Talk to me about your 7 month old's eating

[Zephram]

How are your 7 month olds going with their eating? How much are they eating and when?

I'm just wondering as my DS2 who just turned 7 months still has very little interest in food. Today he has basically eaten nothing even though I've offered solids twice. He doesn't even really open his mouth when he sees the spoon coming and seems to easily gag and not like the taste of food (except banana, but he can't have that for every meal, regrettably).

We started TW at 6 months. He is breastfed on demand and I'm waiting around an hour after a bf to give him solids, so he shouldn't be overly full, but still no interest.

He's my second baby and my first was rather more enthusiastic with food. I know he's still young but when do you start to worry that they aren't eating anything?

 

[kajastarlight]

I never had that problem, but I have heard it before. I wouldn't worry too much, your LO will get there eventually. You could try waiting a little longer after nursing or seeing if he will take a bite or two before he nurses.

 

[staralfur]

My LO didn't eat consistently until after she turned 1, she was still on like 90% breastmilk at her one year checkup. Her doctor wasn't concerned at all because she was still gaining weight on track and was satisfied after nursing.

Don't stress about it, my LO didn't even actually swallow food until after she was 8 months old, she just wasn't ready before that.

 

[MindUtopia]

It's been awhile since mine was 7 months (she's 3 now), but I wouldn't worry at all about amounts of food before 1. And even after 1, I wouldn't worry, but I would be inclined to start to think more about limiting milk and offering food first before milk, but still not making a big deal out of it. My 3 year old doesn't really get milk anymore except for at bedtime and I don't worry about the amount of food she eats (but most of the time she eats fine).

At 7 months, it's still all about exploration. We were offering solids twice a day. I think breakfast and lunch, usually about 1-2 hours after milk feeds. We did BLW, so I really have no idea how much she was eating. It was enough to see it come through in nappies, but not enough that it was obvious she was eating a lot. It was still just small bites and some meals she'd hardly eat anything at all, just chew on it or mush it around or chuck it on the floor. It wasn't until about 9-10 months that she began to eat any quantity of food, so there is still plenty of time. I'm a big fan of finger foods and I think they make weaning more fun and they take the pressure off the focus on quantity because you aren't sitting there thinking about every spoonful you're trying to get in. Many babies take to them better too. So might be something you try. But really, there's plenty of time, months before you even need to think about food being a priority.

 

[Zephram]

Thanks so much for the reassurance, ladies. It's good to know my LO isn't the only one who was a bit slower to eating.

I wanted to come back and update this for anyone who might be having the same situation with their 7 month old - last week at 7 and a half months he suddenly started eating! He is now eating 2-3 meals per day with quite a bit of enthusiasm, which is awesome!

Some things that helped were that I realised he just doesn't like purees and he doesn't like eating off a spoon. So he's now having mashed food or small bits of whatever we're eating and he will eat it off my finger if necessary instead of a spoon. I have no idea if that sounds really weird, but that's what he likes doing. I'm happy to let him get to eating off a spoon in his own time. I'm going to try to get him into more finger food as he clearly prefers it, his pincer grip is coming along so it should work out well.

Other than that I think he just wasn't quite ready for food at 6 months, but he definitely is now.