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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Help! 7 month old refusing food

13 replies

mumbot · 25/01/2008 17:48

Hi everyone, my ds started weaning a few weeks ago and has been fine at eating his lovely purees but today and yesterday he has refused to eat. He probably manages about just less than a third of what I give him. I haven't changed his diet at all or his routine. He does have 2 teeth that have just erupted through his gums though.

He is taking about half his milk. So he is getting something but I'm not happy with the volume.

Has anyone experienced this before?

OP posts:
amfay · 25/01/2008 20:27

My daughter is 7 and a half months and I have exactly the same problem. She's breastfed(refuses to go on the bottle) and was weaned at six months with no problems. Her refusal to eat co-incided with her first tooth (the second has just come through) and my attempts to move her onto stage two food. Now we have days when she'll eat well (she's still on stage one purees and will take a tiny bit of rusk), but mostly she doesn't and just wants to breastfeed. She's not sleeping well, obviously because she's not getting enough to eat and this has been going on for two weeks. She's generally really content but I'm desperate for advice. All the health visitor says is 'she must eat meat' and 'she must eat three times a day', not particularly helpful!

Lovelove · 25/01/2008 20:28

IS he ill? If you're sure he's OK healthwise how about trying some finger food? My lo often gets a bit stressed at being spoon fed, sometimes they just need to feel like they're in charge!

chankins · 25/01/2008 20:38

ds is 8 mo and only loves finger foods - did baby led weaning and its been great as he stuffs in what he fancies andcso far loves everything - dd1 was puree fed but by 6 mo decided she hated it and turned away from every spoonful. The moment we gave her finger food ans let her get on with it she started eating loads again,

Lovelove · 25/01/2008 20:41

I know its hard not to get stressed, but try, because they pick up on it. At least with BLW they can take it at their own pace, I do a mixture I have to say of purees and BLW, but I let him be in charge, and if he's not in the mood for the spoon he can stuff himself with finger food.

amfay · 25/01/2008 20:47

I've never heard of BLW before. How does it work and what can you give? I've tried her on an organic rusk, was terrified she'd choke but she eventually swallowed and was fine. She does seem to love putting everything into her mouth bar what I'm offering her on a spoon...

Lovelove · 25/01/2008 20:58

we started by offering him an apple core to suck, and graduated onto toast with philadelphia, brocolli florets, and the alltime winner, ripe pear.

Karen999 · 25/01/2008 21:09

My dd was exactly the same at exactly the same age. I switched to BLW and have never looked back......she is 11 months now and eats everything in sight! Maybe you could try this?

amfay · 25/01/2008 21:13

I'd love to try it but how do you ensure they don't choke? What size chunks of food do you give? And why hasn't anyone told me about this sooner!

Karen999 · 25/01/2008 21:16

Lol...I know what you mean! I feel I came to it late too. I basically gave my dd fingers of stuff - toast, apple, carrot, brocoli, etc....surprisingly they dont choke!! They seem to know what they can manage and what they cant. I think I have only had a few 'gagging' moments but dd2 always brings up whatever it is and is perfectly happy to carry on!!

We (as a family) go out to eat all the time and dd2 joins in with whatever we are having...its fantastic!

chankins · 25/01/2008 21:17

Try sticks of food rather than chunks - sweet potato and butternut squash cut into chip sizes and roasted are great, they can hold them and suck or chew away, it is really soft, no danger or choking. They tend to gag rather than choke if it is relatively soft food like banana, broccoli, toast, rice cakes, I started letting ds suck things I was eating, before he had teeth so no danger of biting anything off. He sucked the juice from apples, satsumas, grapes, tomatoes, cucumber before he ever actually ate any. Then put banana, broccoli etc in front of him and he just picked it up and shoved it in, They learn to chew really quickly and push out with their tongue anything too big.
Toast was next, and rice cakes to suck.
now he eats whatever we are eating, some is spoon fed, but he likes to have stuff to hold at the same time.

amfay · 25/01/2008 21:30

Thank you! I'll try her on it tomorrow.

Lovelove · 26/01/2008 08:27

Don't know whether you can post links on here, I've never tried, but here goes, a couple of helpful sites for you.

babyledweaning.blogware.com/

www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_v oedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

madeindevon2 · 26/01/2008 17:02

mumbot....i could have written your post. exactly same happened to me. my LO now nearly 8 months and is eating again but still not as much as before or with the same vigour! we are going down the finger food/blw option and he seems to enjoy that. mini rice cakes, pieces of fruit...loving banana, cheese or humous on toast, steamed veg batons. Not tried a lump of meat yet tho. still trying puree one meal a day with either meat or fish in it. He will also happily open his mouth when HE is holding the spoon. Unfortunatly when he is doing it half of it goes on the floor, in his hair, etc etc!
I figure he will eat when he is hungry? and as long as he isnt losing weight this is the way i will continue.
from speaking to my NCT friends this happens a lot.....as long as he is otherwise happy alert and content i shouldnt worry...

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