Food fights - when do babies start being able to 'play you'?

[Aimee13]

Hi! My little boy is 6.5months old and has been on solids since just over 5 months (as he was losing weight). He loves all fruit but isn't such a fan of other food. He has gone through stages of not being too bad with pumpkin, kumera and potato and has tried other foods too, but the savoury foods are always a bit of a battle - slow and tedious feeding times to say the least! If he doesn't have decent sized meals, he wakes up more often in the night because he is hungry so after lots of fussing and getting some of the out-of-favour food down him, I'll often revert to fruit to fill him up. Is he at the age that he could be getting 'wise' to this and playing me a bit to get what he wants? How much should I be pushing him? I don't want to end up with a fussy eater so want to continue encouraging him to try different foods but don't want to be force feeding him either and making him hate meal times!

[becj86]

He's a long way off being manipulative, so you're safe there.

Milk is actually higher in calories than any solid food you'd offer a baby, so it's more important to focus on milk intake and keep food for fun and getting used to tastes and textures.

[lilisuze]

Babies often prefer the sweet foods. Baby milk is very sweet, and it takes time for them to develop the taste for savory. Could you mix foods. I used to keep a tray of steamed and pureed apple in an icecube dish in the freezer, and add one or 2 to pureed veggies. My ds used to prefer the jars of veg, but was ok with me pureeing fruits.

don't worry, its normal at this age, and also echo what the others said, that you musnt worry, if he's getting a good balance of milk and solids he will get the calories he needs
 but i do understand, my ds didn't grow very quickly, and it was a struggle and worrying time. Big hugs