[How Strange]

I just give my son water. There's time enough for juices and they're full of sugars. Also if you start with juice it may be difficult to get him to drink plain water so I'd suggest you start with water and introduce juice later.

For increasing the food intake do it gradually so his tummy and digestive system don't get upset. I'd say if you gradually increase food during 6-7.5 months he should drink less milk himself. Having said that milk, breast or formula, should be their main source of nutrition until 1 year.

[nedd]

Hi.

I haven't read this whole thread yet (going to do it now) but i just want to post about my son because it is becoming a stress point for my wife and I.

My son is 9 months and for the last 3 months has been fighting and fussing every meal time. For the first couple of weeks of solids he loved it. Then he start teething, got a cold, got more teeth and another cold. He is back to himself now but still wont eat.

He will eat OK most mornings. But come the afternoon or evening as soon as he sees the spoon he starts whining, clamps he lips shut and turns his head. We have tried everything with him jars, pouches, sweet potato, regular potato, our own meals.....

He will eat some things from his own hand (not much though)

Can anyone give me some reassurance that this is normal(ish)? We were at the Public Health Nurse yesterday and she said he will get it eventually. That's no good when he doesn't eat his dinner and is awake during the night.

Thanks

[Lola92]

Originally Posted by irishmotorist

One other question, if you don't mind. I think we'll need to start upping his volume of food to replace a bottle during the day but we'll need to give him 'juice'. What is 'juice'? Annabel Karmel says that commercial fruit juices should be diluted about 5:1 with water. Is this referring to (for example) a carton of OJ from concentrate that I'd have with breakfast myself?

I would avoid juices for as long as possible if I were you. Baby should be fine taking water from a beaker or sippy cup for now. My daughter is almost 16 months and we have only begun giving her very diluted drinks occasionally in the last 3 months or so. As in 1 part just to 8/10 parts water. I heard a good saying a while back on here - you should never give your child anything other than water or milk to drink until they are able to ask for it themselves. I think it is a very good way to go. My little girl will ask for 'juice' we give her her beaker with water, sometimes a squeeze of lemon or lime juice in with it and she loves it. No need for baby juices or dilutes really at all.

[foxinsocks]

Originally Posted by nedd

My son is 9 months and for the last 3 months has been fighting and fussing every meal time. For the first couple of weeks of solids he loved it. Then he start teething, got a cold, got more teeth and another cold. He is back to himself now but still wont eat.

He will eat OK most mornings. But come the afternoon or evening as soon as he sees the spoon he starts whining, clamps he lips shut and turns his head. We have tried everything with him jars, pouches, sweet potato, regular potato, our own meals.....

He will eat some things from his own hand (not much though)

Can anyone give me some reassurance that this is normal(ish)? We were at the Public Health Nurse yesterday and she said he will get it eventually. That's no good when he doesn't eat his dinner and is awake during the night.

Thanks

Firstly, this is normal, totally normal. Is your lad being breast or formula fed? Either way, at 9 months old he is still getting almost everything he needs from those feeds. Food at this point is all about learning how to eat, so that when he really needs the nourishment from solid foods, he will be ready and able to eat it.

The fact that he will take stuff he's putting in his own mouth means that he is willing to eat, just that he objects to YOU putting stuff there. What you need to do is let him take control back. If you are still feeding him purees, then put some of the stuff on his high chair tray, strip him down to a vest and let him play with it. It will go everywhere, into his hair, down his neck, on the floor, everywhere, so be prepared for a mess, and don't get upset about it! Some of it might go in his mouth, but if it doesn't, don't stress, he doesn't NEED it right now, especially if he's getting solid food in the mornings, and he's getting his usual milk feeds. Resist the urge to put things in his mouth, even resist the urge to put things in his hands, put them on his tray, or on a plate in front of you, with him on your lap. If he feels in control he's more likely to start eating again. Putting stuff in his mouth for him will just cause more resistance.

What kind of stuff are you giving him in his hands? Have you looked into baby led weaning at all? It sounds like that could maybe take some of the stress out of mealtimes.

Both of you need to take a step back, and stop the stress, at 9 months old, they actually need very very little solid food, and most of the stuff they get from purees isn't all that full of nourishment anyway, even if you make it yourself. Pureeing foods causes them to lose a lot of nutrients.

When you gave him your own food, what were you doing at the time? What are you guys usually doing when he is being fed. Obviously one of you is feeding him, but what is the other one doing?

[nedd]

Hi foxinsocks.

