(( ok, so I tend to not be able to put my questions down the same way they're in my head, so please bear with me... ))
My DD is just over 7 months old. Back when she was 5.5 months, I was convinced that she needed and wanted solids, and even came in here to ask about if 17 days was going to be a problem (re: allergies). I ended up offering some Avocado, which was great to play with, but that was it.
After that she 'played' with some cut up pear and apple (finger food), but wouldn't have a bar of anything pureed or actually offered as food. So basically only wanted things to suck, chew and spit out. I didn't worry.
We've recently moved house, which was an extremely stressful period (especially for me) and during the move process (the week before, and the couple of weeks after), the solids went right out the window. Since she wasn't interested, I wasn't that worried.
I've tried to start back up now things are settling, but she's still not wanting it, and everything is being immediately pushed back out.
- She will chew and eat teething rusts (the Heinz Vegetable ones). She has two bottom teeth, one top just come through and a 4th on it's way (just breaking through). She likes to run her teeth up and down the rusk, which causes bits to come off obviously, and although a lot ends up down her front, I'm pretty sure she's swallowing some too.
- I've tried mashed pumpkin, and although she will happily suck/chew on the spoon, if I try to "feed" any to her, she just arches back and grabs the spoon to wave it around triumphantly.
- I thought maybe it was the taste factor, so picked up some Farax Mixed Cereal and mixed it with some EBM. Same thing - every time the spoon comes close, she grabs at it to wave it around. I make funny noises, faces etc to get her to smile and then sneak the spoon in... but anything that goes in, immediately gets pushed out and runs down her chin.
- I thought that might have been a tongue reflex thing, but yesterday (and this is where I feel like the worst mummy around lol), I was having a bad day so got McDonalds for lunch. Miss grabby was in her high chair and wanted to play with the chip box (she LOVES chewing anything cardboard). I didn't realise there was a chip still there until she was already sucking on it. Then she sucked or chewed a bit off, I could see it bouncing around in her mouth. I put my burger down, wiped my finger off and went to fetch it out, only to find it was... GONE! THIS is the first 'solids' she swallows that I know of. Bad, bad mummy!
So I know she can swallow things, but at the moment she's not even letting me get it in her mouth. She doesn't seem to be interested in anything I offer her - Farax Cereal, Pumpkin, even cut up pear and apple aren't worth playing with at the moment. I've tried some dry (nothing on it) toast fingers in the morning when I'm having my breakfast, won't have a bar of it.
Q) Do I need to be concerned? She's still happily breastfeeding full time (about 4 - 5 feeds during the day, 1 (sometimes 2) overnight). She has trimmed down lately (her bubblebubs tabs meet again), but she's also crawling like mad, which started, literally, the day we moved. When she's awake she's constantly moving, crawling to follow me, standing up on the furniture etc. Always moving. So I don't think her weight is dropping due to lack of nutrients.
I wouldn't be too stressed if she is still breastfeeding regularly hun. Izzy was exactly the same, we started her at 5 1/2 mths and in hindsight we could have waited until around she was clsoer to 8 mths really. Up until they are 12 mths old, their milk is still the number one priority as far as nutrition and their food intake goes, so keep offering different things, make feeding time fun, but don't let either of you get too frustrated by it all. I found some days she would eat everything I would offer and then the next day I would give her the same food and she would refuse it all. Milk does fill them up much more than we realise and at an early stage of feeding it is all about experimenting with texture and taste rather than nutrition!Hope that helps and keep up the great work!!!
Don't worry! This is really common, and even more common in breastfed babies.
Toby was 8 months old before he would take any solids, even though we first tried at six months.
Try not to stress, they pick up on this and it just makes them associate mealtime with stress and that makes them dig in their little heels even more
If she's still breastfeeding know that she's getting what she needs and she's telling you that at the moment, that's enough for her...soon enough she'll get into it but in the meantime breastmilk is enough
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.
7 Months and still not having a bar of solids
))
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