You totally don't need to be worried. Many bf babies aren't interested in solids until nearer 12 months. All this means is that your bm is giving her everything she needs. Nice to know hey! My first DS was the same, he had no interest in solids at all until 8 or 9 months, and was over 1 before he ate well. Now he is a really good eater. FWIW, I think I made his eating worse by trying so hard to get him to eat. If I had my time over I would only offer it once every week or two until he showed interest.
Remember that milk is the most important food until 12 months. Before that age is just about learning texture and taste. She will eat when she needs it.
He wouldn't have a bar of solids till he was 8 months. I'd put him in the highchair when I was eating and break off a bit of what I was eating and put it on the tray for him to play with. eg cheese or bread . He eventually started feeding himself.
I bypassed the puree stage and went for diced steamed vegies which he was happy enough to put in his mouth. In time he'd allow me to feed him porrige or youghurt off a spoon but it took a long time and a lot of mess.
*lets out a huuuge breath* Thankyou SO much for the replies. That's made me relax so much!
We'll go back to the 'smearing it all over our face because it's fun' phase and I won't worry if she doesn't actually eat any. I wasn't sure if she was needing solids for the nutrients as I read about how babies are born with an iron store and it's gone by 6 months (or something similar) so wasn't sure if I should be concerned for her health. That said, I only have to see how active and happy she is to think she's ok health wise heh.
So the grabbing of the spoon. Is that because she doesn't want me to try to feed her? Or is it just a play thing? I tried using two spoons - one for her to hold, one for me to feed. But she kept grabbing it. Today we had THREE spoons going in the hopes two hands full meant I'd get past LOL, but she just wanted all three instead.
I really like the idea of the diced steam vegies! I think I'll have to give that a go. I gave her some of my cheese the other day as I was having it, then of course panicked that she wasn't at the 'ok' stage for cheese yet lol. All she did was squish it and pull faces if she tasted it.
Haydies, it's mostly a play thing, and taking an interest in everything.
WRT to the iron stores, they run out at sometime between 6 and 12 months. Mostly bf babies need iron much later than ff bubs, as the iron in bm is more readily absorbed than the iron from any other source. BM alone will give babies all the iron they need for 12 months in most cases. The baby cereal products that you buy all have added iron, but the iron in that form is not easily absorbed, so in actual fact babies get less iron from those foods than from bm. Often when you introduce solids too early, the food replaces some milk, so the baby gets less iron than when they were just bfing. HTH.
Oh that info for the iron has put my mind completely to rest!! I read (or think I read) that it was gone by 6 months, not started to drop from then. And I also didn't know BM had iron in it... whew!
Wow lol, when they say as a mum you worry about everything, they weren't kidding!
BM actually only has a low percentage of iron in it, a fact played up by formula and baby food manufacturers. But the truth is that the baby absorbs nearly 100 of it as it is in the best form. They neglect to tell you that one when trying to sell more of their products!! Far less of the iron in food is abosrbed.
But the good news is you have absolutely nothing to worry about!!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks