret/shredded wheat and ate it, but when I offer him other veg like (all steamed) sweet red pepper, carrot, courgette, he doesn’t like it. Doesn’t suck as hard as broccoli / shredded wheat which means he likes those two. I will try mixing veg with fruit tomorrow 🤞🏼

Your baby’s gums are really hard/sharp so they don’t need to teeth to come through to be able to bite. It’s important to start giving finger food me now.