9 month old limited eating - oral aversion?

[WiseRubyRobin]

Hi all

Starting to worry about my DD’s food intake (or lack of). She is EBF and refuses a bottle. She will take little sips of water out of an open cup occasionally.

We have tried a mix of spoon feeding with purées and also letting her explore with BLW however she shows no interest in putting any food to mouth herself and will only accept the spoon in her mouth 25% of the time. She will occasionally gnaw on a crispy stick or piece of fruit if you hold it to her mouth for her.

In general she isn’t a baby who mouths toys or things she picks up at all. She will chew her hands and fingers and feeds really well from me. She hates any sort of medication going in her mouth and teething gel is a battle to get on her.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of challenge? I read a lot to say babies get to food in their own time but with her history of bottle refusal and not mouthing everything she sees I am wondering if something else is going on?

Edited to add that we have tried spacing out her feedings - she goes from 8:30 when I drop her at nursery to 2:30 when I pick her up without feeding and it’s hit and miss whether she’ll take any food from nursery staff either.

Sorry @WiseRubyRobin, I don't have any experience of oral aversion. Hopefully someone will be along soon

@WiseRubyRobin Would you be able to
give an update on how things are now? Sorry for jumping onto an old post, but we’re facing a very similar situation with our 9-month old: she rarely puts anything into her mouth apart from her own fingers, so weaning has been really difficult. A few months ago, she accepted a spoonful of puree some of the time, but she’s gone completely off it over the last month or so.
Has your daughter overcome her aversion? Any tips you could share would be a huge help (or just knowing that there’s light at the end of the tunnel…) Thanks!

I don't think you can call it an aversion really, it sounds fairly normal. They say 'food before one is just for fun' and breast milk provides all she needs. She won't still be EBF by the time she starts school, she'll eat when she's ready.