12 month old has never eaten ANY solids

[Anffran]

Hi all

Wondering if anyone can offer their experiences, any guidance or comfort!

My son is coming up 12 months. I started offering solids at probably around 8 months as he wasn't sitting up at 6 months and I was going with NHS guidance to wait until they are able to sit unsupported before weaning. So for the last 4 months I have been offering food, for the first month just baby food, purees mostly which he refused, he would look disgusted if I spoon-fed him any pureed food , regardless of the taste, and spit it out. Then I had a weaning visit from HV about a month later and she said to offer 3 meals a day, whatever we were eating as a family as baby led weaning so I have been doing that for 3 months now.

Some of the things I've tried are cereal or toast, yoghurt, fruit, sandwiches, cheese, egg, cucumber sticks, cooked veg sticks. He's been offered pasta and noodles with various sauces, rice, pizza.. chips, potatoes, fish fingers. I've also tried pure fruit purees, and some of those baby corn snacks.

Most of the time he just picks up the food, squeezes it with his hands and throws it straight onto the floor. I am picking up pieces of food and holding at eye level and he will take it off me but then just play with it and throw it. We are sitting together and eating as a family when possible and I've tried eating right in front of him with exaggerated chewing to encourage copying. Around a month ago he was feeding bits to me, and pretending to put a piece in his own mouth. The only way any food gets into his mouth is it he is spoon fed but again regardless of taste he just looks disgusted, gags and spits it out.

He also never put toys or objects into his mouth, we got him 3 different teethers but he isn't interested at all, although recently has started briefly putting toys into his mouth, mostly wooden objects.

I am exclusively breastfeeding and am beginning to feel the strain of being his only source of food and drink. I have tried feeding water using a bottle and a 360 cup but he pushes both away.

I am feeding around every 3 to 4 hours in the day and 2 to 3 times in the night. It doesn't seem to matter if he is hungry or not, he still doesn't try to eat.

I also have a 4 year old daughter who was ebf but she weaned with no problem.

I should also add that his weight is not an issue. He is a healthy weight, what I'm worried about is he is not progressing into solid food. He's also on vitamin supplements with iron.

He has been referred to dieticians and appointment is in a few weeks but wondering if anyone had any similar experiences. I am getting quite worried about the situation.

Can’t recommend solid starts enough - https://solidstarts.com/troubleshooting/.

Have a look at their Instagram too, we had dietician referrals but ultimately they are what helped us!

Is he meeting all the other baby milestones?

Has he got teeth?

I was going to ask this too and also ask if he had Tongue Tie?

I have no advice I'm afraid but I feel for you, OP. It's really tough.

My DD wouldn't eat when we were weaning either. She would occasionally tolerate a few spoons of an Ella's Kitchen pouch (or similar) but anything homemade was an absolute no. Somehow she knew even if I blended it down to the exact same consistency as a pouch. She just knew and she'd refuse to open her mouth. If I put anything in front of her she just ignored it, and that went on for months and months.

And she didn't put anything else in her mouth either, which the HV described as "extremely unusual" but nothing was ever done about it. We saw a dietician and they were no help at all.

DD is 9 now and still struggles with food. I think she has ARFID, and always has. She did have CMPA when she was a baby, which took ages to sort out, and we have a theory that it's all connected (food = pain). Has your DS ever suffered with CMPA or reflux, or anything like that?

(My DS was the total, total opposite btw. Weaning him was such a joy in comparison. He didn't care what it was - puree or finger food - he just wanted it! He's 4 now and still loves food.)

DD is 9 now and still struggles with food. I think she has ARFID, and always has. She did have CMPA when she was a baby, which took ages to sort out, and we have a theory that it's all connected (food = pain). Has your DS ever suffered with CMPA or reflux, or anything like that?

I've got CMPA and can remember being very wary of new foods as a child. New food could very well equate to pain and it's pain that doesn't go away fully for a couple of weeks.

My DD has ARFID too. You have my deepest and upmost sympathy

Thanks, it can be really tough. My DH had CMPA as a baby as well (in the late 80s so even less known about!) and I'm fairly certain he has ARFID too. He has got better as he's got older but sometimes he still has to work through the worry of trying something new. I'm just hoping DD can do the same as she grows up.

Both DH and DD grew out of their CMPA, but not the fear.

OP, I hope everything works out for you and your DS

DD didn't eat anything solid until after 12 months and completely refused any fruit or veg for her whole toddlerhood. She is now 8 and eats loads of fruit and veg, still a picky eater and eats way less than her brothers but she is sturdy and healthy. I don't think it necessarily means there is any issue.

I suggest you start by spoonfeeding him (you do the spooning) with the blandest smoothest food (baby rice). If he will eat that, try some thoroughly mashed banana . Mashed until its almost runny.

Oldfashioned, but it works. Some babies just prefer to start with very smooth bland food, no lumps, no chewing required, and no exciting flavours.

