Won't let me feed her with spoon

[~Mama Bug~]

My LO (6.5months) has been eating solids for about two months now. About a month ago she figured out how to hold the spoon and feed herself, we would alternate bites with me feeding her and her feeding herself. Now we're ready to move onto feeding her more often and lately she won't let me feed her. She only wants to feed herself but the problem is once she gets the spoon to her mouth she usually turns it sideways and all the food falls out. So shes really not eating much but when I try to feed her she'll shut her mouth and start to cry until I give her the spoon, wherein she turns it of course.

Our doc said we should be giving her two feedings a day and cut back on the formula feeds to about 25 ozs.

How much solid food does she actually need to take in to replace the 7ozs we're cutting out? 

And more importantly, how do I get her to let me feed her or at least not to turn the spoon sideways when she gets it in her mouth?

[maisy]

we always worked with more than one spoon, at least one for her and one for me. Sometimes we would use 3, one for her to hold one for me to be feeding her and one sitting loaded up for her once she had finished with the one she had. That way she would get enough and was usually happy for me to help her as she still had a spoon for herself which still gave her some control over her food

Hope that helps

x x x x

[Freya'sMum]

Have you tried finger foods at all? There is a FAQ on this forum about Spoon Refusal, and another about Baby-led Weaning (self-feeding) you might like to look at!

Tbh, there is no rush to drop your lo's milk intake - babymilk is her primary source of nutrition until 12 months old, with solid foods supplementing only, not replacing - think of the babymilk as a McD's Thickshake and most starter baby foods as a Weight Watcher's Carrot Soup - which has more fats and calories? It is the milk that dd needs to feel satiated and for healthy growth and development. I usually suggest that you keep your lo's milk intake at it's pre-solids quantity until at least 9 months, with the solid foods intake gradually increasing as her appetite increases

Ax

[~Mama Bug~]

Thanks for the ideas!  Today I waited until time for one of her bottle feeds and fed her solids first. She actually let me feed her, I guess because she was too hungry to argue! Then I gave her a bottle afterwards. I like the two spoon approach, I might try that. I'll go take a look at the FAQs right now. I was pretty skeptical about dropping milk intake so I'll probably keep feeding her the same. Thanks!!

[Freya'sMum]

Ok, well make sure that by feeding solid foods first, you don't limit dd's milk intake - you might want to check out the other FAQ Introducing Solid Foods the BW Way which helps fit weaning into EASY

Ax

[Miss Kate]

KristenRC - We use 2 spoons so that DS can learn to do it himself. His spoon is empty and he practices putting it in his mouth as I'm feeding him. When he's getting the hang of it (not tipping it sideways), I put a little bit on his spoon so that he's feeding himself. We also feed solids before BF, but I limit the amount I give him as I don't want to replace his routine BF. The other thing I wanted to mention, is that where possible (cereal & thinning down foods etc) I use EBM or formula rather than just water so that he's getting additional calories and nutrients.