How can I get DD to eat?! Refused from beginning

[chellyyx]

DD is 10 months old. I tried to wean her at 6 months. Firstly with baby rice then tried yoghurts ect all the usual purée things for babies. Well, she point blank refused everything from pushing it out with her tounge to moving her head away an clamping her lips shut so I actually couldn't put anything in! HV referred her for swallowing test by SALT which they carried it and said that her swallow is fine and her not eating is behavioural as she is independent and just wants to do it herself already tried letting her eat by herself and she just likes to play with it anyway here we still are at nearly 10 month old only thing she will eat is celery sticks cucumber and water melon! I have tried everything from cutting her milk right down to 3 bottles a day to giving her a spoon to play with while I spoon food in if she opens her mouth. She refuses everything.


Sorry if it's long and drags on just tried to fit it all in quickly :)

[CheerfulYank]

I'd just let her play with it. Eventually she'll stick some in her mouth and like it :)

[chellyyx]

Also if she gets a bit of food to the back of her throat (has been as small as a tiny squashed rice out of rice pudding) she boaks and throws up.

[chellyyx]

I've let her play with everything. Everything we have she has on her high chair to play.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Does she throw up with the watermelon, celery etc?

[chellyyx]

No doesn't throw up with them. Don't know if it's because she doesn't really "get" anything from the celery and the watermelon and cucumber just goes to mush

[cornflakegirl]

It took DS2 ages to get into eating. He's just not that bothered by food unless he's really hungry. We just kept on with it and it gradually improved.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Will she actually swallow the watermelon etc, or just crunch it and then spit it out?

[Primrose123]

My DD was like this. She just never enjoyed eating. She was still eating from baby jars (no lumps) at 2 years old, and my plan was to make all her food myself! She wouldn't eat home made food, only jars.

She is now 17. She's perfectly healthy and does very well at school, but has always been difficult with food. She won't eat fruit and has a very limited diet. She won't touch fizzy drinks or alcohol, which is not a bad thing, all she drinks is water.

My other DD, a few years younger, eats everything!

I wouldn't worry, just let her try what you're having. I'm sure she won't starve herself!

[CultureSucksDownWords]

I don't think there's much more you can do than continue to offer a good range of family foods. Let her try to self feed (or play with it or ignore it) and then just clear away after a reasonable amount of time. It may just be that she is just going to take longer than the average child to get going with food.

[chellyyx]

Tbh she would just end up with mush everywhere but some must go in water. She did have problems with her drinking milk when she was less than a week old she couldn't drink and breathe at same time as the milk was so thin. So at 3 week had to be put onto reflux milk. Not because of reflux, because it was thicker for her. I've mentioned this to GP and HV and both don't think it's anything to do with that her problems now.