Weaning & colds

[marshmallowpies]

My DD is nearly 7 months and we started weaning at 6 months - I didn't begin any earlier as she wasn't showing signs of wanting to eat (no grabbing food, no massive increase in appetite).

I did the usual freezing of purées in ice cube trays and assumed I'd start with one cube a day and build up slowly - 1 month in, DD is quite happy to play with the food, put the spoon in her mouth or open her mouth to be fed, but most of the food is drooled out and she rarely finishes a portion - so we are still only using 1 cube a day (fruit or veg is mixed with baby 4-grain cereal & formula). She's also sucked on cucumber and soft boiled carrot which she likes.

She's now got a cold and been eating even less - and while I'm trying to focus getting more fluid into her, she also fusses a lot more at the breast (perhaps because of discomfort with her blocked nose?) so it's hard to get her to settle down to BFing.

She is mix fed, and still taking more or less the same amount of formula a day (around 700ml), and drinks a little water with her meals.

Since she's had the cold, she is sleeping a lot more than usual during the day, but when awake is lively, usually cheerful, alert, etc, so I am not seriously worried, but I am concerned her weaning might fall behind even further while she's getting over the cold.

I guess I'm just going to have to ride this out - but anyone have any advice or tips at all? Thanks in advance!

[MillionPramMiles]

Hiya, just to say I had a similar experience with my dd when she had a cold, completely went off solids. Before that she was really liking puréed fruit and veg and porridge. On the advice of a Hv I went back to basics, giving a little bit of plain baby rice at each meal, then putting a little bit of fruit or veg in with the baby rice, then increasing the amount of fruit or veg and decreasing the baby rice, If you see what I mean. It took a couple of weeks but she got back to how she was originally.

The Hv also said not to force dd to eat solids but to keep up the routine of having a bit of solids at each meal. I found eating my own lunch with her at the same time, playing music and making the high chair 'a fun place to be' helped as well.