SLOW going on solids...any tips?

[Otownmama]

Our LO is almost 7 mos and we started introducing cereal around 5.5 mos. She did ok the first day or so, but then quickly started refusing the spoon. I took a bit of a break after a few days of struggling and decided to try some BLW. We tried a variety of veggies and fruits, rice cakes, toast, waffles etc but still saw little progress. She will suck on toast or waffles, but that's about it. She doesn't really even want to suck on the finger foods. I've tried using toast as a dipper just to get some other flavours in the mix, but we're not making much progress at all. It's been almost 2 mos of this and I'm diligently sitting her down to eat for 3 meals, but it is pretty painful for all of us. She is a touchy baby and we had quite a challenge establishing BFing at the beginning as well. She is nursing 4-5 times through the day and once (or unfortunately more recently twice!) at night. I was hoping that getting solids established might help with her night waking...

Thanks for any advice!

[Tweakster]

Hugs, we're the same here.  Finn is 7.5 months.  No real interest.  Purees and spoon is pretty much a no go.  Today I gave him parsnip sticks, he just sucked on them.  He gets the idea to put stuff in his mouth and kind of gum it, but no real chewing and not a great deal of swallowing.  Food is still coming back out.  He'll do the same with rice cakes, Farley's, toast, etc.

I would love to hear any tips.

[Mimi 2]

Hello ladies. 

I remember this stage with dd.   She was so adverse to solids, nearly pulled my hair off because of it.  Anyway, here were some tips that I learned to help with eating when they are past spoon feeding but not quite there with self-feeding. 

-Try finger feeding.  If I remembered correctly, it also encourages self-feeding as the lo imitates you.  The whole concept of touching and playing with the food is healthy.

-use "special" plates.  You can get child-specific plates or use regular tableware.  In dd's case, she was more apted to pick up the food if it was on a regular plate.  There wasn't much eating/swallowing but it was one step in the right direction.

-offer often.  I didn't stick to set times when it comes to solids as I just wanted dd to get used to eating something.  Everything about her day was EASY but the solids was definitely more flexible.  Every time we eat or taking walks I would make sure that there is something in front of her. 

-make it fun but not pressured, kwim? 

It did took many months for dd to finally eat a full meal but during that time, I was much more relaxed about it.  As she was still getting enough nutrients & calories in her milk feeds, I didn't worry about this.  When she did eat, it was straight to regular food.

I hope this helps a little.