[Pepe]

Could someone please walk me through your path from breastfeeding to feeding solids?

DS just turned one and will barely eat anything. (We're still nursing 24/7, however.) I started him on beautiful veggies at around 7 months, and he would taste the sweet potato or the avocado or what have you and take a few bites, but not so interested. Later on I made food and froze it in those little ice cube trays. Same thing--a few bites (or less). Finally, when he was around 10 mo, my husband bought some of the jarred organic stuff (I know--scandalous!), and he does like that--I think partly because now he can feed himself with a spoon if I fill it up and hand it to him. However, if we give him something that is not pureed, he gags and spits up, a lot. I'm quite nervous about him choking.

How can we go from pureed food to finger food? When do I need to be concerned about him basically only nursing? He has slimmed down a bit since he started crawling at around 8 mo, but he's still pretty solid, and has gone back and forth between the 50th and 75th percentiles (I know that way of measuring might be nonsense...I read that it was normed on a specific formula-fed population in a town in Ohio) in length and weight.

I appreciate any advice!

 

[Pepe]

Hi again out there...
I thought of a few more things.

How often would you recommend offering solid food (the pureed stuff, at the moment)? Three times a day? Once a day? At one feeding, should I just keep offering it until he refuses it?

DS only nurses and drinks a little water with "meals"--he's never had cow's milk or juice. I figure he doesn't need it right now, especially milk as breastmilk is so much higher in fat and better in every way (IMO!).

BTW, I haven't asked the dr about this because we haven't been since the 6 mo checkup and I wanted to get a MDC read on this first in case I get wonky advice from the ped.

Also, at 12 mo (as of last week!) he's almost 28 inches long and 21 pounds.

 

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Our DD, at 18 mths, still doesn't eat much at all, and she is in the 75th percentile for weight and 95th for height. Your DS sounds like he is doing very well, too.

I was concerned about the eating when she was 12 mths, as well. But I got alot of reassurance here from other posters.

Its completely okay that he's not ready for solids. He's doing fine and will continue to do so. If he's like my DD, he will be more interested in tasting what is on your plate than any specially-prepared baby foods. Let him finger-feed as often as he wants even though its really messy. By exploring the textures and the tastes he'll better learn how to manage food in his mouth without gagging.

Oh, and you probably WILL get wonky advice from your ped

I was told at 6 months that she should be eating 3 meals a day. Ha.

 

[Shaunam]

I think I wrote that same exact post 6 months ago.

We started solids at 6 months, but DS was not ready. He'd just spit it out or gag and throw up. I was secretly relieved because *I* wasn't ready to do solids yet. So after a couple of weeks of offering pureed stuff, I just quit. Then at about 8 months, I tried again. Same thing. He didn't gag as much, but he still wasn't ready. At 10 months, I started to get worried. He'd eat a bite or two off a spoon or a couple of cheerios, but that was it. He was still gagging some and spitting up some. He had no intention of eating a full meal of solid foods. I posted about it a few times and everyone assured me he'd eat when he ws ready. So his first birthday comes and goes. When he was 14 months, we actually celebrated his birthday and I baked him a special little cake hoping to get a picture of him digging in. Uh....no such luck.

I kept asking myself "WHY won't this child EAT!?"

Finally after he turned 14 months, he started to get more and more interested, but he was still just eating a few bites a day. I *tried* to be laid back about it, I really did. But it was getting to the point where he was nursing so often and I didn't feel like he was getting enough nutrition from bm alone. So I started sitting him down like 6 times a day offering food. It didn't do a darn bit of good.

But finally, FINALLY, he started to eat. He's 18 months now and he's just now consistant enough that I don't worry. He started eating 2-3 meals a day consistantly right before he turned 18 months. He's still nursing quite often too.

I know it's tough. Everyone said "don't worry", but you *do* worry. It hard to see every other baby digging in and yours is turing his nose up at everything. And of course, people start saying to you, "well if you'd encouraged him to eat when you SHOULD HAVE (4 months or earlier) then you wouldn't have this problem!"

My sister actually thought I'd "missed the window of opportunity" to get him to eat food. Like if you don't force feed gerber out of a jar at 3 1/2 months, your kid is doomed to breastfeed his entire life.

Hang in there. If he waits as long as my DS did to eat, you'll go through periods where you're laid back about it and periods where you are incredibly worried about his nutrition. Just offer good food, lots of it, and often. He WILL eat, but only when he's darn well ready to. You can't rush it. Believe me, I tried.

As far as milk, I wouldn't even offer it. He doesn't need it and he might fill up on it instead of solids.

I wouldn't bother asking the ped about it. He's only going to flip out and order tests to find out what's "wrong" (nothing) or tell you that you need to wean. I realized pretty early on that you just don't talk to mainstream people, even doctors, about this stuff. They think babies should all fit in this little cookie-cutter time-table and if they fall even slightly out of it, either there's something wrong with the baby, or the parents are doing something wrong. You don't want to deal with that kind of criticism.

 

[alegna]

I'd phase out the purees. No baby needs them. Give him healthy finger foods, keep nursing and don't worry. My dd didn't eat more than a tablespoon (TOTAL) a day until at least 13 months. She still nurses 8-12 times a day at two years old.

-Angela

 

[Pastrydemon]

My DD also showed next to no interest in solids. She was seriously almost 2 until she reliably ate. She maybe 16 months or so before she would even eat occassionally. She was 25th for weight and 75th for height and doing just great. At 2.75 she's still not a big eater most of the time (she still nurses 1-2x a day).

I was endlessly stressed that it meant she'd never eat! Crazy, I know. I tried hard not to let her see me stressed about it. I tried not to make a big deal about it. It was hard but in retrospect I wish I'd worried lesss. If we have a 2nd and it's the same way I think I can be more relaxed. Maybe

 

[Beppie]

I'm also so relieved to read these posts! My 12-mo. old has been starting to worry me because she just does not want to eat solid foods. It's so good to hear that lots of breastfed babies are this way and she'll start being interested in solids eventually.

 

[ChelseaG]

My babe is very similar - at 12.5 months - she nurses constantly (mostly snacking for 5 min or less) all day long - and eats very little - we skipped the purees and babyfoods as she never liked them - and just started giving her little bites off our plate - I offer her food 3x a day - just little bits of whatever I am eating - and she eats maybe the equivalent of 2 tsp of food at the most at each meal - sometimes she puts food in her mouth and spits it back out and eats basically nothing - she is 50-75% percentile in both weight and height (30inches and 21.5lbs).

I think it might have something to do with the fact that she is just now getting her 3rd tooth (a molar) and until now hasn't really had the teeth to eat solid food. I think the amount of teeth a baby has is related to the maturation of their entire digestive system. Therefore - more teeth = more ready to digest food. At least that seems to be the case for a lot of other babies I know that are of similar age - the ones with more teeth are definitely eating more food than my girl. Just a thought....

Anywho - you are not alone - and I am reassured by reading that other moms are experiencing the same thing too - I say we just enjoy it while it lasts - because too soon we will be stuck constantly preparing meals and snacks for our kids who cry "mommy - I'm HUNGRY!"

 

[jenmparrott]

My 23 month old doesnt eat many solids due to a feeding oral aversion but he seems to do fine just with nursing. As long as you offer and there is food available our ped said he is fine with it. They will eat when they are ready.

Jennifer