Thanks for your reply, as I mentioned everyone keeps telling us not to stress about this but we keep stressing anyway. I think we need to take a step back.

He will suck and munch on carrot sticks, rice cakes, bread, toast, cucumbers.... anything at all really. he probably doesn't get much eating from this though. He just sucks it until it turns to mush then it is discarded.

We a formula feeding him, 3 bottles a day but the PHN told us yesterday that we need to think of reducing this to 2 bottles.

We find it difficult to sync meals times, I only get home from work after 6 in the evening and my son is already fed at this stage. Today my wife was going to try having her food before feeding him. Hopefully this will encourage him to eat.

Thanks again.

[foxinsocks]

Originally Posted by nedd

Hi foxinsocks.

Thanks for your reply, as I mentioned everyone keeps telling us not to stress about this but we keep stressing anyway. I think we need to take a step back.

He will suck and munch on carrot sticks, rice cakes, bread, toast, cucumbers.... anything at all really. he probably doesn't get much eating from this though. He just sucks it until it turns to mush then it is discarded.

We a formula feeding him, 3 bottles a day but the PHN told us yesterday that we need to think of reducing this to 2 bottles.

We find it difficult to sync meals times, I only get home from work after 6 in the evening and my son is already fed at this stage. Today my wife was going to try having her food before feeding him. Hopefully this will encourage him to eat.

Thanks again.

What you need to do is actually eat with him. Ie, stick the solid foods in front of him, and then eat your own food. I hate to contradict a PHN, but she's probably wrong about reducing the milk feed, especially since he's not regularly eating solids. Let him keeping getting the nourishment he needs from the formula, it will absolutely not help him eat solids if he's too hungry. I would actually give him a couple of ounces of formula before giving him the solid food, so he can just play and not get HIMSELF stressed either.

The solid bits that he is getting is probably plenty, by this i mean the cucumber etc that he's sucking on. A lot of nutrients are in the juice anyway! And even though you think he's not getting much of it, if you think about how big his tummy is, a very small amount will fill him (ie, his tummy is roughly the size of his fist).

OK, I'm rambling. Here is my advice. When your wife eats, he should have food in front of him. After you get home, and you are eating, he should be sitting with you at the table (either on a lap, or in a high chair) and he should have food in front of him. If you want to continue with purees, try giving him a preloaded spoon full, but do NOT put it in his mouth, let him do that if he wants to. If he wants to eat, let him eat, if he wants to throw food at you, let him throw food at you. He does not know that food matters, at this point he doesn't know food will make him full, all he will do at this point is copy you. Keep up giving him finger sized foods as well as purees. Once he starts eating again he will naturally start to cut down his milk feeds himself.

If your baby is hungry for a milk feed, and you're trying to give him solid food, he's just going to get upset and frustrated, and more and more hungry, and it will eventually make your problem even worse. So listen to him, and ignore the phn advice for now.

[pwurple]

Small girl is just coming up to the 13 months now, I think we have the egg thing under control thanks to advice here. I bake some egg free rusks and bread, and we found a tiny egg free pasta. The only thing I'm having trouble with now is the gagging and vomitting on any pieces bigger than a crumb. She can't seem to take a bite of anything. Also, whenever I put stuff on her tray she shoves EVERYTHING into her mouth, gags, and throws up. So I give her a tiny piece at a time. Wait until she is finished, then next one. It's getting a bit tiring to be honest. I try to eat my own food at the same time, but usually mine is stony cold by the time I've finished chopping hers and handing it to her a crumb at a time.

She has 16 teeth (everything except the second set of molars) so I thought she should be able to take bites at this point. Everything else I give her I still puree fully. Any spec of a lump and it is vomit all over the place. Even the rusk has to be ground to dust before she can eat it.

I've had some conflicting advice on this... so not sure what to do. PHN says let her throw up until she gets used to it. creche says she is not ready for it and keep trying every few weeks. My mum says give her biscuits long enough that she can stick down to the back of her throat so she figures out where the gag reflex is (Tried this, 6 or seven vomits later it's not working).

Any ideas on what could help, or will I just wait it out?

[caprilicious]

Nedd I also agree with foxinsocks, I think your PHN is a bit quick of the mark with recommending you cut down his bottles just now.
I tried a combination of baby led weaning and feeding pureed foods to my daughter from 6/7 months.

When we reached 9 months & she still was only tasting foods as opposed to eating proper solid meals I was starting to stress.
However around the time of her first birthday she just decided one day she was eating solids & reduced the milk herself.

