Weaning problems at under 5 months- help and advise please, no nasties!

[dizzy2012]

I started to try to very gently wean my son at 18 weeks. This was a researched and informed personal decision by myself and my husband.

I started on baby rice which he really wasn't impressed with! Moved onto fruity porridge and banana porridge (baby porridge!) which he loved! Moved to sweet potatoes, carrots, swede, pear and apple. Most seem to go down ok, like just one cube per day max, except apple and plain carrot- didn't seem impressed with these! He has since eaten carrot mixed with swede but remains unimpressed with apple.

He is now 21 weeks and he is refusing all fruit and veg purée. He has been still eating banana porridge this week but this am has also flatly refused that. He turns his head away, won't open his mouth and starts shouting if I try. If he takes a spoon or two, he spits it back out.

It isnt tongue thrust as he's been taking food fine for 3 weeks, he clearly just doesn't want it.

I'm breast feeding and he also refuse all bottles, even though ive tried every bottle under the sun, spent a fortune in them, and still try once a day.

I'm really worried that this is the sign of things to come, that even if I stop now and give him a break for a week or two, he's just going to refuse food for the nwxt six months..

I'm wondering whether the best thing is to keep trying every day, which obviously isn't pleasant for either of us and wastes all my hm puree; or just stop for a Couple of weeks and try again? However if I stop and start again, will we just have lost what little headway we've made so far??

Advise really appreciated- I'm desperate to somehow get to the point where my hb or grandma can have him for a couple of hours but for the last almost 5 months, he's been with me 24:7 day and night - he still wakes every 2.5hrs through the night... I love him dearly but need a little time

Thanks guys

 

[Button#]

With the food I would take a break for a few weeks. It's such early days and there's no point in stressing out you and LO at this stage.

My little guy wouldn't take a bottle either but he gets on better with sippy cups, have you tried that?

 

[dizzy2012]

Thanks Button, was sort o thinking along those lines myself.
And a good idea about the sippy cup, I'll give it a try. Although I think that'll get quite messy as most toys he has hold of at the moment he ends up bashing himself on the head with!

 

[sheebee]

Yeah, I agree. Take the pressure off yourself, milk is just as good for LO atm so no need to push solids. Maybe a gentle way after a break is to offer bit off your plate, things your lo can hold and feed alone?

My lo also won't go near a bottle or sippy cup, will sometimes take a sip out of my glass. But I offer sippy cup of water at every meal, they'll get the hang of it one day!

 

[BigAl]

I would just have a break, he will eat eventually don't worry! It's much better that mealtimes don't become a battle. In a few weeks you could always try putting some pieces of soft fruit or veg on his tray, he might prefer to feed himself.

Or could he be teething? Sometimes they don't like things in their mouth when they have sore gums.

 

[MommyJogger]

I agree with pps. My son has gotten better at taking bottles, but still reverse cycles when I'm not there and until recently that was three days/week while at daycare and two days/week when his dad stays home with him. There's no shame in needing a little time to yourself, but perhaps it would work out better to get creative with milk feeds; I think (?) it's possible to create negative food associations that would make weaning down the road more of a hardship than it might otherwise be.
Some things we've had success with are:
1. Cup feeding instead of bottles. When lo is with DH, DH will just feed him expressed milk out of an adult cup and he ends up taking that much better than a bottle or a sippy cup because he's not also trying to comfort suckle and getting angry that the "nipple" is so hard and plastic-ey.
2. Dream feeding. My son has regular nap cycles. Before we found the cup method, DH would have a bottle warmed just before LO was "scheduled" to wake up and he would dream feed him. Then he'd wake up a little and keep taking the bottle. Two hours later before he got too hungry, DH would rock him to sleep and once he was drifting, he'd offer him another bottle that he'd take and then pass out for a couple of hours. Repeat cycle all day until I came home.
3. DS started sitting up on his own and reaching for my plate around 5 mo, so for the past week or so, if we've had something mashed-ish for dinner anyway, we'll sit him in his highchair and put a pile of it in front of him (mashed sweet potatoes, roasted apples that he immediately turned into applesauce himself). A surprising amount made it into his mouth and this way it's more of a texture game than eating. If your lo will shove the food into his mouth like mine tends to, it might be enough to tide him over for you to get some time away.
4. Are you guys offering the bottles while you're around? Because mine will flat out refuse if he has any sense of me being in the vicinity. Could you maybe take a couple hours out in your garden or a nearby cafe while someone watches him for a test run-- that way, you'll find out a) if lo will take a bottle better without you there, b) whether lo will even bother demanding milk if you're gone, and c) the rough time span you can expect him to get by without you. Sometimes at daycare (where they generally fed on demand), he wouldn't even show hunger signals. No signals, no fussiness, nothing; he was satisfied to just keep playing and wait on me to get there.

 

[Noodlebear]

My LO has been eating for about 3 weeks too and all of a sudden has decided that if it isn't fruit or porridge - he aint havin' it! I'm just gonna keep trying with a couple of spoonfuls every now and again. It's not the end of the world and I'm sure they'll get back into it in their own time. x