weaning frustration!!!! Post Reply

[klo]

Hi all,

need you're help...sorry this is a bit of an essay!! please read...

The little girl im looking after has just started point blank refusing to take any food when we were making progress

She is 7 mths old and at first ( @ 5 1/2 mths) it was slowly slowly as you do, she would take a little, mostly as her mouth fell open looking up etc as she wasnt overly keen on the spoon approaching but developed a liking for swede, carrot sweet things as they do ofcourse like apple was the favourite but i was carefull not to only give things she favoured and keep her tastes varied. This advanced to chicken, fish (she doent like fish (cod)but has only been on meat a few weeks.

I do have & have always had to sit and be very animated with songs, give her things to play with as she has never been overly keen on just taking from the spoon and gets bored easily for eating. some mouthfulls will be her own some are when she caught unawares and i do offer finger food as she is quite an independent baby for her age and i did consider maybe babyled may be better for her but she has no desire (yet) to put anything offered in her mouth, only rusks seem to be a like for her.

In the early days i offered all sorts of flavours, had all my batch cooking done, fruit,veg and came up with lots of ways to try to encourage i.e she likes yogurt i started putting a lil blob in middle of food give her a bit then a scoop of savoury then back to the yogurt, worked for a week or so, i tried diffrent colour bowls realising id give savoury in one a sweet in toher so nhad all same colour, have tried from highchair to babywalker with just tray bit on incase is the chair.. no difference.

I had bubbles at the table so i could get a spponfull in as her motuh fell open.. she will eat and dosnt seem to mind once the food is in her motuh but the biggest frustartion is that she just does not want to open her mouth.....at all!!!

I keep a smile on, really priase when any food is in mouth and she eats and dont let my frustration show but its getting frustrating as she is 7mths and really thought she wud have it sussed by now.

I have weaned twins, and a little girl in previous jobs, all with the odd teething problem but none as complex as this. I dont know if she just being stubborn?? or i did consider as she was quite a sicky baby wether she might have a little reflux and worried that it might be hurting her but right after breakfast she goes for a nap.. no problems and takes bottles fine and the food (what she does take that is) really helped with digestion in that she used to only do dirty nappy once every 3 days i was told when i started and now its every day so must have helped and she is generally a very happy baby and always has been.

I know that milk alone wont be providing all the claories and nutrients she needs at this age so am reluctant to give up and start again as i would suggest to someone else with a baby of say 5 mths.

She is teething alot at mo so it could be that but i dont think it is as she plays well, sleeps fine has teething gel wen hurting.

If anyone has any ideas.. same exp and came out the other side id really like to know what u tried

many thanks

k

[klo]

oh and i have tried giving her her own spoon to chew, hold.. tried giving her her own bowl with a little food in...messy i know but to get her to find meal times fun.. she got it all over her hands table but i dont mind mess but it still has no bearing on her letting me feed her her her wanting to feed herself (finger food etc)

[klo]

have also tried cutting out her mid morn bottle in the hope she will be hungrier for lunch but dosnt make much diffrence.

Its only this week mainly that she dosnt want anything and cries, gets frustrated. she would take a little before, open mouth some times

[2009Kat]

I would just say try not to worry, she's still little! My understanding is that a milk diet is still fine at 7 months. I did baby led weaning with my son and he didn't start eating purposefully and properly until 10m+. Someone once said to me that our role was to offer nutritious food and it was the baby's choice whether to eat it or not (which is obviously annoying when you have gone to all the effort of preparation...). Maybe next week she'll be more interested!

[twice_as_nice]

Hi,

I had quite a lot of frustration weaning my twins as they just weren't interested in food at all - similar problem. When I saw what some of my friend's babies were eating at 8 months or so I was shocked - they ate so much compared to mine! But now they are nearly 2 1/2 they eat pretty well, not as much as other children but certainly enough.

Overall, as long as they are a healthy weight and still eating taking their milk - they should be fine primarily on milk up to 12 months as 2009Kat said. You've said it's only this week, kids have ups and downs so probably it's just one of those things and will be a distant memory next week!

However, trying to think of any tips, I think you've tried most things I tried - distraction techniques with the bubbles and giving them things to hold like their own spoon.

One of my twins refused to let me feed her, so she self-fed bits of broccoli or carrot or softly steamed pear / apple. I'd then try and give her a spoonful at the same time.

The other thing I did (you're probably doing this already) is make sure I fed food first, so once we were on 3 meals a day, I'd do:

8am – breakfast (or whatever time the child gets up)
9.30am – milk feed
[10am – 12pm: morning sleep]
12.30 – lunch
2pm – milk feed
[2.30pm – 4.30pm: afternoon sleep]
5.30pm – dinner
7.30pm – milk feed
8pm - bed

This seemed to work ok. (nb mine weren't early risers, and we'd put them to bed at 8pm - I know most people do 7-7).

Finally, I remember going to the health visitor when they were about 7 or so months and explaining my frustrations - I felt that every mealtime was a real chore with me trying anything I could to get them interested. She suggested that I cut right back to one meal a day, get that established and then go on to introduce the second, then third meal of the day once each was established. This advice was really good as it meant that I didn't feel guilty about not giving them 3 meals a day at that age and it took away the frustration of feeling like I was just hitting my head against a brick wall 3 times a day. Might be worth discussing with her mum to see if that's something she might consider doing?

good luck! x

[catty29a]

I would echo what's already been said and say that at 7 months they're still very little and don't need very much food at all. My youngest went through phases of just wanting milk and then back to solids and back again several times between 5 months and really about a year old. I do remember a stage when all she would eat was banana and yogurt. She's now eating anything you give her and is a very independent eater. I know it can be really worrying - especially if there's a lot of expectation from the Mum for you to get the child weaned. I would talk to the Mum and try and work together on this one - some days may well just be milk and then other days a banana or a ruck or something like that. Maybe also try less entertainment - just sometimes sitting quietly and not paying too much attention to what's going on helps - let her just smear the food around her tray, chuck forks/spoons on the floor whilst you pretend to be totally unbothered. Good luck with it!

[klo]

hey, thank you for all you're suggestions will give a go. She has been alot better this week regards eating, alot more wiling.

I tried as one person suggested giving food forst during daytimes feeds and this has definatley seemed to help.

I think teething was an issue as she is now producing lots runny nappies.. lovely , but im glad she is back on track and its good to know that others have had lots experiences of their children/charges chopping and changing regards weaning habits at the same/similar age to M.

I thought this would be the case but good to have the suggestions, experiences to refer to .

many thanks

k