weaning - what am I doing wrong?

Meerschweinchen · Apr 6, 2011 9:48AM

Hi,

Lo will be six months in a couple of days and i started weaning him two weeks ago. It's not going too well and so I was wondering if anyone has any advice? Basically he just doesn't seem to know what to do with food once it's in his mouth! He likes sitting in his chair and loves to play with the spoon and seems excited when he sees the bowl. However as soon as I put some in his mouth he seems to stick his tongue out and let it all dribble back out! We had a couple of successful days where he seemed to swallow some baby rice, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere with fruit and veg purees. A couple of times he's gagged and been a bit sick. I blend everything really thoroughly until it's completely smooth, but am now wondering if I need make the purees much runnier. What do you think? And to do so should I add expressed milk or just water?

I really want him to enjoy eating and am worried it will become a bit of an issue soon.

Thanks xx

Socksxx · Mar 28, 2011 2:22AM

We did a weaning class with the post natal group I have not started weaning yet but she did add milk to her carrot puree so might be worth a try x

MummyMB · Mar 28, 2011 4:31AM

I would say he probably just isn't ready yet and I would try again in a week or so. We never did purees, just gave him finger foods to hold himself and then he will have things like jacket potato, sweet potato mash, but they arent completely mush. Just try a few different things, but my HV said they don't really need to be on 3 meals a day (actually swallowing lots of it) until about 9 months. Hope this helps a bit

Moomin-mama · Mar 28, 2011 7:14AM

It does take a little time as they have to learn how to get the food from the front of their mouth to the back, it did take a couple of weeks for us and even now 5 weeks in sometimes it all comes back out again! We have been using purees, but it's all personal preference xx

EmilyB · Mar 28, 2011 1:35PM

All great advice. Just thought I'd add that he's still getting all he needs from milk, so don't panic if he's not taking much in yet. It's good he's excited by the food when he sees it, just stay relaxed and keep offering it. He's still really really young, so don't worry!

Em x x x

WoWbabies · Mar 28, 2011 3:48PM

could u try a more blw route and just let him play with it, hold it until he's more into the spoon? try that for a week or two then either continue with that or start up purees again...but like someone else said, they don't automatically know how to get the food from front to back, so the pushing it out is them trying to learn, and as emcb says, still getting all needs from milk, so it's not a massive rush xx

Meerschweinchen · Mar 29, 2011 9:18AM

Thanks for all the replies. I know he does just need to learn how to eat, but it's hard not to worry! I think I've read too many books, which say things such as babies' iron stores start to deplete by 6 months, which is why you shouldn't leave it later than 26 weeks to wean (but at the same time, we shouldn't wean too early...) I guess I felt I was doing the right thing by leaving it later than most people I know, but now starting to worry that he's not getting the hang of it, and I don't want him to be deficient in important vitamins etc. Reassuring to hear about the 9 months thing. Have also thought about BLW, but not really sure what to do? Was plannning to give purees to start, and then introduce finger foods. However, as he's gagged on just slightly thick puree, am worried he'd really struggle with 'proper' food!

Moomin-mama · Mar 29, 2011 9:59AM

If its the vitamins that you are worried about then you can buy baby vitamin drops x

linzimc88 · Mar 29, 2011 12:01PM

Hi hun, it sounds like he could still have his 'tongue thrust' reflex

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032000.asp point two on this site explains about what this is.

As others have said it won't do any harm to hold off for a week or so then try again. don't panic over the whole iron stores thing, milk is still more than enough for a long time yet

I'm perhaps slightly biased as I'm a BLW-er, but it's the best thing I've ever been introduced to. If you're curious, this is a fab website by Gill Rapley

http://www.rapleyweaning.com/ she also has written a book which is great, I'd recommend it.

basically BLW means you don't mix/mash/puree food, and prepare it in the same way an adult would eat it, just bare in mind easy shapes for little fists. You can literally offer them anything you're eating provided it's not unhealthy of course, and see how they get on with it. The BLW mantra is "food is fun until one" so they may well just make a bloody big mess for a long time at first lol!

If you have any questions about BLW feel free to ask as I could go on and on about how great it is for days lol!

If you go down the puree route he will get the hang of it, try not to feel pressured if it doesn't click instantly

XX

sarahl1980 · Apr 4, 2011 11:55AM

Ive just seen this and sounds just like what my DD was like (same age too, she turned 6 months last week). My DD did exactly the same and refused pretty much everything and then I found out what the problem was - she hates completely smooth food!! As soon as I gave lumpy food instead of smooth she was interested! I just started mashing veg with a fork rather than blending and she took it no problem. She refused any stage 1 jars/pouches yet will happily scoff a 7+ month jar with lumps! May be worth a try, my friends baby was exactly the same which is what made me think to try lumpier food. DD now will happily try finger foods too. Hope that helps

EmilyB · Apr 4, 2011 1:10PM

If he's formula fed, he'll get more than enough vitamins and iron as long as he's having enough of it a day - they need 18/20oz until they're a year old. If he's breastfed obviously it's harder to actual pinpoint the amounts of vitamins and iron he's getting, but if you eat well and he feeds well, there's nothing to suggest he won't be getting enough iron. I'm not sure about vit drops as I never seemed to find any in Boots that actually had iron in them, sorry! x x x

Meerschweinchen · Apr 6, 2011 9:48AM

Sarahl1980 - it's interesting that your dd was the same. I might have to give lumpier food a try when i'm feeling brave. Just worried about him choking.

EmCB - he's breastfed and refuses to take a bottle. I think that's partly why i'm so concerned about the weaning. He only seems to want breastmilk and I have visions of it becoming like bitty from little Britain!

Thanks for all your help and suggestions x

weaning - what am I doing wrong?

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