6 month old screams and whinges when eating veg purees

[Puddings2108]

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a long, sorry! 🙏

I am a FTM to a gorgeous 6 month old baby boy ❤️. Since the age of 3 months he has been mouthing toys, blankets, muslins, teddy bears, etc, from about 4 months he started showing interesting in food and this piqued around 5 months so around 5.5 months we decised to give him bits of what we are eating. So just biys of veg, mushed between our fingers etc and he seemed to love it and get excited for more.

This week he turned 6 months so from Monday just gone, i started his official weaning journey. I want to limit the amount of salt and sugar (was horrified 😧 after the BBC documentary on baby food jars/pouches) he has so have decided to go down the route of making my own purees and finger foods without any added salt or sugar and just seasonings, so a mix of purees and BLW.

I made him a mix of veg purees, so things like sweet potato and cauliflower, carrot and broccoli, and fruit puree like strawberry and banana. We generally give fruit puree with plain yogurt and porridge for breakfast and the veg puree with finger food for lunch and dinner.

So from this point is where it all seems to have gone to pot 😔 basically he loves his breakfast, the sweet fruit purees and he gobbles that up without any drama! But lunch and dinner, progressively over the week as become really stressful 😪 he starts whining the minute he gets into his highchair and from then on he will taste the first spoon and immediately close his mouth and start whining and moaning, so i give him the finger food and it will distract him for a few minutes during which he will probably have a few spoons of the puree but make faces at it. I try to give him his spoon so he can feed himself and again he will have one or two spoons and refuse to hold the spoon anymore, same with the finger foods refuses to hold them after a few tries.

At this point he will progressively start to scream, not crying screaming but actually screaming, like angry screaming! He seems angry, frustrated and grizzly, which is very unlike him. So i stop the meal and clean him up and immediately he is fine. And he will again reach for food when we are eating or if i randomly offer him something, he will gum on it and even eat bits of mashed up food if i offer it impromptu. When i assess how much he has had at his meal times it actually is probably a tablespoon or even 2 but I am worried i am giving him negative associations with food as he just doesn't seem happy and i would like lunch and dinner not to end in tears like breakfast, it is very stressful and makes me feel like a terrible mother, equally i think if i didn't try the distractions then he wouldn't try anything at all, and that's all i want, for hin to try things and not necessarily eat.

So after a week i just don't know what to do 😩 i have been scouring the forums and have seen similar stories and it seems perseverence is key and that it is normal for them to do these things as solids is a new experience but the thought of mealtimes for him ending in tears for another few weeks doesn't sit right with me and it will stress me out.

My husband just tells me to chill 🙄 and that he will get there eventually (his mottoe for everything!), which just annoys me as i am the one doing the feeding with the baby as if I let my husband do it, well we just wouldn't get anywhere 😒

I keep thinking i am going about it all wrong, should i have done single veg instead of a combo? but i read variety of flavours is better so they are not picky later. Should i not add seasonings, again i thought this was better? should i mix fruit with the veg, but is that giving in to his sweet tooth? Should i mix his formula with the puree, but again is that just sweetening it up???

Please help! All mums out there please give me your wisdom and share your weaning stories.

Thank you so much if you amde it to the bottom of my post 😊

P.S. i have a mil that lives with us who is constantly on my back because i don't want to laod my baby up on sugar and salt. She wants to feed him spicy food, sweet exotic fruit, even tea! 🤯

Oh my days this had me howling as its 💯 true 😆 🤣 😂

@Littlejellyuk ooo that seems handy, I'll have a look at it.

Just an update for all you lovely people, since sunday I have been giving baby bits of what we eat plus some steamed finger food and the change is amazing! I put the finger food directly on his tray, even dips and mash etc, and he just dives right in hinself! Puts it to his mouth, even bites and chews, no more screaming and whining! 😃 Its such a relief for both me and my husband and we lrave him to it and eat our food and watch him, he even lets us help him with mouthfuls if needed. He has tried salmon fishcakes, grilled chicken, veg omelette, french toast, its just such a breath of fresh air and really enjoyable for me to cook and let him try new things.

Thank you so much for all your wise words 🙏

Have a great Xmas all ❤️

This ☝️

💯 👏 😎
Love this post.

You really need to chill. Hes 6 months. You should only be offering 1 meal a day! Mine has only had 3 meals a day recently; shes 14 months. Glad to see it’s going better now, but be prepared it won’t be linear. Mine has changed constantly around their eating

Luckily I think OP has had enough advice to know this is incorrect. It's absolutely fine to offer baby food with all 3 meals. They really aren't going to be taking in vast quantities at 6m. That's why BLW is so great- baby can take in as much or as little as they want. And any quantity or none is fine.

That's brilliant. I bet he'll love Christmas dinner. My son at 7m adored it!

That’s very normal. Look into how humans learn to eat - what’s safe and unsafe, why babies are against bitter flavours as it could once have indicated poisonous plants. It takes dozens of tries to get familiar with bitter foods vs sweet foods in babyhood. Just keep letting him try.

Most of his calories and nutrition needs should still be from milk so eating is mostly for fun and exploration at this age. Chill, let him try and taste and cry. It’s normal.

@HiCandles i hope so! He seems to be biting buts of veg off already, some he seems to swallow and some he brings back up, bit scary but I try to stay calm and he seems to know what to do to bring if back up again if needs be.

@Peonies12 i know at 6 months, 1 meal is fine, it's more so that we sit him down in his highchair, walker etc when we are having our meals and he is very interested so we offer bits of food from our plates etc. As @HiCandles said thats the beauty of baby led weaning which my baby seems to prefer, if he ian't interested then thats fine he doesn't need to have anything. But you are right I definately did need to chill when i firat posted on here, i think me relaxing has also rubbed off onto the baby. And i amd definately also managing my expectations now, there will be ups and downs and a while host of things which may put him off food for a period for me now if was just finding our feet and making sure i got the right approachig terms of his weaning to suit his preference and personality, quantities of food doean't matter right now.

@ManyPigeons i have read so much on this and you are right babies are wired to avoid certain tastes, we will try bitter veg next week, fingers crossed he takes to them, if not, we will keep persevering!