My daughter started eating at 5 months because she wanted to. She loved it! By 7 months she ate 2 meals a day, and was happily taking things from our plates and so forth.
She then got a terrible virus. She stopped eating AND drinking. She was very ill and dehydrated. But after a couple of weeks she started to drink her milk again, and then finally started eating again. So, there were about 5 days of total joy as she ate her food again. But then, perhaps as her immunity was low, she got another cold, which she is still suffering from. She is also teething. She won't eat hardly anything.
After much persuasion and antics she will put some potato or broccoli in her mouth. The spoon gets flung from my hand to the other side of the kitchen if it gets put anywhere near her. Her favourite uncle can get somewhere with it, but it usually ends with her feeding us rather than her eating anything.
I have taken a step back and am letting her dictate whether she wants to eat or not as I don't want her developing a food aversion. It was also leaving me totally stressed and getting depressed. So - I am sitting her down each meal time with us, putting some bits on her table, offering her my plate and offering her the spoon every so often, but really not pushing her at all (which is of course leaving me racked with guilt). She is having the odd bit here and there, but nothing that could be called a meal.
She is having breast milk every 3 hours and her last weigh in had her still in the 50th centile but I am concerned, and not sure how long the breast milk will sustain her. She is happy, alert, active, chatty and so on. However, she does get stinky farts (sometimes breath too) and does not poo for days at a time. She also still has a snotty nose from her most recent cold and her emerging teeth (the bottom front two) are sharp and clearly bothering her.
I'm trying desperately to play it cool as it was becoming clear she was getting p*ssed off from the pushing - but she is coming up to 9 months now and I feel as though she was doing better when she was 6 months! I ordered some vitamin supplements (more to make me feel better I guess as I am a firm believer in nature knows best and that breast milk is an amazing substance) but she won't even open her mouth so I've given up on those too. I really wonder whether there is anything else I can do without forcing the issue and creating a more long term problem of food aversion.
First time mum = advice most welcomed!
She then got a terrible virus. She stopped eating AND drinking. She was very ill and dehydrated. But after a couple of weeks she started to drink her milk again, and then finally started eating again. So, there were about 5 days of total joy as she ate her food again. But then, perhaps as her immunity was low, she got another cold, which she is still suffering from. She is also teething. She won't eat hardly anything.
After much persuasion and antics she will put some potato or broccoli in her mouth. The spoon gets flung from my hand to the other side of the kitchen if it gets put anywhere near her. Her favourite uncle can get somewhere with it, but it usually ends with her feeding us rather than her eating anything.
I have taken a step back and am letting her dictate whether she wants to eat or not as I don't want her developing a food aversion. It was also leaving me totally stressed and getting depressed. So - I am sitting her down each meal time with us, putting some bits on her table, offering her my plate and offering her the spoon every so often, but really not pushing her at all (which is of course leaving me racked with guilt). She is having the odd bit here and there, but nothing that could be called a meal.
She is having breast milk every 3 hours and her last weigh in had her still in the 50th centile but I am concerned, and not sure how long the breast milk will sustain her. She is happy, alert, active, chatty and so on. However, she does get stinky farts (sometimes breath too) and does not poo for days at a time. She also still has a snotty nose from her most recent cold and her emerging teeth (the bottom front two) are sharp and clearly bothering her.
I'm trying desperately to play it cool as it was becoming clear she was getting p*ssed off from the pushing - but she is coming up to 9 months now and I feel as though she was doing better when she was 6 months! I ordered some vitamin supplements (more to make me feel better I guess as I am a firm believer in nature knows best and that breast milk is an amazing substance) but she won't even open her mouth so I've given up on those too. I really wonder whether there is anything else I can do without forcing the issue and creating a more long term problem of food aversion.
First time mum = advice most welcomed!
