Help! 7 month old cries every time I feed him

[deweydell]

It's proper, heartfelt sobbing and turning the head away. I'm doing purees. I started at five and a half months. He's seven months tomorrow and there's only been a few days in all that time that he's got through a 'meal' without crying. I'm offering a bit of finger food now - rice cakes, broccoli, carrots - but he always starts ok then quickly becomes deeply upset. I'm stuck. Any thoughts?

He's always been fine with milk. My dd had silent reflux so I know what that is and he never had a problem with breast or bottle.

My DS doesn't get upset but he does just point blank refuse when he's not hungry or tired.

I'm BLW so I'd definitely advise sticking with the finger foods - they have so much more control over their food. Does he still get upset if you let him feed himself? A few friends puree feed generally but have days where their DC's won't be fed, then they're just on finger foods. They don't eat as much but they do eat.

At 7mo its still fine if he has days where he doesn't have much (or any) solids, so try (and I know its hard!) to relax and let him lead.

That sounds really hard for both of you.

Does he get upset about finger food as well as being spoon fed? I've just had to stop spoon feeding my DD (also 7 months) as she is on a mission to be a big grown up girl who feeds herself. We tried cream cheese mini sandwiches yesterday which went down well.

Anyway - I don't know if it would help but could you try putting a selection of food on his tray and then pretend to ignore him (e.g. read the paper, do the washing up) while he eats - or even eat something yourself. If things have got very fraught around eating it might help to lower the emotional temparature and act like you don't care....

Do you think it might be problem to do with digestion/ some kind of pain or is it more the situation of being fed that he finds hard?

It's so hard isn't it. Sounds very similar to me but recently feel turned a corner as he has got more hungry and got the idea that food solves the hunger problem.

My DS was exactly the same at the start and there was always crying, esp. with spoon feeding so I just gave finger food mostly and gave him a spoon to play with and slowly tried to get some spoonfuls in.

I think the key is to relax and just make it fun and they gradually get the idea. I also kept mealtimes fairly short and tried to time them when hungry but not starving or too tired. Tiredness def. increased the crying. He is 32 weeks now and the crying is almost none now apart from to let me know he has had enough.

Hope it gets better for you.