11 month old seems to have gone off food 😢

[GeorgesMummy5224]

Hoping someone can offer some reassurance.

My boy is 11 months on Sunday and up until a few weeks ago he was doing really well with food. A few weeks ago he dropped to 3 bottles and since then it seems to have gone downhill. We are doing a combination of baby led and traditional weaning but now has started to refuse to let me feed him anything unless it's yogurt or fruit pouches. He was loving Weetabix with raspberries for breakfast. This morning as soon as I sat in front of him with the bowl he got upset and just bats the spoon away. It's not that he wants to feed himself because if I give him the spoon he just shakes it. He's stopped finishing his bottles as well. If it's finger food he seems to do better although still doesn't eat as much as I would like.

Is this just a phase? Has anyone else experienced the same and how did you move past it? It's starting to stress me out 😢

Could he be teething at all, mine goes completely off food when teething.

Might be unwell. Might be teeth. Agree that my kids always went off their food when teething.

Possibly...he has 7 teeth so far and the 8th has been threatening to come through for about 6 weeks but doesn't seem to be cutting yet. Usually I would say he's teething but there doesn't seem to be anything moving at the minute...😔

Try giving him some nurofen and after it's kicked in try feeding him something. It could well be that he's in a bit of pain

Does he sit next to you when you have a meal? Let him pick food off your plate. Make sure you're eating something where that works, eg not spicy food or chokable food.

My ds has been very poorly with various things and has only just got his appetite back. Now suddenly he can manage quite different food like cheese sandwiches.

It's worth trying more grown up type shapes like sandwiches, pasta, as they might be more tempting than the usual weaning food

He always sits at the table with us and we always try to give him something of ours that's suitable for him, even if it's not the full meal. I'm wondering if he now wants to feed himself more rather than me feeding him 🤔 either that or he is teething

Things that worked for us while ds was recovering...

Have two of everything (crackers, cheese, bit of chicken, whatever) and you hold one and feed it to him but place the other in his hand. Eventually he'll eat it himself.

A lot of singing during mealtimes. I swear I have wound that bobbin up a thousand times this week.

Warming up food quite warm before spoon feeding.

Putting probiotics in his food (it's been a miracle cure for his tummy which got wrecked by antibiotics. His appetite has come back like magic. I swear by it now)

Loudly pointing out that he's got the same food as me/dh/dd and what a big clever boy he is now

Thank you 😊 can I ask which probiotics you use? I got him some vitamins but you had to give it in a syringe and it made him sick. Now he fights nurofen (he used to love it as he loves orange)

I'll give these a go

I used the optibac "0-12y" which comes as a powder sachet and i just mixed it into food I knew he'd accept - the first two days it was a fruit puree pouch, then as his appetite returned we mixed it into his morning weetabix. He'd had antibiotic-diarrhoea which cleared up immediately after taking it. Honestly the poor chap had visibly lost weight, I'm so glad he's started eating properly again

There's also an optibac baby which comes as liquid drops, so I bought both (both suitable from newborn) but I haven't tried the liquid yet. Ds doesn't take bottles often any more but next time he does I'll add the liquid to it. The powder sachet has done him so much good already

Brilliant, thank you. I'll give it a go as he does struggle with his tummy a little bit so it might help with that too 😊