10.5 month old eating issues

[mum2girls]

hi
My 10.5 month old DD is a troublesome eater.  She has started refusing the spoon and as i dont want to turn it into a negative experience and fight her with every meal I am now mainly giving her finger foods.  But my issues are she puts it in her mouth, sucks it, chews it, plays with it and then pokes her tongue out and lets the food fall out of her mouth.  she does this with nearly all food, toast, veges etc.  I dont think she is thinking its a game as I dont react to it, but im unsure how to encourage her to eat it.
We are currently on 3 bottles a day but Im wanting to drop the afternoon one but i am noticing she does not eat much at lunch and will then be grizzly until she gets her bottle (Im guessing its grizzles out of hunger) so im not sure how to phase this bottle out.

Any suggestions?   

[Lolly]

I would keep the afternoon bottle until she gets to 1 to be honest. Until 1 she needs a minimum of 20oz of milk a day and that's a lot easier to get to with 3 bottles. Most bottle fed babies drop to 3 bottles aroung 9/10 months then 2 bottles around 1 year.

With her solids, have you tried giving her a sopoon to play with while you feed her? It worked well with my two, they were distracted by their own spoon so I could get a bit into them.

What is your bottle and solids routine like at the moment? Maybe a tweak in timings will help her to be a bit more interested in solids.

Laura

[mum2girls]

thanks Laura

At the moment our routine is

7.30am wake up and bottle around 8oz
9am breakfast, toast
10am ish nap

12pm lunch
1.45ish bottle around 8oz
2.15pm ish nap

snack when wakes

5.30pm tea, we all eat together and she normally will have either what we are having or veges

6.45pm bottle 8oz
7pm bed

no NW ;-) and give or take on the routine but thats a standard day

Ive tried to give her a spoon but she will drop it and try and grab the one im trying to feed her with, its not even like she wants to feed herself she just wants the spoon and will play with it. 
I just dont want it to be a negative experience for her and then create issues with eating.  I figure she wont starve and its all learning about textures and tastes but its frustrating.

[*Kara*]

It could just be a phase - how long has it been happening?  Could also be teething related - mine went from being a great eater to complete refusal even with meds for 2 entire weeks, then suddenly started eating well again  

I would just keep offering a variety and let her make the choice to eat it

[mum2girls]

shes never been that great with solids and has always chewed on things then let them fall out of her mouth

I am hoping its a phase and its a learning thing and she will grow out of it.  Can be tiring some days tho 

[*Kara*]

For sure!  All you can do is keep trying   I know how hard it can be though... mine goes from eating everything in sight to being the anorexic baby for a few days, refusing all food and bottles... just remember, there are no adults who live on EBM or formula

[Lemonthyme]

Have you tried small pasta?  It's handy because at that age the pincer grip is often good enough to use it as finger foods but you can also still spoon feed it.  I found at that age I would put some on his tray for him to feed himself and then spoon some in inbetween.  I used to do the same thing with peas and sweetcorn and a main course dish (so put the veg on the tray and spoon in the rest.)