7 month old "complains" while eating

[castlek]

My 7 month old has been eating solids for a little over a month now.  But in the last 2 weeks he has started complaining during his meals.  He tenses up his little body and does a little growl/screach noise, like throwing a little fit.  Yet he continues to open his mouth up wide for more food.  So I am getting mixed signals - seems like he doesn't want more, but at the same time like he does!  I certainly don't want to encourage the behavior of him throwing these little fits while eating, and I don't want him to think eating is no fun, but don't know what to do.  I've tried feeding him faster, slower, taking breaks when he starts to complain, etc. but haven't found anything that helps.  It is mostly at his evening meal, so I'm wondering if it is just that he is so tired from the day?  Here is his schedule:

7:00 bf
9:00 sleep - 45 min to 1.5 hours
11:00bf
12:00 veggies (~10 spoonfuls)
12:30 sleep - 45 min
3:00 bf
4:00 sleep - 45 min
5:30/6:00 cereal (250ml)
7:00 bf
7:15 sleeps thru the night till 7am

[<Catherine>]

My lo is the same. He was eating fine until about 7 1/2 months and then started doing exactly what you are describing. I mentioned it on here and came to the conclusion that because he was becomming more mobile at that point he simply did not want to be restrained in the highchair, and yes, I also found he was worse when he was tired.

It seems to have improved a bit now, a month on (although he's not taking anything solid at the mo as he's not well), I tried different things, like trying to distract him etc, but nothing really seemed to help, he just seemed to get better after a while.

Might not be the same for your lo, you may get some other suggestions, but sounds very similar to the problems we were having.

[First Time Mom]

From your routine it looks like your lo has short naps, maybe his is tired by that time of the day. Have you tried to change the dinner cereal to breakfast instead? I would try, just to see if you get a different reaction. If he does not react, then change the meal to breakfast as you can then add a dinner later.

[Mom to M&M]

Totally agree - DS used to (and once in a while still does) do this when tired. In terms of his naps, maybe try to extend his A times so you can get two long naps (1-2 hours each) - at 7 months he can likely do at least 2.5 hours A in the morning and 2.75-3 rest of day (after good naps anyway, less after short naps). At 7 months, if wake time was 7, my DS was napping approx 9:30-11 and then again 2-3:30 - with dinner at 5 and bedtime by 7.

[Loube]

Hi there,

My DS is 7 months old too and I have had probs with his feeding but that's all in another post! Although he's fine in his high chair now, we had the same prob so I fed him in his bouncer instead and he was fine. He's now back in the highchair but its on the lowest setting to the ground and reclined slightly.

HTH
Loube