12 month old not interested in solids

[Ineedsleep2024al]

My dd is 12 months and is not interested in food. She refuses a bottle so is breastfed. I'm going back to work soon and genuinely don't know what to do. Has anyone else been in this situation and if so what would you reccomend?

Have a look on the infant and toddler forum . org
For information and factsheets for advice.
Good luck with it all.

Are you thinking of night weaning before you go back @Ineedsleep2024al? It might help you get some sleep and it might encourage her to eat more when you're not there

My DC was a bottle refuser so we went straight to a cup (doidy cup then open cup).

What approaches have you tried in terms of weaning? When are you offering food? What and how?

What happens if you offer breakfast before breastfeeding first thing?

And yes, I've been there. Had 2 bottle refusers and they were both fine when I was at work

@TinyMouseTheatre I can't even think of night weaning, if i don't feed her back to sleep she screams, any advice?

@Mulledjuice I started weaning at 6 months and it's been an on and off battle. Ive tried the following:
-spoon feeding, sometimes she let's me.
-expressing in a sippy cup, doesn't drink it
-cows milk as above
-baby led weaning and finger food
-in and out of highchair, she hates it
-made food fun and let her get messy
-pouches which she walks around with, this is the most affective but she doesn't always have

I offer pretty much everything pies, pastry, dry and wet cereal, toast with Marmalade, jam or peanut butter, cucumber sticks, soft carrot sticks, peppers, rice pudding, hummus, cottage cheese, porridge, cheeses, chicken, banana pancakes, breadsticks, soup, avocado, weetabix, pastas with different flavours, yoghurt, garlic bread, chips, salmon, potato waffles, quorn and chicken nuggets, fish fingers...

I offer before a feed, she doesn't have it and gets super mad when she's hungry. She also wants to feed 50 times a day

@OtterMummy2024 nothing (crying in hands) she doesn't eat anything and gets really emotional and angry until I bf. I've stuck her in nursery and handful of times and they've also said she hasn't eaten a thing all day

That sounds so tough. You must be exhausted. Is there another parent on the scene to share the load?

DD1 was kinda like this, I breastfed on demand till 2 (she never dropped a feed and Covid meant she was mostly with me) and it really was her main food source till then. She went to a childminder and then nursery and people would promise me she'd magically eat there but NOPE, we had to send her in with her limit safe foods. I'm pretty sure she has ARFID.

I'd keep up the breastfeeding and just try and figure out some food for her to take when you're not there, DD had a LOT of crackers, carrots, apples and grapes while I worked. She's 6 now and growing fine, still limited on food but she's ok.

Oh and I had to feed her back to sleep over and over and over, magnesium in the form of Epsom salts in her bath reduced her waking but it seems she lacks melatonin so when I stopped BFing sleep got harder for her because she wasn't getting my melatonin anymore. Now we're waiting on sleep clinic and a prescription!

DD(12) was like this with solids, though she was at least bottle fed. She absolutely refused to be spoon fed (and would vomit, full vomit, not gag if I did get any food into her mouth). She didn't put anything in voluntarily herself either.

We managed to see a paediatric dietitian, who recommended chicken nuggets (the chicken is really soft), custard and chocolate buttons. The nuggets and buttons did work for her, and started her eating enough to connect food and hunger, but it's been a very slow process, and her diet is still very restricted. I think she was 3.5 before the majority of her calories came from solids rather than milk. We sent her to nursery at 3, where she ate nothing for 6 months, before moving onto the foods she'd eat at home (e.g. plain rice) - it was a nursery where meals were prepared, but seeing other children eat didn't help.

Happy to answer more questions if you have them - sorry it's not entirely encouraging.

I'm going through this currently with my 14 month old. She's my third and my first two took to weaning absolutely fine, naturally dropped milk feeds along the way and only really breastfed at bed time by the time they got to 1. This girly is entirely different.
We started weaning at 6 months and up until about 10/11 months she wouldn't eat anything. Now she will pick at tiny bits of select foods- mainly fruit. But never eats enough to fill her up. I've tried everything and I'm at my wits end at the moment. She wants to breastfeed all the time. Withholding milk doesn't make her eat anything either, she just screams and screams for milk. She wakes so often through the night it's like having a newborn. She will only settle for me and only really settle when breastfed. I have 2 older children who have to get up for school, I just can't have her screaming all night keeping them awake.
I have no advice to give, and I'm so sorry you're going through the same thing because it is so so hard.

If she is going to nursery she will want to copy the other children.
I wouldn't bother with a bottle , just give her a cup with water or milk in it. If you are planning to bf before and after work she could just have normal milk.
I remember feeling very stressed at about 10 months with my DD after 6 months of encouraging and she almost overnight started believing in food and eating what we were having.
The usual things apply, sit next to her chatting, not too much on the plate, eat the same as each other , don't cajole. Elaborate noises of enjoyment might help her.

@Ineedsleep2024al yes I do have a plan funnily enough.

Have a read of this method for gentle night weaning.

I wouldn't let the daft that she needs to feed to go back to sleep stop you. The idea is that once she realises BFing isn't available got a few hours then she'll stop waking for it