my 6.5mth old suddenly refused to be fed from spoon - help!

[lovemyrose]

my DD is 6 and a half months old, she was BF until 6 months and i am now starting to try and introduce formula with varying amounts of success.

Started weaning about 6 weeks ago. everything had been going really well, she was having 3 meals a day - breakfast was baby porridge with fruit puree and a bit of milk, lunch pureed vegetables with chicken stock, dinner of baby rice and pureed fruit and some milk. Also having small amounts of juice or water from beaker.

then it all changed this week and she now absolutely refuses to be fed by me with a spoon. the only way i can get her to eat anything is to dip baby rice crackers into the puree and let her feed herself, but it means she eats a lot of rice cracker and not much puree. she has also had a go at sticks of cucumber and banana but gets frustrated because she can't really chew them up small enough to eat (she hasnt got any teeth yet).

also - last time i got her weighed (2 wks ago) she'd lost 2 oz so of course i stressing about getting her to eat more :-( and worrying that she's lost more weight.

does this just mean she's ready to feed herself? should i go with baby led weaning? or is there anyway i can get her to take a spoon again?

does she have a spoon too? we use a mixture of finger foods, purees, porridge or soup. if we are feeding with something that requires a spoon, we usually use a few! i pass dd a loaded spoon and she makes a good effort to feed herself with it if she wants it, or throws it about if she's not keen. it's messy but less frustrating than trying to spoon feed dd with her mouth clamped shut or spitting out every mouthful!!

either that or lumps of mashed food are good - mashed sweet potato with carrot or turnip or broccoli. i just put a little pile in front of her and she picks up a fistful and sooks it. not the most gracious of table manners, but she is eating!!

i haven't been weighing dd as she is a big lass (!) but i think the idea is not to stress about how much food they get as most of their nutrition will be coming from their milk anyway.

definitely do BLW - it sounds like your DD is saying she wants to take the lead! Have a read of the Guardian BLW article, it's a pretty easy guide. Foods to try would be toast, or roasted veg sticks (chip shapes of sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, courgette, covered in olive oil & rosemary). They are pretty easy to put into their mouths but then are very soft in the mouth so it can be swallowed. Just make sure what you give is fatty enough if you are worried about your DD's weight, so give cheese, buttery toast etc. Rice crackers probably don't have a lot of calories or fat so I'd switch to different foods that do. Breadsticks are great too.

My dd is the same age. I've mostly been doing BLW but with a bit of spoon feeding. I was trying to spoon feed her lentils with rice porridge last night and she wasn't having it. I took it away and she starting licking the spilled stuff off the high chair tray. So I put a dollop on the tray for her and she happily ate it with her fingers. Messy but effective. They don't need teeth to be able to chew softish food like steamed veg, soft fruit, bread etc.

Meant to say she'll probably take the spoon if you give her a bit more independence with some finger foods. Could she be teething and a bit off her food? More info on BLW babyledweaning.blogware.com/here

thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I give her her own spoon and she can get it in her mouth but has normally managed to flick off any food by the time it gets there! I can sometimes sneak in a spoonful or so when she is doing that but otherwise she definitely wants to take the lead and feed herself.

Think i will try the lumps of mashed food RaggedRobin and the roasted veg sticks and buttery toast MrsJamin recommends. - I havent given her wheat or dairy yet but guessing its ok to introduce now she almost 7 months?