6 month old very unenthusiastic about solids - help

[littleduck]

DD was 6 months last week. I started solids the weekend before to give us a little run at it before I start back at work part time this Monday (sob). Started weaning now because she is 6 months which is the recommended time to start rather than because she was interested in food - she hasn't shown any interest at all.

Started her on baby rice which she took but wasn't mad keen on, then tried a puree of pear which she seemed to quite like. She has also accepted purees of banana, carrot, apple and sweet potato but is only willing to take very small amounts whereas books I have indicate that she should be taking a good couple of tablespoons now. I am feeding her solids at her 11am feed and her 6pm feed along with milk. She has a full milk feed at 7am, 2.30 pm and 10.45 pm.

We saw a paediatric dietitian this week after being referred by GP as it is suspected that DD allergic to cow's milk. During the consultation I mentioned I had started weaning but that DD was showing little interest in her solids. Dietitian said I should try giving her only 3oz or so of milk before offering the solids, give her all the solids and then only offer the remainder of a feed if she wants it after the solids are finished. I mentioned that I was also hoping to cut out the 10.45 pm feed soon and she said that this might also help to make her hungrier for the solids.

I have tried what the dietitian suggested and DD has taken 3 oz milk, managed a small amount of solids and then refused any more milk both yesterday and today. It was rather a battle today to get her to take any more than a couple of small spoons of solids but she did take it all in the end, if she really doesn't want food she will spit it out and she didn't do that. It seems that she will take the small amount of milk and some solids and then refuse any more milk.

I am concerned as I don't want to turn food into a battle but she really doesn't seem to want much at all and I am concerned that her milk intake will drop too much if she continues in the way the dietitian suggested and I cut the 10.45pm feed also.

Should I just keep offering the food and even if she only takes small amounts be grateful that at least she is taking something and hope her appetite for solids will get better soon. Per a couple of weaning books I have she should be taking much more in her second week of weaning than she is now and I'm really worried for her.

Hitherto she has been on the 50th centile for weight consistently since she was born. She has had a bad cold in the last week which she is still getting over and I can feel that the edge of a tooth has just started pushing through her gum - could the cold and the teething be affecting her appetite.

Just suppose I'm looking for reassurance that even if she will only take small amounts of milk and solids she won't suffer?

All help appreciated

Really milk should continue to be her main source of nutrition until the age of 12 months. I would not recommend withdrawing any milk feeds at present as she has not established feeding of solids yet. Every baby is different and most children take a lot longer than 2 weeks to increase the amount they eat at each 'sitting'. This stage of weaning (from 6-9 months) is a time for your DD to learn about food. As she hasn't yet started to show much interest (and this could be because of her cold and teething) it is reasonable to expect the process to take a little longer. 3-4 teaspoons is a very satisfactory amount for her to take at this stage and she may not be ready to have this twice a day, yet. Alternatively, you may need to consider giving her solid food earlier in the morning, perhaps around 8.30/9 o'clock.

Also the nutrition she will gain from baby rice and a few pureed fruits will not replace the amount and variety of nutrition she currently gains from her milk. She should always be offered her full milk feed first at the regular times then, if you feel she is likely to be too full, instead of giving her solids straight away try about an hour later. 12 o'clock may work out to be a time when you can both relax, and try giving her some soft finger food to explore with, too - perhaps while you are eating your lunch so that she can see what she needs to do. If the evening solids may be a bit late for your bedtime routine, perhaps you could try at around 3.30/4 o'clock?

Try not to stress or worry - she will learn when she is ready. Good luck

Please don't worry.
A healthy child will never starve.

DS3 was totally uninterested in food at 6months. I left it and tried him every few weeks. It wasn't until 9 months he actually wanted it and now at 11 months he is doing fine with finger foods and has just started getting some teeth and cruising - so by most standards a bit lazy all round.
As has been said, main nutrition is from milk anyway at this age.
Once she gets into it there will be no stopping her. We didn't do all this puree, then mashed, then a little lumpy malarky either with DS3. He had some puree then started grabbing our food and chewing on it so we followed his lead, as we have with previous 2.

He is 25th centile for weight.

Cold and teeth could be affecting her. But my DS didn't show much interest until around 9m. (He never dropped below the 90th centile for weight and almost eats like an adult at 2.)

Don't worry (my other child loved solids straight away, so this was new to me at the time). We did BLW with very few purees.

