6 mo not interested?

[SecondhandTable]

My DC2 is just over 6 mo and we started weaning about a fortnight ago. He's been able to grab things and mouth them for ages and showed great interest in us eating, so I naively thought he would be enjoy weaning. I know they don't tend to eat much, if anything at first, as I have DC1 who is nearly 4. She barely ate anything til she was 1 really, in terms of swallowing, but right from the start of weaning at 5.5 months she would open her mouth for spoon feeding (if it was sweet...) and loved to sit and play and mouth solids. DC2 otoh won't open his mouth for a spoon under any circumstances and he is largely not putting food near his mouth himself either...so I'm at a loss. How can you wean a baby if they won't actually countenance any food near their mouth?!

There’s not much you can do apart from just keep offering. If he’s flatly refusing a spoon, I’d completely stop with the purées and just leave some food suitable for BLW on his high chair tray and get on with eating your own food. Even the smell of food and watching others eat is beneficial. Eventually, either curiosity will get the better if him, or he’ll find that his appetite isn’t satiated by milk alone and his body will naturally crave something more substantial.

You just keep offering. My little one didn't put anything in his mouth until he was 1, now he is 2 you would never know he'd been very slow to get started with food. If he is refusing a spoon I would stick with the BLW weaning foods that he can do in his own time.

@SecondhandTable we had exactly the same with our second and it was a surprise for us as well.

Like others have said, you just keep offering.

So pop them in the high chair, put some food on their tray and concentrate on chatting to your 4 year old

@SecondhandTable i know it’s been a while but wondering how you ended up getting on? We are facing the same challenge you did and I’m at a bit of a loss

@SassyPants87 i wouldn't stress too much. I started my son on baby rice at 4.5 months old because he looked super interested in our food, mouthing as we were eating etc. He would be spoon fed baby rice mixed with breast milk but nothing else. It's only just in the last couple of weeks at nearly 8 months, he will have a little munch on finger food, baby rusk and baby wafers/puffs etc. He will now categorically not take anything on a spoon if we try and feed him.

We just kept going, and after a few weeks he was more keen, and by about 8 months he was eating everything in sight, in staggering amounts! He's 1.5 now and still a huge foodie! Often eats much more than my terrible-eating almost 5 yr old!

@SecondhandTable oh that’s really reassuring to hear! Did you do BLW or spoon fed?

Always did a bit of both but more so the self-feeding, and he preferred that at first too. Now he'd probably always be spoon fed if he we would pander to him haha.