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Highchair battles

I am starting to dread feeding time. It seems every time my 7 month old goes into his highchair, he starts to whinge and kick about. On a morning he does this until he gets his bottle and it instantly stops - so I put this down to impatience. I give him food after his bottle (only takes 120-150ml now) but the battle to get a decent quantity into him starts again. Lunch and dinner times are the same, where he seems to take the first 5 mouthfuls fine, then starts to play up. He doesn't scream or cry, it's more mouth closed, legs kicking, twist!

I do get him to eat a sufficient amount but this takes a tremendous amount of effort on my part and it is wearing me down. I sing nursery rhymes, give him things to play with (spoon, cup, foil, anything I can lay my hands on really) and dance about to distract him. With all of this he generally opens his mouth and eats.

Just now I was singing "the wheels on the bus" while doing a dance, with 2 spoons in my mouth that he reaches for (while I put food in), he then drops them on the floor, I pick them up and start again. You see, incredibly wearing!!

Please help, any thoughts, advice or suggestions would be most welcome, thanks xx

Replies

  • Although he's quite young, he might want to feed himself. Have you thought about trying BLW?

    Toby is 14-months and is becoming a pain because I think he wants to feed himself - but we aren't quite sure what to do as he gets the spoon and just messes around. Maybe he needs to do that?!?!

    Anyway, that's my only thought, you could try letting him have some finger foods to gum / chew on and see if he will take spoon feeds too?

    The only other thing - he might not be hungry - if he's taking a full bottle he might just be full. At 7 months, he probably still gets most of his "meals" through milk. You could try his milk after food?

    Otherwise perhaps see what your HV says?

    Good luck.
  • LOL this sounds all to familiar with my ds1!!!! What I eventually started to do was put the tv on in the kitchen so he would watch it and then sub consciously open his mouth and eat lol eventually he just grew out of it after a good few months, also my motto was 'make every spoonful count' lol he too had an 'open mouth' limit so I made sure there was plenty on each spoonful to make the most of it!!!! good luck xx
  • Thanks for your replies, perhaps he might be full at breakfast time but what about lunch and dinner? He only has milk 3 times a day now, with breakfast, again about 2.30 and then at bedtime and his intake is a less than half what it used to be. Meal times are generally 6.30, 11.30 and 5.30.

    We have tried finger foods and he does like them but he doesn't do them himself. He'll sit there with his mouth open and let me put something in for him to bite at but doesn't seem interested in doing it himself. He sometimes grabs at the spoon and when he does I let him take it and guide it to his mouth but this is very infrequent.

    Never thought of asking the HV, she's a bit hopeless so often forget about her! Thanks again xx
  • My son can do the same at many a meal time. I share your frustrations.. :cry: It does take a lot of patience and we are better off without any distrations (e.g. other people walking past, dogs running around). in saying that, I have just tuned the tv in in the kitchen and had it on today and it seemed to be a welcome distraction :\?
    Early on I found the problem to be him being restrained in the high chair with the tray table - i solved this by removing the tray and putting the chair up to the table for him to use. Ive since been able to revert to just the chair and tray.
    You say he takes the first 5 mouthfuls of so ok but then resists. maybe try having a few different things on the go and alternate? I find it helps to have a selection of foods at the ready. I give him a combination of mushed up food of yoghurts/custard which are spoon fed, along with finger foods. Sometimes he wants the spoon food first, other times he wants the finger foods. I go with what he wants. And I go between the foods throughout the meal. I suspect that my son just gets bored with the same taste real quick?
    I also sometimes mimic eating for him. He laughs and then generally starts eating again himself.

  • lol sim I do this with my ds2 mimic eating as a wee game he finds it really funny but he laughs and then rather than swallowing it goes down his chin!!! they are so cute!
  • Hi Lawso - we had exactly the same problem about 4 weeks ago and I dreaded every meal time. We seem to have got over it now but she does need lots of distraction and to take it slow. Keep going with the finger food - Jasmine has now got it and feeds herself quite a bit. I can't offer any other advice really - sorry just keep going as it should get better. p.S Jasmine is now crawling all over the house and her appetitie has increased substantially so when he gets more active he may actually 'want' the food more ?? S XX
  • Hi Lawso,

    Sorry to hear you're having troubles. Didn't want to readand run. Hopefully it's a phase your LO is going through. They go through so many. When my LO whinges I just try and make him laugh as to distract and that seems to work. Hope it passes soon for you x
  • Thanks everyone, it's really helpful reading all the comments.

    Today has been a bit of a mixed bag. Breakfast, I tried food before milk but he was having none of it so had to resort to milk first - will try that again tomorrow. Lunch was fine. Dinner was a nightmare, we actually had full on crying as soon as he got put in his high chair. He never cries, so we instantly removed him, did this several times over until eventually half an hour later he settled fine and ate the blooming lot!

    Here's hoping the phase passes quickly, it seems just as you get used to something, they like to change it and keep you on your toes - little monkey xx
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