DD just doesn’t seem interested in solids ….

[Baldrik]

3 months of trying solids (some jars, some non-mashed food but mostly home cooked pureed) and I don?t seem to be getting anywhere with DD (now 8 months old). The only thing she will eat is Ellas Kitchen, porridge and toast. I am still breast feeding and she hasn?t worked out that solid food can satisfy her hunger. She wont eat anything unless she has had a reasonable milk feed first. I?ve tried just giving a little milk to take away the desperate hunger and I?ve tried feeding her at different intervals after a milk feed but nothing seems to work.
I?m trying to keep positive but it gets harder each day!

Foods for fun until they're one.

Have you thought about giving milk feeds as normal and then handable food for her to play with? Take the pressure away from meal times, she doesn't need to eat solid food at the moment, it should be about play and exploration.

Well done for keeping up the breastfeeding.

Leave off solids for a while. It is extra anyway, not instead of milk. She is still very little.

"food is fun until they're one" ...its not much fun for the mum when they dont want to eat and in my case i hate that saying because my dd is 14 months and still eating like a fly, refusing food etc, eating practically nil solids.that saying makes me think oh poo its not supposed to be fun anymore this is serious and that just makes me even more panicky! baldrik i started weaning at 6m and 8m on i still feel like im getting nowhere and ive tried everything! my dd has been on and off i would say, going through phases of eating, not eating, i have heard it is just so so important not to let on to the child that you are worried about how much they are eating.or not!and that you should never put pressure on
a child to eat.That they will eat when they are hungry and that forcing or worrying can make the child anxious and cause feeding problems which can last for years.So just try to stay calm and let them lead the way, hopefully they will get it in the end

I'm 26 and will be until 3rd March 2008! In the same way Tink will be 1 until 16th July 2008. They're one until they're two remember

That's good advice about not letting them see you stressed, I had just written the same thing and then read what you put!

I put food in front of Tink, allow her to eat what she wants, play along with her sharing games and help her when she yells "MUM!" (or "NAN!" for some reason) with her spoon held out for me to help her scoop. Then when she's done I take her out and clean her up away from where she was sitting and clean the area when she isn't watching. The most I do is ask her if she's going to eat anymore or point out something if I think she didn't see it, before I let her out.

They will eat in their own time, at their own pace. Recently I haven't thought Tink was eating much yet her belly is always expanded (she was 9 weeks premature and still very tiny yet she eats well for her age so her belly expands signicantly when she eats) after she has eaten. I just have to trust that she knows her body well enough.

my friend's dd wouldn't entertain the idea of pureed. she hated being fed. then i told my friend that i'd never fed ds anything and he eats it all by himself. she was but decided to give it a go. for the first time ever her dd demolished her lunch off in about 10 mins flat. seems she wanted to be in control of what she was eating. just a thought?

My DD 11 months old and I've had problem with getting her to eat solids day one. Is think alot of BF babies are the same. Every illness sets us back and she is ill again. I do think she has wanted to exert control over what she is eating and she finds meal time boring. Allowing her to play with (an easily washable) toy seems to help us.

Food is fun until they are one - well I am hoping for a miracle to happen on the 10th November...

It is hard to keep positive I feel for you and all of us in this boat.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. All really useful advice, which certainly makes me look at the whole thing differently and with a more relaxed approach.

Is it really true that ?food is for fun until they?re one?? My health visitor tells me its essential for their iron levels (not available in milk), for their speech development and for sleeping through the night (DD still getting up once a night). That's why I've been so worried!

have you tried finger foods? could be she just doesn't like being spoon/fork fed.

what a load of old tosh. some babies may need iron supplements but most won't.

Hi Bakdrik, I too have 8mo who is not vastly interested in food (bf as well). He is starting to get a little bit better but I would agree that it's best not to worry too much, when he's 15 he'll be shovelling down pie and chips I'm sure (if he's anything like his mum and dad )

He went through a week or two of refusing everything but toast so I just gave him toast with bits of other stuff (cheese, veg etc) smeared on it so he was at least getting a few new tastes. Now at each meal I try something new plus something I know he will eat (toast, yoghurt, fruit pots, those Organix carrot sticks are the bankers). The idea being even if hardly any calories go into him, he's getting used to the idea of 3 meals a day.

BTW one waking a night is really good at 8mo (I would love that!) and it's a myth that food makes them sleep through, sorry...

Food is for fun until they're one, it is true. That's not to say 365 days after they were born they need food or that they will start eating, as I said before, they're one until they're two!

Iron is a total myth made up by formula company "scientists" years ago to sell their product (think about it, no one needed formula for thousands of years, how were they to sell it if not by telling mothers how crap their milk is?) There is less iron in breastmilk than formula, but all of breastmilk is digestable, rather than just some of formula, so they do get more from breastmilk. I've heard of plenty of BLW babies who were iron tested regularly to make sure they didn't have a problem and none have.

Food or formula may help a baby sleep through, but it is an unnatural sleep if they do, it is caused by there being more in their tummies than they can digest and that makes them sleepy (like my grandparents after Sunday lunch!) the sleep doesn't do them as much good as that much sleep does because they are too busy. You have to get a lot of food in to get them to that state and they would probably fight you.

Solid food does help speech development, but it's the chewing of it, so puree doesn't do it.

the only time a baby will need iron supplements before 12 months is if they are basically eating nothing at all and even then it is rare.

The iron in breastmilk is better absorbed due to the vitamin c and high lactose levels than the iron in formula. Formula fed babies also lose iron through their bowels because cow's milk irritates the intestines which makes the m bleed a tiny amount and therefore lose iron.

The original recommendations for iron-fortified foods were based on a formula-fed baby's need for them and the fact that even though breastmilk contains less iron than formula doctors didn't then know then that the iron in breastmilk is absorbed much better.

Some babies will have low iron stores but this can often be remedied by giving them foods high in iron and vitamin c to help absorb it.

oh and i just thought i should add to completely take the worry out of your head i knew a child who had severe allergies. the doctors wouldn't let her eat any solids whatsoever until she was 2 and a half. she was on a special formula which may have had added stuff in it though i'm not sure. but just so you know that if the doctors think no solids until that time is ok then it must be.

I didn't even start weaning DS2 until he was 8 months old - just not interested. DS1 also showed no interest. Both got going at about 10 months old.

Kepp offering loads of BF in the meantime.