New food aversions to EVERYTHING!

[kohnheads]

My 11 month old all of a sudden does not want to eat anything I feed him.  He shakes his head from side to side anytime I try to give him any purees, and won't touch any finger foods except an occasional Cheerio or Cinnamon Life cereal (don't ask me how we got him started on that).  Anyhow, he's basically surviving on his 24oz of formula right now and I can see a couple of options.  First, I can just assume that he doesn't need it, and just let him lead me?  Or, should I feed him the things I know I can get him to eat, just to get in a few calories?

He's coming off a bad cold, so I'm assuming this has a lot to do with that.  Any advice?

Thanks,
Lindsay

[Freya'sMum]

Colds and other illnesses have a significant impact on appetite, my girls have virtually no appetite for long periods during and after illness, both actually lost weight around new year because they had cold after cold! My advice would be to trust your lo, continue to offer him foods and the opportunity to eat, but accept that he's just not interested at present - he's still able to get most of his nutrition from his milk, and his milk/solids intake will achieve a natural balance when his appetite returns

Ax

[kohnheads]

That's what I was thinking.  Thanks for the advice.  I'll keep offering and let him tell me when he's ready.

Lindsay

[lilmama27]

Hi there. my son will be 13 months old on the 27th. He has been having the same problem and I dont know what to do. He wont eat ANYthing with texture he wont even eat a cherio or anything without gaging on it. so ive stuck to the gross baby food in the jar, mixed cereals and lil ones yogurts... but for the last week and abit he hasdnt even been eating that, im lucky if i can get him to eat once a day now and he just pigs out on his milk. he still has regular bowel movements and sleeps very content right through the night so i know he isnt sick... and there arent any new teeth coming in (already has 6 teeth) so not teething... he did have his immunizations april 29th but that was a long time ago, he ended up getting a fever a week later from that. but ever since then he doesnt eat very good. any suggestions or advice? thanks

[Freya'sMum]

Welcome to babywhisperer

A couple more questions... How much milk is your lo having? Is it only food that he doesn't like to touch or is he averse to other textures in terms of toys or fabrics or objects in general? Was texture a problem before his jabs?

Sure we can offer some insight...

Ax

[lilmama27]

Hes probally up to 24 oz or more a day.. .. its just food he doesnt like right now, he'll put just about anything else in his mouth. yes ive tried to feed him baby food that had more chunks in it and he hated it so i kept to the mashed pureed food. he won't use his teeth to chew or eat anything. This was a problem before. But now he stopped eating food all together. Ive gotten him to eat half a jar of sweet patatoes yesterday and a full thing of yogurt, day before just a thing of yogurt, and same thing the day before and so on, lucky if he eats once a day. He was a REALLY good eater, hes been eating solids since he was 6 months old, he use to eat a huge bowl of oatmeal or mixed cereal in the morning, and then a a jar of fruit and a jar of veggies a day. I've tried giving him tiny peices of banana, peice of bread, baby cookie, mashed patatoes any kind of fruit and veggie mashed too doesnt matter what you put infront of him ...he just wont eat anything I try and give him. He just wants milk.

[Freya'sMum]

Well, unfortunately, milk isn't really enough after 12 months in terms of nutrition - it's still important, but I wonder whether you need to drop it by an oz each feed (4x 5oz feeds rather than 4x 6oz feeds) to see if that improves appetite for solid foods ?

Have you tried getting ds to self feed, rather than be fed? Could it be an aversion to being fed, rather than to food itself? There are some really lovely yummy recipes in the Finger Foods for Young Babies thread in the Recipes section of this forum

Also, do you all eat together, or do you feed ds separately? If the latter, may I suggest that you focus on encouraging the social, relaxed, fun side of eating by eating together - this way ds learns that food is nothing to fear or avoid, that eating is a pleasurable and very normal thing to do, because he sees mummy/daddy doing it and enjoying it If having his jabs HAS put him off food, then this would be a no-pressure way to reintroduce them!

I'm off to bed now, so if you do respond to this I won't get back to you until this time tomorrow evening, but others may have ideas - take care,

Ax