'Until they are 1 it's just for fun!' is a quote to remember when feeling worried about it all. Mummy 369 is totally right that babies nutritional needs are met through their milk intake until they are much older. Toss aside the books they will just make you fret over nothing. Weaning is firstly about exploring tastes and textures & you will find your baby will then begun to eat more little by little. I know lots of babies & children who still eat little some days and lots on others and are perfectly healthy. They all do it at their own pace & my dd definitely ate much less when she was teething or had a cold.
Try to enjoy the journey rather than worrying though it's easier said than done when everyone had an opinion on what should happen and what is best.

Thanks so much for your replies which are a big help to me as a first time mum not knowing what on earth to do for the best!It does worry you when the books say DD should be having x much solids per day and she really doesn't seem interested.

Particularly worrying that the paediatric dietitian we saw said to drop the night feed and cut back on the milk offered before her solids at 11am and 6pm to try to get her to eat more of the solids, when mummy 369 points out that milk should still be her main source of nutritition (and I think I have also seen this elsewhere).

Managed to get her to have around 2tbsp baby rice and carrot at 5.30 last night - brought the feed forward as she really did seem too tired to have it after 6pm and the new time seemed to work well, she took milk before her solids, we gave her her bath after her solids and she had more milk after her bath before bedtime.

We dropped her 10.45 pm feed last night as she has been pretty sleepy at that feed in recent weeks and doesn't seem to want much then. Idea being that if she woke in the night hungry we would know she still needed that feed and would reinstate it. She didn't wake so we will leave it unless she starts waking again.

She didn't want much milk at 7am though which surprised me, although she is very snotty at the moment so may be a bit bunged up making it hard to breathe through her nose when she feeds? Didn't want much of her solids this morning either - I didn't try to push it too much.

She has never really seen us eat as we usually eat when she is asleep so maybe this is part of the problem. She was a bit reluctant with her solids last night to start with but was more enthusiastic when DP made himself a snack and started eating it whist I was feeding her.

I guess I will just have to make sure she is getting enough milk and then continue to offer solids regularly in the hope that she will take more as time goes on.

any more thoughts much appreciated

hi littleduck, I am just echoing what the other posters have said really - I wouldn't worry about what the books say she 'should' be doing; she'll tell you herself what she needs! your strategy of keeping up with the milk feeds she still wants sounds just right to me (nice for you that she is dropping the night feed though). My dd is exactly the same age and she's just playing with food at the moment - not very much is actually going down and her milk feeds are just the same as before - but it's amazing how quickly she's learning to hold food, guide a spoon to her mouth, accept pureed stuff from us from a spoon, etc. And like yours it's all a bit disrupted by her current cold and by teething, so I wouldn't fret if she has days when she seems to take less.

Good luck and hope you can both enjoy it!

what about ditching the baby rice altogether, it's not nutritionally that brilliant (woould you consider a bowl of rice to be nutritionally complete?) and maybe she just isn't into it? mashed carrot etc may be the way to go, or reading this baby led weaning site might make you feel better about just leaving her to it to feed herself when she wants to. either way it's worth a look at as i wrote it, lol , and it's a good confidence boost regardless of your weaning method.
plus, please remember that she's still tiny at 6 mos, sooooooo much can change in a week at this stage, so you should reserve the right to stop altogether and see how you go in a few days.

I agree with everything said here - you should see food as an addition - not a replacement to milk. dd2 is 8 months & takes at least as much milk as she did before I weaned her 8 weeks ago - probably more.

DD2 was a really slow starter - even now she would take no more than 2 tablespoons of food from a spoon. She is starting to really get the hang of finger foods though which I have included from the start.

You sound like you're doing fine, just don't cut more milk yet until she is telling you she doesn't want it.

Littleduck, know how you feel - my DS was 6 months on 8 Nov and couldn't be less interested in solids. He won't even take purees or baby rice - just a few teaspoons of baby porridge and he takes it far better from my husband than me, so he eats more at weekends, don't we all . He's been very congested for about 6 weeks, cold on top of cold - took him to the Dr who wasn't worried at all, and his chest and ears are fine. After sleeping fabulously from 3-5 months he's now getting up up to 7 times a night which is really hard. The health visitor told me he must be starving and to wean him asap, concentrating on higher calorie foods like the baby porridge, which got me concerned because he just won't take it most of the time. I've decided the waking is more about the congestion and really hope it doesn't go on all winter. So it's lots and lots of breastfeeding and very little solids here, with no sign of this changing any time soon