Help with feeding our seven month old please

[StevenLeia]

I have been weaning my just 7 month old son since he was 5months old. It was going great as he ate different veg etc but i think i went wrong by giving him a fruit pot at lunch as now he is refusing savoury food only accepting his usual milk or fruit or yogurt. Ill explain his routine then if any one spots where im going wrong advice is much needed. 6am Milk ,9am baby fruit cereal, 12am fruit pot and milk, 4pm tin of baby food or homemade veg and milk (now only wants his milk but will eat fruit or yoghurt). Also do you think i should swap milk to follow on milk? has cow & gate premium 1

[Wilkie]

I found this with mine until I started making more interesting savoury meals.

Try Annabel Karmels Baby and Toddler Meal Planner.

My BF had exactly the same prob too.

I think they get bored TBH with plain old veg and need something a little more interesting.

HTH

[Wilkie]

And no, stick with your normal milk. IMO Follow On milk is a marketing ploy.

[SenoraPostrophe]

babies do sometimes start to get fussy at this age.

have you tried letting him wait an extra 10 mins, then giving him the veg first, maybe with a drink of water? (i.e. make him more hungry?)

alternatively, have you tried varying his veg a bit?

[frazzledbutcalm]

My nephew wouldnt eat any savoury until he was approx 18 mths old! He seems fine. Sometimes I think you can worry too much. dd1 lived on jam sandwiches and hot dogs from the age of 2. I was beside myself! At about 3 1/2 she started eating better, she's now 8 and eats everything!!

[Olihan]

Follow on milk is a big con and normal formula is more than adequate until he can have cows milk.

I have a similar problem with my 7.5mo in that he will only eat sweet purees. I'm doing a mix of normal weaning and BLW and have found that he will eat all sorts of savoury finger foods (toast, shreddies, sausages, potato, carrot sticks, pasta, bolognese sauce, fish fingers) as long as it's not pureed and doesn't come off a spoon.

[frazzledbutcalm]

Agree with you Wilkie. Follow on milk is marketing ploy, i've also heard it puts kids off cows milk but don't know how true that is. I've got 4 kids and never used follow on milk with any of them. Back to savoury - i used to start off with sweet savoury jars, things like heinz beans and bacon jars, spaghetti and hotdog, that type of thing. Then progressed to few spoonfuls of that then 1 'proper dinner' jar! By the time kids had swallowed the dinner spoonful they got the sweet savoury mouthful next! Worked for me.

[Piffle]

I've had this problem with my first two kids.
I mixed veg in with the fruit in little amounts gradually increasing it.
By 8 mths I would pop soft cooked chunks of veg on the table and offer spoonfed fruit/veg mix.
within days they both refused the fruit in favour of self feeding
ds2 is 23 weeks and about to be started in the next few weeks

[gegs73]

What I used to do with my DS was give him one spoon full of fruit puree, then one of veg and keep alternating. Worked a treat. Also gave him finger food at the same time, breadsticks or toast, something he really liked then feed him veg/savoury puree inbetween. Good luck.

[gegs73]

With follow on milk it is abit cheaper though isn't it? And you can't give normal cows milk until 12 months. That is the only reason I would swop.

[Wilkie]

You could also try adding a nice cheese sauce mixed in with the veg. DS loves this and it varies it a little!

[StevenLeia]

Thanks everyone, some good advice so far. I was thinking should i be giving him his milk with his lunch and dinner (he will have an occasional sip of water in between)its just that he seems to refuse the food and shout til he gets his milk (or fruit). While im here does anyone know which shop brought stock or gravy is safe for babies? no salt etc, im not great in the kitchen you see.

[Wilkie]

I use Boullion reduced salt (often found with the wheat/gluten free stuff in supermarkets). My HV said it is absolutely fine. I often make it half strength too.

[ruddynorah]

he might be more interested in the veg if you don't puree it.

[cktwo]

Would definately try finger foods, soft veg, bread, banana etc.
Babies can be very stubborn little things and often the just want to do it themselves and "be in charge".
My DD2 (8 months) lasted 2 weeks of purees before refusing the spoon and only feeding herself (unlike her sister who would happily be fed every mealtime).

