After some advice with solids. I started my 2nd daughter on solids at 6 1/2mths. Prior to this she was fully breastfed and continues to be breastfed on demand in between trying to get some food into her! Sheis 8mths old now.
I persevered with 'mash/puree for 2 weeks and just couldn't get her to have more than 1/2 a teaspoon after the 2weeks. Lots of caljoling/games to get her to open her mouth. I worked out that this wasn't working so started on finger foods instead - much better and of course she would also take food that was mushy from my fingertips.
Doing slow food introduction and she has reacted to apples and carrots so far. So we have stopped them. ATM she is not wanting to even eat finger foods at all. I have heard at this age that with starting on the 'big' motor milestones like crawling that they become less interested in food, she is also perpetually 'teething' with lots of drool. She just pushes it out of her mouth with her tongue or spits it out.
So what she is good at eating now is soft toast (rice/pumkin bread) and rice rusk sticks. She also likes drinking water out of a cup. Thats it. So far we have tried pear, corn, rice cereal, rice/pumkin bread, pumkin, potato, zucchini, peach, beef, lamb, chicken, choko, apple, carrot, oats. We introduced foods that were low in salicilates from a food intolerance point of view as she is intolerant to dairy, wheat and soy through breastfeeding (excema).
Her routine is 5am bf back to sleep; 6am up and breakfast at 6.30 - 7am; play; sleep 9am; up at 11am play; 12 noon lunch; sleep 1pm; up at 3pm; dinner 4pm; bath 4.30; play; bed 6.30; roll over feed 10pm. I demand bf her during the day which is generally every 4hrs and a little one after solids.
Hey Mich, my DS was really slow to take to solids, he was over 12 months before he started to be consistently interested.
It's difficult not to worry, but at only just 8 months, the BF is still the most important thing, and she will continue to thrive on this. So you're doing a great job there.
The second thing that I'd do, for my own sanity if nothing else, would be to not worry about giving huge variety of foods in the hope of coming up with one that she will eat, just pick a handful of things that are healthy & easy for you to prepare, and offer them consistently, because she will eventually go "mmm, yum.." and then you won't be able to feed her enough It might still be a few months away, but if you're not doing a chocolate/chips diet in an attempt to get her to eat something/anything then she'll probably eventually decide that she does like fruit/vegies/both.
THis is certainly my experience with my DS, he's now great with lots of fruits (most of the time), and is pretty good with vegies. In fact he's a bit of a weird child, cos he'll eat raw tomatoes & capsicum very happily. I'm a bit of a food-police-freak in that I've never given him cake, biscuits (except for a rare dry biscuit), chips etc. If I'm out & about & desperate/disorganised, then I give him a sushi roll, which is fun as well as healthy, although I do watch the seaweed consumption, cos that can choke him, which isn't fun.
for me, one of the best things about BB when I was going through the "my DS is never going to eat normal food & will never give up BFing", was that there are lots of us out here who have kids that don't switch onto the whole solids thing until quite "late", it's really pretty common. Which I found very comforting.
Michelle, I'm sending you hugs hun I remember going through this with DS1 and I didn't know what to do. The very first thing I found that he liked (yoghurt) he was allergic to! He eats better now, but is still fussier and a smaller eater than his younger brother.
I am going to give you a suggestion, because it's what I wish I now wish I had done with DS1. Don't worry! Offer finger foods (forget the puree, she doesn't need it), and if she doesn't eat, then don't worry. Offer a good variety, pretty much everything you are eating, and also keep offering things she doesn't seem to like (it can take a lot of goes for them to like something). But keep up the variety. Don't stress if she eats nothing at all - the bm is enough until 12 months or so, and when it's not enough, she will eat. I really belief that part of DS1's fussy eating now stems back to me trying to encourage him to eat before he was ready, and also from me giving his favourites over and over just to make sure he ate.
I wish you luck. I am sure she will eat well in time, she just doesn't seem to be ready yet.
My DD was hard to start solids too.. I stopped offering them on a daily basis and just when we had time. We basically offered food as an activity rather then a meal.. She was around 9 months when she started having 1-2 meals a day.. Now she is a great eater..
I am having issues with DS who is 7 months old, started just before 6 months was going great guns for 10 days then suddenly stopped and since then has sometimes vomited and gagged and splutterd and spat out!!
I have started offering every few days instead of every day (unless i open a jar or tin and want to try again before time limit up and needs throwing out)
Have tryed homemade, jar, tins finger foods nothing seems to make a difference.
I completely agree with MantaRay, hun. Try looking at the Baby Led solids thread and see what advice the other girls have to offer there. If you have already cut everything out of your own diet that causes her problems, then just watch carefully as you offer her small amounts of what you ate. Babies are surprisingly good at 'chewing' and swallowing if left to their own devices. Until 12 mths it's mostly about experiencing different tastes and textures anyway.
What all the others girls have said is so true and I all I wanted to add is that we were in exact same position.
Mackenzie didn't show ANY interest until aroun 11/12 months and that was just tastes here and there and around 14 months started actually eating meals. She is now 17 months and eats better than some other bubs who started eating earlier!
She tries new things all the time and last week she started eating weetbix with milk which she previously hated! I thought she would never eat and I would be breastfeeding till she was at school but she surprised us all! Basically we just kept offering without forcing and got into a good habit of having some time in the high chair each meal so she got used to it. Good luck!
Well I am so glad this thread has helped others out there. It can be hard with all the mainstream pressure out there to be doing certain things at certain times. Heidi is enjoying her foods a little more. Just trying to do what the girls suggested - lots of variety and fingerfoods. Actually ate a bit of porrige of a spoon this morning, thanks to a very interesting piece of cardboard that joined us for breakfast! LOL
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