Anxious - my BLW 6 mth old doesn't seem to be interested in food. Am i worrying too much!

[Janw]

Hello,

Can anyone give me some reassurance and advice about my 6 mth old DS (is that right for son?).
I was all impatient and enthusiastic to wean him, so I initially started down the puree route when he was about 5 months old. He seemed really eager and opened his mouth to any spoon that came his way. Then after that first time he just was not interested and pursed his lips together and didn't want to know. Then I found out about and read about BLW. Basically I decided to wait until he was 6 mths so he'd forget all about his first introduction to the world of food.
Now we have tried again on thursday. Intially tried puree again, but he just doesn't seem to like been spoon fed and always wrestles the spoon from me. So far he LOVES eating toast and chewing on it. But he can't just eat toast all the time. We have tried some carrot sticks today, a bit of avocado but nothing really goes in his mouth and he doesn't really take any in. He just squishes it all in his hands and plays around with the food whilst I look out of the corner of my eye anxiously hoping he might actually ingest some food.
Is this OKAY? I mean he's not actually eating or anything, and I thought he'd be so into food. I've been told that babies can take different times to get interested in food. I can't help been anxious that he doesn't eat. Am I been too impatient and expecting too much from him? My mum says that he will eat at some stage. Does it take some time for him to get into this BLW stuff? Also what age can I give him meat? I'm hopiung to give hime some turkey for xmas dinner. Thanks sorry about very long long post but would be great to hear from anyone......

Firstly, yes it is ds for son

It sounds like your ds is doing fine. He is only six months, and milk should be his main source of nourishment until he is about 12 months.

Playing, chewing and squishing food are all good signs - he is leartning about the food, and he will soon work out it is for eating!

You can start him on bits of meat- either very tiny pieces - or a big piece that he can hold onto and chew.

I personally would stick to BLW - that worked for my dd1 when she refused pureed food

and tehre is a BLW blog on the subjuect, by Aitch, but i don't know the link - someone should come among with it

www.babyledweaning.com

thanks Mrsbadger

Ok, first, magic that your mum is so sensible - great start. And she's right. Some do stuff their faces from the word go, and others just think you've invented an interesting new toy. He will pick it up (to be fair, we're talking 3 days here, and you will laugh when you look back at this!). Do you eat with him? Have you tried simply letting him grab stuff from your plate? At some point he's going to want to copy you, and if you eat with him he's learning the really important social value of meals and eating.

There are lots of people who have felt just the same as you who've posted on www.babyledweaning.com - click on the forum link to the left.

Relax, take photos of the face painting with avocado, and have fun. He'll get it in his own time.

oops - x-posted!

My DD only ate toast and bread crusts for weeks before she started eating strawberries and the like, so please don't worry.

Hi,

Thank you all for your very reassuring words for a first time anxious mum! Can you tell?

I will try leting DS sit with us at our meal at lunchtime. And I'll try to CHILL and not hover over his every move.

Just one more question....do i just start with one mealtime, say lunch, for a couple of weeks till he gets a bit more used to it all.

Thanks again all.

no need to think interms of 'meals' as such. just pass bits over any time you're eating. so at breakfast you might hand him some of your toast. then at 10 ish maybe a piece of fruit. lunch time pass him some of your sandwich, or just the bread or just the filling, whatever you think. then at tea time he'll have some of your veg or pasta or whatever. think of it as giving him something to play with while you eat. he won't be able to eat much yet because he doesn't need much yet.

Hi there, My 10 month old will only eat raisins, banana or toast or crumpets himself. Any other food gets chucked on the floor. But he will (occassionally) let me feed him other stuff.
I refuse to get worried about it. And I keep offering other bits for him to try.
He only started eating this finger food a couple of months ago too, so its not like he was doing it from 6 months like some babies.
They are all different and I am sure in a couple of months he will be stuffing his little face as quickly as he can himself.
Good luck! x

Don't panic sounds as though he's doing fine

My DS is nearly 7 mo, we're doing BLW. We have breakfast together each morning, usually toast or porridge about 8ish. He sleeps at lunchtime between about 12 and 1.30 and if he's up in time he'll have a bit of sandwich with me, or a rice cake or something, then he has tea about 4.30 - usually vegetables - carrots, asparagus is a favourite, baby corn, green beans, parsnip or whatever. I just peel and cut into 'chip' sized bits and steam in the microwave for a minute. The whole 'eat what you're eating' works for us up to a point except in the evenings. Because he has bath then bottle and bed about 6 there's no way we can eat our main meal together, so him having a 'tea' of vegetables instead works for us. He has water from a beaker with his food.

He started off just playing with it, but soon started putting in his mouth and now he usually eats quite a bit. And I fully intend to give him his own portion of Christmas dinner

Hello,

thanks again ladies, I really do feel more relaxed and realise there's no DEFINITIVE right way of doing this. I think I was looking for THE way. I've also looked on the brilliant BLW site and have read a lot more posts about this. I have realised that DS is perfectly normal.

I'm just going to share what I'm eating, obviously without salt, sugar, honey, etc and just chill out. And he's definately having xmas dinner.

oh I just changed my nickname halfway through this thread.

oooh - talking about honey - can you believe, my Dr recommended that I give some to my 10 month old for his cough this week.
I curtly informed him that I would not be doing so and that i thought he should check up on recommending that to mothers of small babies.

I don't know

interestingly there's a study out this month thst showed in children over 2 (yes yes I know) a spoonful of honey worked better than a spoonful of cough medicine - here's a precis.

Don't want to put a dampener on your Xmas lunch ideas , but I found this info on weaning on the babyledweaning site, re when to introduce certian foods and it does suggest not giving meat until a bit later, 9-10 months.
Heres the link
www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/weaning_food_introduction_schedule.html##to

Hi, Yes I read that site also about meat as not been suitable at age 6 months on that site. It's quite confusing though as it seems different people say different things. I read an article by Gill Rapley, BLW guru, and in it she says thatonce baby is over 6 months old there is no need to restrict the foods that can be given. Unless there is a family history of allergy. Meat can be first offered as a large piece. Article is on www.iwantmymum.com, under weaning. (I don't yet know how to post a link)

I do think that meat might be a bit much as one of the first things a baby eats, as its much harder to digest than eg veg/fruit and it seems a long way away from milk.
I am planning to leave it a while (we do have a family history of allergies) but also as it just seems wrong somehow, but DS2 might not agree, he is a ravenous little (or not so little) critter!
Will check out your ref Zoomum.

at 6 months they don't exactly chomp the meat, they just suck it and play with it get the juices out. it's fine. otherwise they can have mince or meat balls which is already softened anyway. no problem.

it is a leap for a lot of people to take the mush stage out of weaning.

ds was 10.5 months before he ate a single thing.

I did the traditional weaning with my DD1, but can't say she ever ate much until she was about 8/9 months. Will be doing BLW this time as I think that the time they spend "playing" and investigating the food is as much a part of eating as the tasting.