[gegs73]

You can buy veggie or meat stock without anything added from Waitrose but it is pretty expensive (hence I never bought it but it is there)

[StevenLeia]

Thanks everyone, ive been good and gone out to buy plain organic cous cous and found low salt boullion. ...........Now what?. The cous cous doesnt come with cooking instructions and im sure its very bland alone, what could i do with this to make it nice and healthy for my ds (he is only just experimenting with small lumps but chokes at the mo).

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

I've always offered mine finger foods - I put chopped fruit (2-3 types) plus finger sized savoury (2-4 types) on a plate and hold the plate and offer it to her - she ends up choosing fruit, then savoury, then savoury, then fruit and more fruit and then savoury....and so on - she definitely likes to dart between the two and is not interested in the two strict courses that our cultures have dictated! She also likes to eat a little of a variety of things. She did go through a big fruit phase and then just naturally has gone back to savoury and fruit as normal - I think they take what they need more of at the time.

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

You can add anything to cous cous - frizzle up some finely chopped (or big chunks or cook then puree.....) mushrooms, carrots, peppers, courgette, onions, garlic (yes they love it), and then add that to your cooked cous cous (I think it sits in particular amount of hot water for 15 mins??) and then add a dash of fresh lemon juice - just make sure that you like it! If I like it, DD is guaranteed to like it - they like quite complex tastes, so garlic, red/white wine, herbs, coarse ground pepper....all good stuff. Try offering what you're having for your evening meal (provided salt content ok etc)

[puffylovett]

are uyou sure he's choking and not gagging ? the whole thing with BLW finger foods is they need to gag to learn how to move the food back to the front of the mouth in order to chew and swallow.

it's a horrid thing to watch and i still have to sit o n my hands, but slowly getting used to it !

basically if they look like they're about to be sick and start coughing, noisily, then that's gagging (hope i'm right, plse confirm other BLW'ers !!!) and you should just leave them to it.

[StevenLeia]

Hi, pipe lady, When your baby(s) first started eating finger foods, did u chop into chip size? and did they bite off a big chunk and just knew how to chew? So far i have given my ds only a few finger foods, today was slightly cooked carrot but he gummed off a large piece and started reaching til it came out. I thought i'd give him a bit of my bread as he was watching me (as i over exagerated my chewing motion), he seemed to love having a go but he stuffed the whole soldier size in his mouth then didnt know what to do. I maybe worry too much about choking but they have to practice dont they?

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

That's a much better name for me .

Ah yes - my DD did that with carrot too, so I took that off the menu for a little while! Those and cucumber and apples and pears!

They do need to learn to move food around their mouths and it will have to happen at some point, so you may as well bite the bullet and go for it! Have you looked here

I'm not sure what gagging looks like other than spluttering and retching (nice) but choking is silent (they can't breathe) and the face goes bright red and eyes go enormous and they try to retch but can't etc. This happened once with DD on a kidney bean skin that had got caught on the roof of her mouth and then shot back I think. I just tipped her all the way forwards with her head lower than her bum and 'whacked' her between the shoulder blades a couple of times and out it shot. There was loads of time and all was well.

There are lots of 'safe' finger foods (i.e. less scary for the doting parentals!):

Broccoli chunks
Toast fingers
pasta spirals
mini meatballs
chicken and veggies in cheese sauce
bolognase
anything that isn't crunchy or choky like grapes / cherry tomatoes

ooops got to go but look at that web site for loads more ideas

[StevenLeia]

wow pipe lady, just had a quick look at that site and it looks really good, so thanks for that and your ideas. Better go got lots of reading to do

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

Just try to not worry - loads will go in and then about 4 seconds after you've started sweating, it will all be pushed out again. It all gets calmer quite quickly as you start to trust that they can cope with stuff. You'll notice that he doesn't get panicky at all.....
My DD really gets the wind up me by insisting on having a drink while her mouth is absolutely crammed full of all sorts.

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

Interestingly.....DD eats totally competently using her hands whilst her puree fed peers are still on puree and just sit and open their mouths for food.. The difference between them is comical and very marked

[StevenLeia]

Ive done some reading, and ive come to the conclusion i NEED a steamer. (i had when this weaning lark first started but i only got to use it the once,,,,,i neglected the fact that i needed to top it up with water while i was doing a bit too much multi tasking. Thanks for your reasurring words pl.