7 month old not interested in food

[finland]

Advice needed please! I have 7 month old son who is very good in many ways except when it comes to food. He was weaned just before 6 months and took first tastes very nicely. But after about month seems to be bored of eating. Now only takes food from spoon if he is distracted by me. Eventually he will take about 6 tablespoons of food but only after much playing and moving from high chair to bouncy chair etc and it takes about 45 minutes in total. Quite exhasted by it all. Don't think he is teething but health visitor advised trying cowgel before meals. Is it normal for baby to need so much distraction? Has anyone experienced this? Am i doing something very wrong? Dont understand as me and DH both love our food. I have tried finger food a little but apart from broccoli he is not interested, funny as he puts everything apart from food into his mouth!

Do you think he could be sensing your tension re his feeding when it come to feed time ? He could be enjoying the fun side of feeding, ie distrcting him etc ?
How about sitting him in his highchair, offering the food, if not interested, then take him out and then repeat this process in about half an hours time ?

TBH at 7 months they do not need LOADS of food. They are still finding out what they like etc. A few mouth fulls is fine as milk is still they primary source of food.

we had the exact same problem with our daughter! we started weaining her just before 5 months and although she started well after a few weeks she was bored and refusing food and mealtimes became quite frustrating. I don't know if yours will be the same but by perservering with solid feeds but stopping as soon as she became too fussy or distressed she has naturally become more settled the last couple of weeks - possibly because she's more hungry and is aware now that she's getting satisfaction from solid food? And it's true, they don't need a lot of solids at this age so don't worry too much yet. I just tried to make mealtimes as enjoyable as possible hoping it would get better on its own and luckily it has! We thought she had ADHD at one point she got bored so quickly!

as long as he is having lots and lots of milk it is not an issue at this age. he does not need 3 meals a day, milk is his main source of nutrition and calories. offer finger food when you eat, and let him play and explore and not get too hung up on eating set meals

Just put him in the high chair with some soft finger foods and leave him to play with it. Forget the spoons and purees, theres no need for them, let him do it himself. If you carry on make=ing a big deal of it you'll end up with food ishoos!! Just chill, solids are not important at this age, milk is the main food until they are 12-18 months, solids are just for fun and exploring til then.

Appreciate the advice, kind of reinforces what I knew was right in my heart but the urge to feed is strong!
He is only on 3 milk feeds a day - is that still enough then if 'milk is still the main source of food'? ( I recentally dropped his 4pm feed as he never actually asked for it and thought maybe having knock on affect on dinner so now has milk in morning, 1-2pmish and bedtime).

3 doesn't sound like a lot, my 8 MO hasn't dropped any milk feeds yet, so prob 7-8 per 24 hours! I'd definitely try to chill out and go at your baby's pace, which is easier to do if they self-feed.

Ds1 was just like this. I can't offer any words of wisdom as he's developed into a dreadful eater (2.4 years now).

Ds2 (7 months) is the opposite - will eat everything he's offered, and then take ds1's food too.

I haven't done anything different with ds2. I reckon some children like eating, some don't and there's little you can do about it.

FWIW, ds2 only has 3 milk feeds a day now.

my 6 month dd only has four milk feeds a day - 7am, 3-4pm, 6.30pm and a dreamfeed at 10.30pm. She often doesn't drink much at the 7am feed despite my friends telling me that morning is their babies hungriest time! I've had to do it like that because she's at nursery/grandparents 3 days a week but even when i'm with her she doesn't ask for a mid morning milk feed anymore.

The only thing I'd say is that if you're worried about him getting enough milk make sure you offer him milk before his solids not after. as long as you wait about an hour between milk and solid feeds it shouldn't dent his appetite for a solid feed but it will mean he takes enough milk first.

ds (7.5mo) doesn't eat much solids at all (but still has lots of milk). Best success has been to sit him on my lap and feed him small pieces from my plate with my fingers. He seems to prefer to share my food. I'm trying hard not to push it when he indicates he's not interested, but it's been difficult. Can you try sharing meals with him?

Yesterday he made the first leap to picking up food himself and actually being eager for more, but refused to eat anything again this morning so I guess it will be slow progress.

my ds is the same. annoying isn't it? he then wakes up six times a night to bf. I know its a vicious circle but I haven't got the energy to break it at 3 am!

I thought I would post an update. I have found things have improved considerably. Partly because I am now giving him lots of finger food to play with while I spoon feed him and also looking back his appetite was affected by colds that he had ( we had a run of 3 colds in 6 weeks). I can see now that his appetite went down day or two before his cold symptoms became apparent and his appetite would take a while to come back. His appetite is also affected by 'minor' colds which wouldn't affect a normal adults appetite. Hope this is useful and gives other mums some hope, and fingers crossed he continues to eat ok.