Post weaning feeding problems with 8.5mth DD - now won't eat - help!

[Gonkster]

Reeeaaaalllyyyy sorry but this is a long one. but have tried without success to work this one out myself so now feel a little desperate.

Hi - please help. My DD 8.5mths has been exc bf and I intro'd solids at 5.5mths (as v interested in my dinners!). Since then, have dropped a bf to 3 a day (after bfast, lunch and tea). For the last month, she has been a lot less interested in solids than she was, eating half (if not less) as much as she used to. She eats a few mouthfuls and then turns her head away. She also keeps the food in her mouth for ages (having previously had no problems with swallowing). She has also just had her first tooth come through. Breakfast seems to be the best meal where she is most likely to eat a 'full' meal.

Q: I am bf too much? Is that why she doesn't eat a lot of solids?
Q: Does she not swallow the food for ages because of her new tooth? Is it sore on her upper gum? Or just a weird feeling?
Q: Could it be something more serious that I haven't read about!

Interestingly, she will eat a yoghurt or something like that at the end of the meal. So essentially, we could have spent an hour trying to get her to eat perhaps 10 spoonfuls of something, and then she'll wolf down a yog.

I am SAHM so cook everything myself. She has never rejected a new food so I don't think it's a taste thing...

Any ideas? We have a very relaxed attitude to eating and food etc so I am pretty sure it hasn't come from me being neurotic and her picking up on that.

are you feeding her or does she feed herself?

She will pick up finger food and have a little bit, but mainly I'm feeding her. She went through a patch of a week where she'd hold the spoon and I would guide it in, but then she went off that idea and strops if I try to get her to do it again.

I've tried just leaving her with finger food in front of her, but she just ignores it.

then i would just take it she isn't interested. no more no less. maybe the new tooth, maybe not. who knows. i would just put food infront of her and see if she wants it. messy stuff or dry stuff. whatever. she likes yoghurt? pour it over fruit and let her at it.

But is it normal for her to have been really interested before though but lose interest? She was an animal at the table for the first 2 months of solids! Literally hoovering up whatever we put in front of her. But now, so little. If it is, then I shall just let nature take it's course, but I just feel like something just isn't quite right...

God. I do actually sound a bit neurotic. And I'm so laid back about everything.

yes normal imo. they go through phases like this. the worst thing you can do really is to keep on at her nad make it a huge issue. is she having plenty of milk? well otherwise?

She has a cows milk intolerance (makes her projectile vom like the excorsist) so the only milk she gets is from me. She drinks water at mealtimes and eats soya yogs and I use rice milk in cooking for her and a nondairy margarine type spread. Otherwise very well. She is 75th percentile for weight.

She did have a chest/ear infection a few weeks ago with a high temp for a few days and actually, come to think of it, that's when she went off her food (amazing how things come to you when you talk about it!). She went on antibiotics to clear it but still has a hacking cough. So I guess it could be that too.

Thanks for being so calm in your responses. That in itself has made me less worried.

there you go. she's been a bit poorly and slowly she'll get back into the swing of things. it'll happen again

is she about to pop a tooth out. having the same issues with my ds when a tooth is about to break through. he totally rejects a spoon at this time except if it has yogurt on it. however he will do finger food and eat a bit more if i pop a bit in his mouth at the same time.

My ds nearly 7 months is the same. He has been on solids for 10 weeks and where in the first 6/7 he woofed down what ever i gave him, now he struggles to eat a full meal, but yet loves his fruit,yoghurt or finger foods. I thought he would drink more milk to compinsate for it but he is drinking less of that to!!

I thought maybe it was his teeth as we had a really bad week with teething 2 weeks ago, but if it was that then why will he eat the sweet stuff ok??

I tried reducing the amounts of food i gave him today, starting with breakfast, which he will normally eat no probs anyway. He then ate all his lunch and all his tea. I did feel as he ate so well i wanted to go get him more, but i dint and he dint cry for more! He dint drink anymore milk but def felt that im prob feeding him to bigger breakfast hence not wanting much lunch, im thenn doing everything to get lunch in him so then he dont want his tea.

Seems like this may be my prob, maybe worth ago!!

totally normal ime