Author Topic: How to handle difficult baby feeds??  (Read 2038 times)

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Offline ragingpup

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How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« on: May 25, 2013, 20:56:45 pm »
We have a 10 month old girl who started weaning at 5 months and until a couple of weeks ago was wolfing solids at all mealtimes. Recently though she has become increasingly difficult to please and often refuses meals flapping the food out of the way with her hands. We make homemade meals using lots of fresh veg with herbs/cheese etc blended down. So tasty we quite enjoy them!We are making the food a little less pureed to get her working her teeth/mouth. It was all going well, she'd eat anything!

So now were wondering how best to deal with meal times when she is difficult, to what extent we persevere trying, whether to offer alternatives or skip meal after a few mins trying and then hold out til next meal time??

She tendst o still enjoy her breakfatd (porridge with fruit or weetabix with fruit) but is getting increasingly difficult with lunch and dinner feed, especially dinner. We try to make eating lots of fun, playing games with spoons etc but she ain't buying it most meal times!

Most days run something like this:

7am wakes - 150ml milk
9am - Breakfast cereal and fruit
9.30 am sleep
11am - 150ml milk
1pm - Lunch: blended meal and yogurt
3pm - 150ml Milk
3.30 Sleep
5pm - Dinner - Blended meal
7.30 - sleep

I guess we know that babies will have periods like this - we just need some advice on how to deal with it when she rejects food. My wife gets quite stressed and worries about her not eating enough. But she is slightly above average weight as a result of previous hearty appetite!

Any help much appreciated.

Oh! Meant to say that I have noticed that even when she is being difficult she still stares at our food when we eat together and is usually quite happy to have pieces of that when offered, usually preferring to eat by hand herself. Led us to wornder whether we should try and give her what we eat (without salt, spices etc obviously and cut up)??

Offline Haribo2012

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Re: How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2013, 21:20:01 pm »
My LO had a phase like that, I find it best to not make too much of a deal of it, I tend to put finger food on the highchair tray and pop a bit off the spoon in every so often, I find he accepts the spoon if doing a bit himself!
I also tend to have a bit of the finger food on my plate so he thinks he's getting the exciting stuff lol!

It's all LO's growing independence and I find if the main meal doesn't go down well I carry on with my meal and keep offering until I've finished then clear plates away, your LO still has milk which is still important for now so just experiment with the solids and let LO get messy with the food! Mine loves getting a handful ;-)
Zoe


Offline ZacsMumme

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Re: How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2013, 22:29:19 pm »
I agree try lots of finger food at this age, they like to graze and 'play' with it too ::)
***Sara***
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DS1 - Our sensitive soul. Silent reflux.

DS2 Our cheeky chipmunk. Reflux, MSPI.

Offline ragingpup

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Re: How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2013, 16:17:23 pm »
Thanks for the advice. Weve tried the finger food and putting baby food on our plates etc but she is SO good at detecting her own from ours which we give her the odd taste of. She will happily accept lots of her own yoghurt, bread torn from our plates, potatoes, tuna from a sandwich etc but as soon as veg is put before her, she either fights it off or, if given as finger food, throws it straight off the high chair! Great fun for her!

So do we keep offering non veg finger food, breads, potatoes (she loves chips when weve given her a taste)  and various rice cakes etc and hold back from veg for a while?? Or just keep trying the veggies in cooking/finger food form but have milk as back up?

thanks again for help  :)

Offline ZacsMumme

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Re: How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2013, 18:47:44 pm »
There is a developmental leap at this age - could this be part of it?
http://www.thewonderweeks.com/mental-leap-7/

Good questions re veges. Hopefully you will get some more eyes - I can't remember my first doing this then :-\
***Sara***
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DS1 - Our sensitive soul. Silent reflux.

DS2 Our cheeky chipmunk. Reflux, MSPI.

Offline creations

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Re: How to handle difficult baby feeds??
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2013, 22:36:30 pm »
she is SO good at detecting her own from ours which we give her the odd taste of.
Is there a reason you aren't all eating the same meal?  Does she have allergies preventing her having your meals?  If not then I would just cut out salt from your cooking (adults can add at the table if needed) and give her exactly the same as you have.  Mine had a phase of being suspect about the food on his plate despite it being exactly the same as I was eating and I put it down to development and greater awareness of dangers. If they can put everything in their mouths it is good caution to get mummy to test the food and agree it is nice, not poison or harmful etc.  I used to taste test his food of his plate and assure him it was good then he'd tuck in (I used to joke that I was the kigs jester, I think they used to taste for poison before the king ate didn't they?).

For vegies, if she likes chips I would make some oven baked chips of sweet potato, turnip, swede, carrot, all of which have nutrients and vitamins which potatoes don't offer - I also do home made potato chips too and mix them up a bit.  If for example carrots are accepted then after a while try steamed carrots cut into the same shape.  Even at almost 2.5 my LO occasionally asks me what something is because it is cut in a different shape/size so he needs to check what he's getting.  And I would continue to put one piece of veg on her plate that is part of the family meal even if she doesn't like it or eat it.  Just seeing it there makes it more familiar and she can start to explore it.  If you just put one piece it's less to go on the floor or in the bin.

Sorry I just re-read your original post (I'm a bit distracted with LO teething) and see you were thinking of offering the same meal you eat - yes! Go for it.  You can use spices, perhaps not too hot but my LO has always loved herbs and spices.  I sometimes make something like a mild curry serve up DS's to cool then whack some more curry paste into the rest so it's hotter for me and DP.  Garlic, herbs etc are all fine. I once saw a skin reaction from garam masala (which I had sprinkled over potato wedges before oven baking), DS ate them up and loved them but his hands, wrists and face around the mouth came out in blotches, so I washed him immediately and I avoided that spice mix since.  He wasn't ill though, just a contact reaction.
In terms of cutting up I purposely made BIGGER chunks of food for DS in stews, steamed veg, etc not smaller.  The bigger chunks (finger sized) are much easier to pick up and LO can hold one end in a fist whilst eating the other end, it gives more control over the food rather than a small piece.  Once you are in the habit of chopping bigger, not using salt or sugar, it is really easy to make family meals.  I still make allowances (tbh I make allowances for everyone, the vegetarians that visit, my mum's special diet, DP's particular preferences, so I make the same kind of allowance to DS's needs or preferences within reason), if we have rice he gets a tortilla or pitta bread or something instead as he has never liked rice, if we have fish I crumb and fry his because he likes 'fish fingers' but not 'fish'.

Finally - if you or your wife feel very concerned about the balance of the diet there is no harm in offering dinner type meals at breakfast time.  If LO is hungry for breakfast she might be more willing to take a variety of foods at that time, but less willing when she is getting tired and a bit full towards the end of the day.  As example my LO wasn't taking much protein so I switched breakfast to a protein meal (omelette or sausage) which he took without batting an eye, and the more carbsy foods might be accepted later in the day, snacks or lunch etc.  You might look to switching one of the day milks to a snack soonish too, so either the mid morning or mid afternoon milk can become a healthy snack (good time to offer veg plus something you know she will take) alongside a sippy cup of water.  Snacks are a good time to get added veg in even if it is hidden veg in sugar free sweet potato muffins, veg pancakes or bean and veg burgers/fritters, these can be batch cooked and frozen if needed, (the only thing I wouldn't offer are rice cakes because they can fill whilst not give nutrition and are low calorie.  if LO isn't eating much then every mouthful needs (ideally) to be healthy and calorie or vitamin rich.

hope this helps some