Author Topic: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?  (Read 2056 times)

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Offline squeakersmum

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*Warning* This might get long.

Abi is now completely weaned off BFs and has been for about a month.  She has 4 bottles of formula a day and depending on her mood will eat anything from 10ozs on a particularly bad day (she point blankly refuses to drink anything from DH which means she gets nothing of her BT bottle if I'm not there) to 28ozs (very very rarely). How much she drinks does not seem to have an impact on how much/what she eats. Nor does it seem to impact sleep.

We started solids around 5 and a half months and quickly moved on to a more BLW approach because she didn't seem to like spoon feeding.  Well, she doesn't seem to like BLW either.

This is how our day looks food wise.

7.30am - bottle (between 4-7ozs)

8.30am - handful of cheerios, ready break (I've just got her to tolerate this rather than baby rice) mixed with mashed bananas or pureed blueberries and pear, and about 1oz of formula.

11.30ish - bottle (between 3-6ozs) This has to be at this time due to playschool pick up but honestly, if it's at 12/12.30 it makes no difference to how much she takes of it.

12.30/1pm - lunch. 

4.30 - bottle

5.30 - dinner.

7.30 - bedtime bottle.

I know that's a lot in the afternoon/evenings but if I give it to her she will usually take 7ozs at bed time.


Lunch and dinner are a nightmare.
Lunch is a purely BLW affair.  She will eat...
 - little cubes of cheese,
 - blueberries (loves these!),
 - tiny bits of chicken sometimes,
 - she once ate some boiled egg,
 - organix puffs,
 - licks of bread/toast with pb, cream cheese or butter on
 - mango
 - homemade cranberry oat bar things so long as I break them up into little bits for her.

Dinner is a mix of the two.  She'll have BLW style whatever DS is having.  Sometimes she'll have a chew on a piece of meat, she likes peas. She used to like carrots. Oh, she likes sausages done in the slow cooker - but I think that's because she knows she's not supposed to have them!
Then she'll have either a yoghurt or some fruit puree off a spoon.

So far she has actively disliked all of our staples for DS.  Bolognese, mild curry, scrambled egg, omelete (sp?), chicken stew, meatballs...  The list goes on.

At this age DS was pretty much eating everything so I'm at a loss! 

Does anyone have any tried and tested fussy madam staples that she might like?  and that DS wouldn't mind either??

Oh.  And so far I have taken;  a cat biscuit, cat hair, fluff, bits of paper, a dried piece of spaghetti, a piece of glass  :o, a screw  :o :o, and numerous other bits of yik out of her mouth because she's more than happy to try and eat things that AREN'T FOOD!!!!!

TIA


Offline Lemonthyme

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2012, 21:26:44 pm »
I honestly wouldn't worry too much.  She's 8 months old.  Some children have barely started on solids by this point and many aren't .  I think it's easy to forget as well how little food they eat at this stage.  Especially adopting a BLW route, the volume can be a bit lower, partly because of the ability to get food to their mouths (my son would have been screwed for BLW for every meal because he had to be very calm to get food from tray to mouth) but also because pureed food contains a lot of liquid so there's not as much actual 'solid' as you think.

There's no reason not to vary things up.  At that age, my son would refuse things one week and love them the next.  They say (whoever they are) that it can take 15 attempts to get a baby to accept a food.  I suppose in evolutionary terms it makes sense? 

I have a blog with loads of child friendly recipes if you want to look.  http://mamacook.blogspot.com/ It might be worth thinking outside the box a little.  No reason not to have sausages occasionally as long as they're cut up to avoid the choking risk and you keep an eye on salt but if she's liking them, she obviously likes things with flavour.  Why not try some curry or dahl?
Here's my blog which is focussed on simple food for babies, toddlers and families http://mamacook.blogspot.com/

Offline Shiv52

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2012, 21:33:49 pm »
My DD2 never took to spoon feeding at all.  And her and DD1 do not like the same stuff.  For dinner tonight it was fish, mash and  cauliflower cheese and M only ate the fish and R ate the cauliflower and neither ate the spuds. 

