Baby led weaning advice needed UPDATE

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amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 1:55 pm

My 8 mo is not eating much solid food so I'm looking for advice on how to help her.
I'm wondering if any of the knowledge posters here can help.
I started giving her solids at the recommended 6 months however I wasn't super consistent in the beginning as it was over Pesach.
I mainly did baby led weaning and at the beginning she was putting the food in her mouth and even seemed to swallow some, she seemed really interested and only gagged a few times.
We tried a number of different fruit and veg, also omelette, pitta bread and chicken a couple of times and now she's really not eating much.she plays with the food a bit and then starts throwing it and just gives up.
I've tried spoon feeding her since I want her to get used to eating solids but she refuses to be spoon fed and when I give her the spoon she doesn't really get anything into her mouth.
Otherwise her development is really good for her age, she's crawling for a few weeks already and has sitting up for a couple of months and has good fine motor skills. So I don't think she has any developmental issues preventing her from eating.
I'm not sure if I should increase her bottles to make sure she is getting enough food, although I know that she should be reducing her milk now.
She's also teething a lot, one tooth just came out and the other is almost.
She's having trouble sleeping at night and day, she used to sleep amazingly and now she has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.
I'm a ftm if it's not super obvious.

amother

Bluebell

Wed, May 17 2023, 1:57 pm

Haha ftm here and having all these issues also 🙈

justayiddena

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:00 pm

Until they’re 1 - the main source of food is their milk (breast or bottle)

Blw is about exposing them to food and creating positive associations and letting them self feed.

Teething could definitely interfere with their interest in food - whenever my 17 mo refuses food consecutively for a few meals it’s usually teething related.

Hang in there, you’re doing great.

Monitor her pampers - as long as they’re good you should be fine

lamplighter

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:02 pm

So you eat with your baby? The same foods?
BLW worked best for us when the baby was eating at the same time and the same foods as us. Baby did a lot of playing but at some point did eat or taste some of the foods. All of it very low pressure. Do not increase the bottles, food at this age is not supposed to replace bottles it is in addition to bottles/nursing. Whats the saying, food under one just for fun.

amother

Almond

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:03 pm

BTW weaning sounds like you want to stop nursing..
Doesn't sound concerning at all keep offering foods and different textures. Allow her to use spoon too.
Why decrease milk (Hope that's breastmilkor formula not cows milk)? Babys main nutrition comes from formula or breadtmilk at this age. Defiantly dont decrease sounds like needs more..but maybe willbe hungrier when teaching g calms down

tichellady

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:06 pm

I was told to stick to nursing/bottles as regular before the age of 1 and serve food after. food before one is just for fun ( and to help expose the baby to eating solids, but not so important how much she eats) does she like bamba? that's a great finger food and pretty easy for many babies to grasp on their own

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:31 pm

lamplighter wrote:

So I'm a really fussy eater and don't like most of the food I serve her, I don't want her to eat the food that I eat.
It's hard for me to eat when she eats because it doesn't work well for my work schedule, by the time I get home it too late for my lunch, so I try and give her food when she'll be in a good mood, Sundays I try to have lunch with her and shabbos we give her food at the meal with us if she's up.
I generally let her play with her food until she's fed up but she's not increasing the amount she eating and she seems to be less interested in playing with the food as well now, but maybe that's because of the teething.

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:32 pm

amother Bluebell wrote:

Haha ftm here and having all these issues also 🙈

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:41 pm

amother Almond wrote:

I'm not planning to decrease now, I'm worried that when she gets to the age of decreasing milk, she won't be getting enough other food.
They're not meant to be increasing milk consumption at this age.

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:42 pm

tichellady wrote:

I've started giving her Bamba sometimes and she likes that and it's really good for her to learn how to grasp small things but it's more of a snack food not proper meal food.

scruffy

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:47 pm

Sounds fine honestly. 8 months is still really young, she might not have much of an appetite for real food yet. Keep offering and don't stress too much! (Easier said than done, I know)

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 2:53 pm

scruffy wrote:

Sounds fine honestly. 8 months is still really young, she might not have much of an appetite for real food yet. Keep offering and don't stress too much! (Easier said than done, I know)

Thanks ☺️, I hope you're right.

amother

NeonPurple

Wed, May 17 2023, 3:01 pm

amother OP wrote:

This is probably where your biggest issue is. If you aren't eating the same thing at the same time, she probably doesn't realize that that's what she's supposed to do and the food just becomes another toy. The fact that she isn't eating at your meal times right now is fine because real food is just snacks for her for now.

As far as you being a picky eater, is there a middle ground of food you want to eat and are comfortable feeding? If you prefer to nosh on cookies and cake, you could make healthy carrot muffins. Etc

amother

Wed, May 17 2023, 3:19 pm

amother NeonPurple wrote:

So when I give her food I try to eat some of it with her, most vegetables I won't touch.

amother

Tue, Aug 15 2023, 4:38 pm

Just thought that I'd update this thread because my baby is eating so much better now bh, she's nearly 11 months now and having 3 meals a day and eats almost all foods I offer her, her favourites seems to be fish (which I find gross 🤢, so I found a way to make salmon which is less icky for me 😀) she basically eats what we eat, there are just a few foods that she refuses but that seems to be normal, things like bread and bananas for some odd reason.
I feed her some food with a spoon and she seems to prefer that for some types of food so we do a combination of self feeding and spoon feeding and self feeding with a spoon.

Thank you for all the advice that I received on this thread I guess all that was needed was to keep trying, you were all so helpful.

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