I’d move back to spoon feeding purées. I’d try something bland, smooth and slightly sweet such as sweet potato and carrot purée. DD started out on this and now (14 months) she’s eating most baby led weaning foods. I think BLW is great if they are interested in food and have gained some confidence but if there are issues then purées are a better starting point.

Yes I believe he is, he is quite active, now crawling and starting to pull up to standing. Babbling, saying dad, copying words. Picks up objects, fine motor skills seem OK.

Yes he has 8 teeth in total now

Have you contacted your HV since the visit where she recommended BLW? At a year I would be asking for help and/or investigations to look for any causes, even if just to rule out so you can find the right approach.
All babies are different, but help is there when you need it.

Hi @CoodleMoodle
Yes not sure about reflux but he was colicky baby from a few weeks old up until 6 months he was very unsettled during the day into the evening. Not sure about cows milk allergy, he has never had any formula but I have dairy myself so whether that upset him or not I'm not sure. He only poos once a week as well and it's can like that since he was only a few months, so it's like his normal, but sometimes he does seem in pain with it. I was given lactose by gp but have only used it once as every time I went to use it he would 'go'

@GreyGoose1980 thanks, I have tried purees though including baby cereal, baby rice but it doesn't seem to matter what the flavour is, bland or sweet, he looks disgusted no matter what it is!

@fyn thanks so much, I will take a look 😀

@Anffran the lady who founded the organisation had a child who only ate purées until 18 months and wouldn’t touch anything else. She documents with the help of very highly qualified medical professionals how they’ve gotten him to eat!

Custard. Try custard.

DS was like this. Custard was one of the few things other than breast milk we could feed him.

I remember going on holiday and taking tonnes of ready made custard as we were despairing and getting increasingly stressed about it. As long as he ate some custard that was high calorie food.

We managed to get him to eat the odd Ella's kitchen fruit pouches straight out the packet under a certain amount of duress. But he wouldn't touch anything else.

It was awful and I think he was reluctant to eat because of how stressed we were.

He also never put things in his mouth. Ever.

One day we were sat at the table and he out of the blue decided to raid the peanut butter jar when I turned my back - we had avoided it as we were worried about allergies - it was also massively out of character given all the problems we had. Fortunately he didn't keel over and die. But the key bit is he'd probably seen me eating it.

He eventually took to spicy food! It was things I was eating during pregnancy. He generally hated bland food. Still does. He loved curry from an early age. We figured he wanted high sensory food or he developed a taste for certain foods when I was pregnant and I definitely think still breast feeding had an influence. There was no need to eat real food.

We stopped making a fuss of meal times and did a big thing of sharing food from the same plate and he eventually started to get there.

He's not the best eater even now but he will try new foods. Just not fruit or veg.

I think you missed the window to make it happen so now it's going to be a battle. Keep trying, reduce milk feeds and get professionals involved if it doesn't rectify as it can lead to speech issues later on.

Have you tried someone else feeding him with you not around at all? And when it’s been a few hours since he’s had a feed so he’s actually hungry?

i agree with the solid starts recommendation and one of the things they say is that often babies who are predominantly/only milk fed are not coming to the table hungry enough because they’ve recently had milk. If he’s not naturally curious about food then he will have little motivation to eat if he’s not actually hungry.

My second was EBF and I carried on feeding her on demand until 22 months and although she did eat a reasonable amount of food (not loads) she would eat noticeably less for me presumably because she was holding out for milk. On days where I had her all day she would eat next to nothing and on her childcare days or days with DH she would eat three full decent meals. She just was obsessed with milk 🙄

How often are you offering the same thing? I would pick a bland (or slightly sweet) puree (very smooth) and offer it three times a day, every day and not move on until you have made progress. He may just need time to get used to it and the constantly trying new things isn't giving home enough time to get used to one taste. I'd probably start with yoghurt.

How are you getting in now @Anffran?

@Anffran

how did you get on? 8 months in very little consumption and starting to feel worried x

@Seeema2902 @SiouxsieSiouxStiletto

He's started eating small amounts in the last few weeks, mainly fromage frais, sometimes a spoonful of hummus. He also now bites off and chews some foods such as toast strips, chips, melty puffs, crackers, but spits them out. We've had a few visits from OT and SLT, they said some babies for whatever reason have difficulty coordinating all the movements for chewing so he needs lots of practice. We have the OT coming back out to us soon for a therapy session during a mealtime.

We had him weighed about a month ago and he had lost a small amount of weight, which got me worried. Getting him weighed again Monday.

So at least now he is eating something, but still not able to chew!

My oldest was exclusively breastfed until 2 - refused all solids apart from petit filous. He'd suck the odd biscuit but nothing significant. He's now 22 and 6ft so it clearly didn't do him any harm. I kept offering and he kept refusing until one day he didn't. He just decided he was ready and started eating.

Its exhausting, I really do feel for you but I wouldn't worry about your son