One thing I have found with R is she will refuse say beef casserole if I serve it all mixed up the way we have it.  But if i give her a plate with carrots and meat and potato separate she will eat it more readily. 

As pp says though its very early days.  I'd just keep offering and see how she gets on.   Waht about other fruits?  At a push when out and about R will eat those Ella organic pouches. 

Oh.  And so far I have taken;  a cat biscuit, cat hair, fluff, bits of paper, a dried piece of spaghetti, a piece of glass  , a screw   , and numerous other bits of yik out of her mouth because she's more than happy to try and eat things that AREN'T FOOD!!!!!

LOL!!





Offline Shiv52

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2012, 21:35:53 pm »
Posted too soon.  Other things R ate at that age....pasta carbonara, chicken fried rice, french toast, pancakes, chicken done in the oven, brocolli (its her FAV and I do it at least once a day!), baby corn.   





Offline LouiseV

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2012, 21:38:02 pm »
Remember the BLW saying "food under one is mostly fun". Their tastes and preferences change all the time and as long as you dont pressure her or make it a big deal I think you will be just fine.

Some babies I know are only eating 3-4 different foods at this age, and I know my son goes through phases where even his favourites aren't that welcomed.

All babies are extremely different and I think you will see a massive improvement in time when she is through this wee phase.

Sometimes I add a knob of unsalted butter to the veges and then my LO loves them haha
We make salt free sugar free pikelets which he loves (some days!)
Pieces of steak, salmon (he LOVES salmon) and chicken thigh
rice risottos made with short grain rice and organic stock with cheese
mashed kumara and apple (I spoon feed this mostly)
yoghurts

If you're on facebook you should join the BLW page - there is SO much amazing advice and if you ask questions they are so helpful when they answer
First baby boy born March 2011 :)

Offline Mashi

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2012, 21:43:49 pm »
Steph at that age I was very close to dropping down to 3 bottles...I think DS did it at 8.5 months and it helped with his eating because of the timings, and still meant he took in the same amount if not more formula, again due to timings.  So our mid-day of
1130 bottle
1230 lunch
430 bottle

became more of a day like
730 bottle
830 breakfast
1030 snack (which was totally minimal like 1 of the organix rice cakes or a chunk of apple in a mesh feeder to gnaw on)
1200 lunch (food, not bottle)
130pm bottle
4pm dinner*
7pm bottle

(or we did 330pm snack and 5pm dinner)

By combining the bottles he drank more and by moving the lunch meal he ate more. I know milk is supposed to be before solids but with the meal an hour before it is not really interfering in the total milk intake, not the same as when they were new to solids iyswim.



Offline squeakersmum

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2012, 21:56:09 pm »
Thank you!  Lemonthyme, Actually I love your blog and often make things I find on there...DS and I enjoy them even if DD doesn't yet!

DD has a really good pincer grip and if it's something she really likes (i.e. Blueberries::)) she'll eat a ton of them - so I know she can do it. She's just exerting her own will already. Oh dear.

French toast is a good idea - I'll give that one a go!

DS was just sooo different!

Mashi, I think she's probably close to dropping it. She's really not bothered and not clamouring for food iykwim. I'm just concerned about taking it out when she can be so funny about taking her bottle sometimes. I guess it would make her more likely to drink the 3 bottles though... Hmm - swings and roundabouts! Definitely worth thinking about though. It may be that she's averaging 20ish ozs anyway which she coul quite easily get from 3 bottles not 4.

Just read my first post back and good lord it's mammoth! Sorry!


Offline Lemonthyme

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Re: She's not an 'eater' - any tried and tested ideas I can tempt her with?
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2012, 22:37:45 pm »
She might like the sensation and comtrol of the pincer grip so why not try cutting other fruit and veg up small? I remember my don hating veg cut up in sticks but loved it in "pea sized" pieces! He would only eat French beans cut up small and went through a phase of refusing halved grapes and accepting sliced ones!

Thanks for the compliment!  
Here's my blog which is focussed on simple food for babies, toddlers and families http://mamacook.blogspot.com/