Struggling with weaning

[Purplerain1144]

I am struggling with weaning my 8m old. I'm thinking the responses will be that I need to stop stressing. She has CMPA and egg/onion allergy/intolerance which we are having testing for soon. She will barely eat anything, a couple of tsp of food and finger foods She gags on and spits out mostly. She will lick something then instantly lob it on the floor. I'm wondering if she's having too much milk, but I worry she's not getting enough calories otherwise. She has between 4-7oz each feed and standard routine is
Milk 6.30am
Breakfast 7.30am
Milk 10.30am
Lunch 11.45am
Milk 3pm
Tea 5pm
Milk 6.30pm
Milk some point in the night between 11pm-4am
Any advice?

You could try breakfast at 6.30 with a cup of milk to see if she'll eat more?

Don’t panic. Neither of my DSs ate any solids until about 9 months. I nearly went crackers over it with DS1 and then suddenly my milk monsters were eating. And have never looked back. Keep offering, let her play and prod and try not to worry.

Her stomach is the size of her clenched fist so a couple of spoonfuls is more meaningful than you'd think. Offering solids frequently like you do is perfect for right now and it seems like she's getting both finger food and spoon food which is also good.
I know it will seem like every other baby is eating proper meals but what she needs now is the practice of using her tongue and chewing which will also help her speech come along.

I got so worked up over weaning my first as she was so fussy and felt like it was the most important thing to get healthy solids in her. I was pureeing / cooking everything like mad to see if she would just like anything. But honestly, it made no difference. I’ve since had my second and he has been so easy to wean. My first was a nightmare and just everything was really hard work. My second has been a dream and just accepts whatever you give him on a spoon. My point is honestly it’s nothing you’re doing wrong, some babies just take a bit longer but she will get there. Best advice is to relax, try not to worry and not put pressure on as she might start to fight it.

If it's any help the aim is to get them to 400 ml a day between 10 and 13 months, so swapping one bottle now for a cup of formula and a meal or snack isn't going to do any harm

Wow 400ml. That's not a lot at all 🤦🏻‍♀️

Thank you everyone. Think I'm just being anxious and overthinking things! Will keep trying and hopefully one day it will click

@Purplerain1144 My recently turned 8 mo is so hit and miss with weaning. Has your little one improved since your last post? X

She has a little bit! We still only really have success with soft/wet foods 😂 yogurt and spaghetti hoops are always a winner 🤦🏻‍♀️ I'm persevering though

@Purplerain1144

i know you haven’t posted for a while, we are struggling with our 8 month old and wanted to know whether your little one has come through his initial challenges?

we can’t get our little one to engage with food much at all. He seems very distressed in his chair and tugs at me to take him out tried laps. Moving him and plate to me. It just feels soul destroying.

xx

Hi! She is now 15m old and I'm glad to say an absolute gannet on the whole now (apart from teething/illness)
I'm not really sure what made the difference but I just kept offering. I think once they get teeth it gets better. I did go back to purees/yogurt a lot just to get her to eat something. I hope your little one finds something they like! In hindsight I wish I hadn't stressed so much x

@Purplerain1144 thisnfills me with hope…

im hoping we see some improvement. Did u continue with the same amount of milk ? Throughout? Sorry trying to navigate this and getting such mixed messages x

I think around 10m I dropped her to 3 bottles. So we did breakfast at 7, bottle 8.30, lunch 12, bottle 1.30, tea 5 and bottle 6.30. I did find the less milk she had the more she ate but that may have happened anyway. Its a minefield honestly. She just has 2x bottles now 7am and 7pm x

Ignore my post! For some reason this came up in my newsfeed and I hadn't seen your update! Great to see she's doing really well!

She's definitely having too much milk at 8 months. The recommended amount of milk for her age is 600ml per day. That's 3 180ml bottles and 60ml in their baby Porridge.
My DS is doing really well with weaning even though he has dreadful reflux. We feed him as follows:
7am - baby Porridge (with 60ml of his milk)
10.30 - milk
12.30 - Lunch (70% veg, 20% carb, 10% meat/Poultry)
2.30pm - milk
6pm - dinner (baby rice mixed with banana and or mango)
7pm - milk
And that's it for the day. He eats all his meals no problem and sleeps through the night.
Gina Ford does a really good book on baby weaning, I've followed it since he was born so if you're having difficulties I'd definitely recommend giving this a go! Good luck!