Over 8 months and still hardly eats any solids

[CeliaM]

Not so sure what to do about this. Feeding him purees is a nightmare. He swallows a bit if I can manage to navigate around his hands to get it in. If I hold his hands away, he cries. He always tries to grab the spoon, then shoves it in so far he gags on it. Then it's a battle to get the spoon back. If I give him his own spoon so we don't wrestle over the one I'm using, it's continually in his mouth and there's no getting food in there.

So, I gave up for a while as we were both getting frustrated. Then I tried just giving him stuff like steamed carrots and soft things like that chopped up, but they rarely make it to his mouth, and when they do, they don't usually get swallowed.

He's a pretty hungry guy. I'd say he's drinking at least 40oz of formula in a day, and his evening one has cereal mixed in. He's not holding a line on the percentiles chart (was born at the hundredth percentile for weight and has had a long steady descent, now between the 25-50th). Since he was weighed in mid august, he's only gained about half a pound. He's waking still twice a night to eat, and he is definatly hungry at those times.

What do I do

 

[mumtosam]

Can't offer much advice but I have just started weaning my 6 month old and its a battle to get him to take anything. He bats the spoon away with his hand and just doesn't seem interested. He doesn't take much milk either and I was hoping he would love solids so that I could stop worrying about his low milk intake.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Have you thought about trying BLW? One of the reasons we've started doing it is our LO will not take anything off a spoon offered by someone else, whatsoever.

 

[freckleonear]

Don't worry, he'll eat when he's ready. We did BLW with Aaron partly because he refused to eat off a spoon and partly for medical reasons, but he didn't really eat anything until he was 10 months old and he was just fine until then. Personally I would carry on offering him finger foods, as the more practice he has the more likely some of it will end up in his mouth!

 

[SwissMiss]

Hiya hon,

Linds is just 7 months and has JUST started eat, literally a wk ago. I was getting desperate but it seemed one day it just 'clicked' with her! I did the break for 3 days, try again for 2, break for 3 more, try again for 2 and then after like a month and a half of that, suddenly poof, she got it!
My mw says she's seen babies got to 9/10 months on just milk, and then go right to eating properly at the table. I KNOW how hard it is, but try not to stress about it. He'll eat when he's ready... even if mum's been ready for aaaaaaaages

 

[CeliaM]

Have you thought about trying BLW? One of the reasons we've started doing it is our LO will not take anything off a spoon offered by someone else, whatsoever.

Isn't offering him fingerfoods pretty much BLW? Or is there more to it than that. Got to admit I've been so busy I've not spent much time reading about it.

 

[CeliaM]

Glad to hear there's other late eaters out there! Be still my heart

 

[lolly101]

We have had to resort to BLW more or less as Becky was refusing my purees... I find I give her finger foods but she eats more if I actually put some of it in her mouth...she does eat some of it by picking it up herself but I just find putting it in her mouth ,less seems to end up on the floor so I feel she has actually eaten enough.