Please help

sineadc1984

Hi
Hope someone can help me I am at my wits end.
My 9 month old daughter just doesn't seem to be eating properly. I try give her anything she spits it out!! for the first while i put it down to her teeth and once she was still having her bottles it was fine but 2 teeth and a month or more later and she's still at it!! my oh said she probably just wants to feed herself so we let her do that most of the time now and she is eating bits but she puts something into her mouth sucks it and spits it out again!! I'm just not sure she's getting enough and I'm running out of ideas of food to give her that she can pick up with her hands and eat!!

She is gaining weight and my oh can't understand why I'm still worrying but to me it looks like she is eating nothing!! has anyone else had this experience? is it a phase or should i take her to the doc?

rylie

Hi there, I'm probably not much help here but I always remember my PHN telling me "food before one is fun" and it really stuck with me. Babies get their main nutrition from milk until they are 12 months old so introducing solids is more about getting them used to tastes and textures. In that sense you should try not to worry, especially as you mentioned your daughter is putting on weight.

Has she ever accepted spoon feeds? What texture food do you give her? You could try going back to smooth purees and let her feed herself, messy as it will be!! Then gradually introduce lumps and see how she goes?

crazy cat lady

Oh god I remember this. There was about 3 months of Megan just refusing to eat anything substantial - well, what I would consider substantial anyway!

I would almost be crying at meal times because getting her to eat anything was such a struggle. And she would become very agitated at me trying ot force her to eat

Then I just gave up trying to force her to eat. She'd pick at foods if she wanted them, and some mealtimes she would eat great. She was taking her bottles well and drinking plenty and apart from anything else, she looked healthy and was developing perfectly.

Then one day, she just got hungry and started eating well. It was such a relief!

Babies aren't like you and me. If a baby isn't hungry, it won't eat. A baby doesn't know about breakfast, lunch and dinner and won't conform to societies expectations to eat 3 meals a day. I'm sure if as grown ups we only ate when out bodies told us we were hungry, and stoped eating when our bellies say we are full, obesity would be much less of a problem.

So anyway, all I'm trying to say is not to worry if she doesn't want to eat. Its quite normal and she will grow out of it. It sounds like she is thriving, and as a previous poster said, foods before 1 are fun.

Hope this helps