She still doesn't have a huge appetite (2 years old now) but is a fine size for her age & within the percentile recommended by the PHN.

pwurple that sound's really distressing with your daughter. Maybe just try her on soft foods that she can feed herself (bread/cheese/soft fruit), even if she only eats small quantities, she might be able to build it up over time until she doesn't vomit anymore?

Maybe for peace of mind get your GP to check her out (if you haven't already) as the PHN's advice to let her peuk each time is a little easier said than done. I would be concerned that would put her off solids even more, if she developed an anxiety about food?

[foxinsocks]

Ok, so Izzy is still a couple of weeks from the 6 month mark, but last week she started grabbing my hand any time i was feeding myself. She managed to get a cookie in her mouth. I had decided I was going to give baby lead weaning a try, and she was trying to eat everything, so I took her cue.

We started (officially, as opposed to her randomly grabbing my food) with some pear. She isn't quite old enough yet to pick up food from her highchair with any degree of consistency, so I held up each piece, and she took it from my hand. Then she jammed it into her mouth. She went through the whole pear like this, most of them ending up down the side of her high chair. She licked and licked each piece, getting plenty of juice, and she even gummed some pieces. A couple of times she bit off pieces of the fruit, and then spat them out. Twice, the pieces were quite big, and caused her to gag, but she just worked them out of her mouth, and grabbed a new piece.

Her second food was brocolli. She DEMOLISHED it. Again, she gagged, but never for more than 3 or 4 seconds, and the big pieces all came out of her mouth. We suspected that one small piece had been swallowed, but this wasn't confirmed until the next morning when it showed up in her nappy. \o/

Since then she has had more brocolli, carrots (couple of small pieces in the nappy the next day again), butternut squash, potato (her face was hilarious when she first got the mushy inner bits of potato in her mouth), breadsticks, banana (practically inhaled this, seems to be a favourite), buttered toast, steak (licked and licked and sucked a piece for ages) and chicken. With each new food we give her, she tastes it, makes a face like she's just accidentally eaten a large hairy spider, and then demands more.

Because she's not quite sitting up by herself yet, I have to keep straightening her up, or I feed her on my lap. She still loves to watch us eat, and it seems to me that she likes being included. I'm going to hold off giving her egg until a couple of weeks after the 6 month mark, and apple and grapes are too much of a choking hazard, but apart from that, whatever we eat, she's going to have some of.

[NextSteps]

Sounds like it's going great! I had to wedge towels in behind the baby for a while to prop him up.

[How Strange]

foxinsocks sounds like you're both getting on great. I'm very impressed that you're so cool about the gagging; that was the toughest part for me.

I had to prop my son up in his booster chair (we didn't get a high chair due to lack of space) until 7.5-8 months. I think he only sat up at 8 months.

[foxinsocks]

This was dinner. I threw a few bits of fusilli in with the spaghetti I was cooking for everyone, and then chucked some bolognese sauce on before giving her bits. Once again, the hairy spider face appeared, right before waving arms to get more!

Baby lead weaning is less cooking.




But MORE LAUNDRY!


(I have a laundry fairy in my house though, so yay me)

[pwurple]

Really? Are you joking or can your six month old actually eat fusilli?

If she can, I defo need to bring the small girl to the gp.

[How Strange]

pwurple they don't eat it really but they mash it into their tray, try to pick it up, try to put it in their mouths and if they can do that they gum it a little before its thrown overboard.

[foxinsocks]

Originally Posted by How Strange

pwurple they don't eat it really but they mash it into their tray, try to pick it up, try to put it in their mouths and if they can do that they gum it a little before its thrown overboard.

This is true, it's not really eating. Baby lead weaning at this stage is not about getting food in their tummy, it's about letting them put a wide range of tastes and textures into their gob, and about them learning how to chew and swallow, so that when they need it, they can eat effectively. I gave her fusilli because it's easy for her little fist to hold. And the harder fruits and veg that I have given her (pear/carrot) I have cut with the crinkle cutter, again so it doesn't just slide out of her paw.

Izzy accepted about half of the fusilli, each one got put in her mouth, and gummed to shreds, before getting spat out. I'd say a tiny percentage was swallowed by accident, including some of the meat sauce.

And in the interests of full disclosure, there are a number of things on which she chews with equal gusto, including but not limited to: her fist, my fist, all of her toys, her clothes, my clothes, anything else she can reach, and also a handful of fur she managed to pluck from my slower cat.

In terms of results, it's hard to argue with this though: