8mth old will only eat sweet things

[welovexmas99]

He will eat mash potato with avocado but not mash potato.
He will eat apple and chicken mush but not chicken.

Every time I try and give him bits of non sweet food he refuses after a couple of bites. It makes it hard for me to try him on baby led weaning because if I just leave carrots or brocilli in front of him, he doesn't eat it.

Is there anything Mumsnet can recommend?

Just carry on offering him a range of foods, eventually he'll give it a try.

Try and eat at the same time and offer him bits from your plate so he can see you eating it too and will be curious to try.

Also, I wouldn't say avocado was sweet really. Maybe he doesn't like plain mash because it's completely tasteless!

Especially without salt.

Just give him a variety of food, not mushed up, and let him eat it or not eat it

Agree with previous poster, keep offering and role modelling. It's natural for babies to prefer sweet, but at 8 months you've got loads of time to get him exploring different flavours.

If you're on Instagram, SR nutrition is fantastic. She has a blog on this topic and lots more
www.srnutrition.co.uk/2016/05/top-tips-for-dealing-with-a-picky-eater/

Another key thing is to not make a big deal of the food he refuses.

Cheesy mash was always a winner with mine

I would just stick with it and not adapt by giving more sweet things as he will be fine on milk and learn to like more things . Does he enjoy meal times as do you let him play with his food himself- we bought DS a chair with a tray so he could get messy and he enjoys trying everything.

I also mostly stay away from bought pouches which are often more sweet than say fresh veg and chicken purée at home.

I offer DS a wide variety of things and don’t worry what he does or doesn’t like as it still gets him used to tastes and to enjoying food. On a typical day he might chew on a bit of pepper, cucumber, boiled egg, have a few spoons of homemade puree , a brussel sprout… he especially loves beans. And apple is popular , stewed or fresh

you sound like your doing well and just keep it up as with DD I used to worry when she didn’t eat and wish I hadn’t and had just kept offering her a variety of good things cheerfully as she did get there in the end and I needn’t have worried

Would you eat plain carrot or broccoli without any seasoning?

Try roasting vegetables instead of boiling them.

You can add other seasonings/spices that aren't salt. I used to use garlic and paprika a lot. Onion powder is another good one to use.

You can add butter, cheese, double cream or nutritional yeast to your mash to give it flavour without adding salt.

Cinnamon makes things taste sweeter. Try adding to e.g. carrot mash.