Blander the Better

[steena]

Hi Everyone,

My little man is 7.5 months old and I started gently weaning him at around 4 months. He started fantastically but I only started getting him up to 3 meals a day around a month ago.

He will eat any baby cereal I put in front of him but is terribly reluctant when it comes to stronger flavours. He loves avocado, banana and mascarpone so I try him with something new before reverting to the old faithful if it's just an absolute refusal. He will also allow a little sweet veg and will allow fruit/dried apricots at a push. He can get himself really worked up and I feel like I'm torturing him plus I don't want any of my anxiety to brush off on him and have him associating mealtimes with horror! I always try the old 1:20 new to old mix and gradually increase the newer flavour but he can get really upset.

He is fantastic with finger foods and I manage to get a varied diet down him that way as he'll happily munch on anything I put down but who knows how much of it gets flung on the floor!

He was only 4lb 5oz at birth due to PET/FGR but rapidly shot up through breastfeeding (he put on about 1lb per week) and has levelled out at just a fraction under the average line. Am I worrying for no reason? Will he just sort himself out?? I do have a tendency to worry myself silly so any suggestions/comments/tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Alexanders mummy]

Hi it sounds like your little man is doing very well hun,i wouldnt worry at all he sounds like he is having a good variety,well done you xx

Welcome to the site too xx

[isabellasmum]

Isabella only ever had finger foods until she learned to self feed with a spoon. Have you thought about giving all his meals as finger foods?

[steena]

Thank you ladies- I do feel much better now. I will just carry on as we are- there is just so much focus on getting a wide range of flavours down them that I almost feel a failure that he's not one of these 'eat anything in sight' babies!!

Thank you so much for your messages. xx

[Alexanders mummy]

There are some lovely finger food recipes on this site from all of the mummies on here,have a look at them & look forward to chatting with you xx

[maita]

I wouldn't worry, he seems to be doing fine and you seem to be doing everything right. At this stage of the game milk is still incredibly important anyway although obviously not as much before, but still, some doctors are now saying that it isn't necessary to wean until 9 months. I think a lot of people rush their little ones too when it's not necessary, bit by bit with new tastes is fine, just try to keep them as healthy as possible and stear clear of too much bread and stuff like that if you go down the baby led weaning/fingerfood street as it's not exactly the best thing for them, although i'm sure you're perfectly aware of that anyway!

maia did the same weightwise. She was 5 weeks early but was an ok weight of nearly 2.6kilos, but she shot up and out so quickly due to my lovely cake and biscuit enriched bmilk!! now, due to being ill with things like chicken pox, then gastroentiritis, she has gone from being just over the 50th%ile to about 25th!I can remember at that age though, thinking she hardly ate anything and she wasn't much into her milk either, but she still managed to maintain her weight gain and i think that is the important thing, if his weight is the going up steadily unless he is ill and therefore there is a reason for it not to then i really wouldn't worry. A nice average weight is good!
xxx

[steena]

Thank you ladies- all of that has been very helpful. We're now just going down the route of trying just a mouthful of something new before moving on to a favourite if necessary.

I also just give him anything new as a finger food so that he's in charge of it. He seems perfectly happy with this arrangement and I can't risk eating anything with him in close proximity else it's rapidly grabbed from my hands & sucked to death!!!

Thanks again.

x