Refusing savoury food, any tips?

[Spandanna]

Hi

my LO is 5 and a half months and has been on solids for 3 weeks now. He was loving everything I gave him until his first tooth started cutting through a week ago (he pretty much refused all solids unless they were icy cold). Now that's through he's become really fussy with his food. He pretty much won't touch breakfast (this morning he had 1oz of milk and a spoon of banana cereal which he loved before). And unless it's a really sweet food he cries and clamps his mouth shut. He will eat carrot, butternut squash m,ixed with apple, parsnip, plum, pear, melon....but tried him on avacado, courgette and potato and he hates it all unless i mix it with lots of fruit.

Is this something i should even be bothered about at this age? Will it get worse and will he ever just decide to like savaoury food or should I just not stress about it and give him the foods he does like.?

...Also, if he refuses a food do I just leave solids for that meal or do I try an alternative? I don't want him to get into the habit of refusing a food knowing he'll get something sweet if he holds out long enough...but then again i know he's only very little. Milk is definitely still his main intake and has about 30oz in 24 hours and the last 3 nights he has slept through from 7 - 7.30 with a 10pm df so I know he's not hungry it's just that when he has a food he likes he really goes for it. Does anyone have any tips for introducing more savoury foods?
Thanks

[squeakersmum]

Honestly I wouldn't worry to much at the moment...he's still very little.

It takes some time for them to get used to the new tastes, I've read conflicting opinions that it can take between 3 and 17  times of trying a new taste before a LO will accept it/like it.

The general advice for starting solids is that you give one new thing every 3 or 4 days, I believe - so that they get used to the flavours and so that you can see if they have any kind of reaction to it.

FWIW Ben never particularly enjoyed single veg puree - once he had been on solids for a while I started to mix them up a bit (say carrot, potato and parsnip), he still won't eat avocado but loves pasta with courgette and tomatoes (and sweet potato curry, and casserole and...well - he is a bit of a food monster!).

Don't forget that your LO still gets nearly all of his nutrition from his milk at the moment, so it's really just about introducing new flavours and getting him used to using his tongue to push food to the back of his mouth and then swallowing.

Once he gets a bit bigger and is on more solids I have also read (can't remember if it was in BW or not) that each meal should consist of a savoury and then a sweet (fruit, yoghurt etc...) course anyway, so they don't see getting the 'sweet' as a reward for eating savoury, but it gives them a more rounded diet.

[Mimi 2]

It does take some los as often as 30 exposures to eat a new food.  So as he is still young, I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Here are some things you could do to encourage to eat more savory food:

- make your own food.  Some of the jars food are not as appetitizing as mommy's.  Just remember to not add salt.
- mix the food and slowly decrease the sweet puree

As he is teething, it can affect his eating.  So do not force the issue of eating solids if what he wants is milk or even a favorite.   FWIW, my ds was a great eater but when he's teething/sick all he wanted were bm and cold blueberries.  As rice is a staple in our house, both dd and ds didn't like eating it until they were closer to 12 mos. 

HTH

[Spandanna]

Thank you both for your replies... He refused all food today so I'm putting it down to teething and he also has a chesty cough so maybe it could be this. I'll keep trying little bits here and there. Thanks for your suggestions Mimi, will give them a go

x