My 8 month old won't eat ANYTHING savoury! PLEASE HELP!
I’m starting to get a little concerned, he started weaning at 6 months (wasn’t interested before then) and took to it really well. He now has three meals a day; a massive bowl of porridge with fruit puree in the morning, half an Ella's Kitchen sachet followed by a yogurt for lunch, and then a desert pot for tea. Since weaning him I have tried him on all sorts of savory food, homemade and jars/sachets but he really gags on it, it's not like he just sticks his nose up he actually gags to the point he is quite violently sick and brings up all the milk he's had. I keep giving it a week or two and then trying him again but the same thing happens, iv also tried to mix in fruit puree to sweeten it and then reduce the amount of puree I add over a period of time but he still gagged on that. I’m getting worried as he’s not getting his vegetables nor any protein from any meats. I really don’t know what to do. He’s 8 months old and I’m worrying that he’s not getting enough goodness or eating enough. I also worry that it will be like this for years? Will he eventually start to like savory? Has anyone else experienced this?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!
Jo
xx
Replies
Hi Jo,
It's not easy to watch but the 'gagging' is a perfectly normal reflex with savory meals, especially as they get more lumpy texture. It is part of them learning what to do with food (i.e. they need to chew before swallowing).
Try not to worry too much, some babies will skip from puree to solid food without the mashed up stage. Have you tried mashing the food up into smaller chunks to make it easier for LO to manage? Offering finger foods can also help them to learn to suck, chew & understand different tastes & textures. Try handing over carrot sticks or broccolli, it may look odd seeing it pop in & out of LOs mouth but it will help them learn & eat better. Best wishes & good luck
Its not actually the lumps that make him gag, he eats his porridge quite thick and is fine with small lumps, its the 'taste' of the savory that he gags on! I give him the smoothest savory purees but because he doesnt like the taste its making him gag!! lol I guess i do the same if i dont like the taste of something! I just worry that he'll never like the taste of savory and only eat sweet things!
Thank you for your reply KazzieM!
For what it's worth my eldest always had a sweet tooth & can still get fussy at times with her dinners. She only ever ate a handful of savory jars & refused many others but now eats meals reasonably ok. We now love our vegetables, most types of potato & are a fan of chicken (still struggling with red meat though she'll occassionally eat sausages). Tastes change with age, he'll find something he likes that he didn't when puree/mash (Samantha always hated sweetcorn & rice in purees but now wolfs them down).
Like MyBs suggested, I'm gonna try to unsweetened things, like take the fruit pur??e away from his porridge!
Thanks for your advuce ladies! Wish me luck
Hi Jo,
Have you tried really plain savoury finger food, maybe bread sticks or crackers so that he can get used to sucking on something savoury. I wouldn't worry about nutrition at the moment as its more about developing their taste buds at this stage. I had a nightmare eater with my son, (i still can't get him to eat meat and he is 4!) and i used to worry terribly but they go through all sorts of stages and eat things you never expect. He's just getting used to stuff, i'd just maybe try and scale back some of the fruit stuff and go for plainer savoury stuff for a while and introduce new things slowly. Hope this helps xx
I found that when I started weaning, my little one preferred sweet taste. I think this must be because breast milk is sweet. When making his meals at home, I would add either sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, breast milk into what I was cooking, and it always went down well. Then as the weeks went by, I reduced the amount of sweet vegetables/milk I added and he has not moaned about this.
Good luck