Baby not interested in spoon feeds

[Loui1001]

Hello all

Dd is 6 months now and we started spoon feeds around a month ago but progress has been really slow. She doesn't seem as interested in them as she was at the beginning and sometimes only takes a teaspoon at each meal (we've worked up to 3 meals a day along with 4 bottles). She is keen to hold her spoon and I've been giving her a loaded one and she'll bring it to her mouth well.

She has between 5-7 ounces at each bottle feed and I offer spoon feeds an hour or so after her bottle but it really doesn't make a difference.

Any advice? What age were your babies when they started becoming really interested in food? My DS was so easy to wean in comparison

 

[Kanichen34]

Have you tried finger foods? My LO has to be in the mood for spoon feeding but she loves feeding herself. We've done finger foods from day one and she loves them. Might be worth a try to see if it suits your little one better? Otherwise don't stress - remember 'food before one is just for fun'

 

[noon_child]

What was the reason for introducing solids even though LO wasn't interested?

I would keep with the loaded spoon and add some finger foods. If she's not interested their is no point spoon feeding or forcing her. She'll still need quite a bit of milk for a while yet.

 

[Loui1001]

Have you tried finger foods? My LO has to be in the mood for spoon feeding but she loves feeding herself. We've done finger foods from day one and she loves them. Might be worth a try to see if it suits your little one better? Otherwise don't stress - remember 'food before one is just for fun'

I tried finger foods for the first time today and she did really well with them (toast and banana) so we'll definitely be continuing! What does your LO like?

 

[Loui1001]

What was the reason for introducing solids even though LO wasn't interested?

I would keep with the loaded spoon and add some finger foods. If she's not interested their is no point spoon feeding or forcing her. She'll still need quite a bit of milk for a while yet.

She was really interested at the beginning and keen to feed for the first few weeks but gradually started losing interest and now she's just

I would never force her to eat and have been following her lead completely at every mealtime. I think finger foods are definitely the way to go

 

[Kanichen34]

My LO eats loads - real favourites are strawberry, plum, avocado (she is an avocado fiend!), peach, carrots, cheese on toast, Philadelphia sandwiches, hard boiled egg, omelette. On the not so healthy side she loves wotsits and other puff type crisps.

 

[Kanichen34]

Ooh another thing - my LO went through a stage of only eating off the side of the spoon. You try to put it in straight and she'd clamp her mouth shut, turn the spoon sideways and she took the porridge happily. Awkward mare!

Also when I am spoon feeding her she likes to be able to see what's in the bowl. She'll stop eating if she can't. Kinda fair really - I'd only eat if I could see what I was being fed!

 

[patch2006uk]

I never spoon fed, so my advice would just be to stop spoon feeding and give proper food, or preload spoons and let her do it herself. They don't need much food at such a young age anyway-it's more about learning how to eat. If she wants to practice by herself, why stop her?

 

[Kanichen34]

Small bug bear - I hate the phrase 'proper food'. Porridge etc is proper food and traditional weaning if that's what people choose to do is not inferior, which IMHO is what the phrase 'proper food' insinuates.

 

[patch2006uk]

I suppose by proper food, I mean food prepared as you would eat it yourself. As opposed to specifically baby food, rather than considering any food 'improper'. No judgement, traditional weaning is a perfectly fine way of weaning, just not the one I've chosen for my family.

 

[Loui1001]

Thanks for the replies, dd has been really out of sorts for the last 2 days and is off her bottles too, she's vomited a little and has nappies from hell so It's fun and games! Hopefully when she's back on track we'll move forwards a little x