10 month old (9 months corrected) refusing all food

[nippo]

Hi,

My 10.5 month old has refused all food for the last 2 weeks.

I am not sure what to do, so far she has gone off all puree and completely refuses the spoon - her mouth clamps shut.

She used to eat finger food in the morning - toast fingers. But she now just squashes it between her fingers, or chews it and spits it out.

I've tried steaming veg, hummus all sorts of food but she just throws it on the floor.

I've put food in a bowl and given her a spoon but she just pulls the bowl off the sucker and rubs the contents over her head or it ends up on the floor. She lives chewing on the end without food on it, if she sees food on the spoon she just pours it out.

She manages a bit of yoghurt but has a few spoons then spits the rest out.

She refused food when we first started solids but she suddenly started eating and actually became a better eater than her twin sister. But now I am just so worried about how long this will last. She is eating so little she is now waking up at 4am hungry where she would usually sleep through until 6am. And she cries so wakes her sister up and we are all tired.

I dread mealtimes now. I have made my own food, tried packet food with lumps, steamed food and made veggie nuggets,  courgette muffins and banana loaf for picking at.

She will eat rice cake, or finger biscuits but I can't just give her biscuits and yogurt... Can I? She needs to try everything.

[creations]

Is she teething at the moment?
How much milk is she having in 24hrs (I'm assuming you are feeding at the 4am NW is that right?)
Has she had an illness recently?

There are many reasons a LO may go off food for a short while.  It isn't a great worry at this age as her primary food is still milk but I understand your concern, we all seem to worry about food at some point.  I would just keep offering her small servings, 1 piece of something, if she eats it then offer 1 more, rather feeling the frustration of lots of wasted food.  I would also continue with the healthy options, and not be tempted to give her something less than healthy just to get her eating, when she starts eating again you want it to be the right stuff, and for those with a small appetite every mouthful needs to be nutritious.

Sounds like you make some lovely food for her   Hope you can freeze some of it if she isn't interested right now.

[nippo]

Thanks so much for your reply.

I'm not worried about wasting food at all. I eat it all anyway lol!!

She takes 3 bottles about 21 oz's all together but I add an extra bottle mid afternoon if she won't eat lunch.

She is extremely active, but also only in the 9th centile for her weight. I don't mind too much as I was a very skinny child and a fussy eater - karma I think!!

Today I tried poached pears, porridge fingers and toast. She just flung it on the floor.

Lunch was pasta, tuna, hummus and broccoli - she had some pasta about 3 bow ties which I fed her. Although I left it on her tray so she could try herself. She showed some interest but chewed a corner then spat it out.

Evening she ate some packet baby food - the whole thing but it was puree rather than lumpy...

Better than yesterday.

I did feed her at 4am as I know her hungry cry and then she wouldn't go back to sleep - and refused breakfast which she loved!

My banana loaf (no sugar) was a bit of a disaster. She just crumbled it over the floor.  I'll just keep trying I guess...

[nippo]

Oh sorry - she is not ill and is very lively. She has two front teeth that are nearly completely out now so I think her teething pain might be over. She hasn't really had any real crying etc with any of her teeth.

It started when I started giving her lumpier food. She just didn't want it. I kept trying but she started to refuse everything including her favourites...

[creations]

Some LOs don't like the lumpy food, either because of the texture or because it is a bit of a surprise to find a lump in their mouth when they are expecting it smooth and they aren't prepared to manipulate the lumps.
It's ok to continue with smooth puree and finger foods rather than mashed and lumpy.  Maybe look at the ingredients in the packet food if she likes that and see if you can make some of those flavours as finger food for her to pick up herself?

Would she take a smaller feed at 4am so she isn't too full for her WU milk and breakfast?
Are you offering water alongside her solids meals too?

[nippo]

She has water from her sippy cup but likes blowing Raspberry's into it whilst drinking. So not too sure how much she actually swallows!

This morning I laid out a smörgåsbord for her of apple, one porridge finger, one finger of toast and a bit of banana loaf. She picked at a few bits. I think she ate a finger of toast and a bit of banana mloaf (although I think she might have chewed it an spat it out.

I think maybe giving her a few options might spike some interest....

Her breakfast is usually at 7.30 so she had quite a long time to get hungry. Our little girl just won't drink any more milk even if I give her a small amount at 4. She will wait until she is really hungry and then take her bottle. So even if I give her half a feed she refuses at 6/6.30 and will probably have it at 10...

[creations]

Maybe worth experimenting with the number of items on offer - as you say a variety may spike some interest, I know my DS at that age didn't like to have more than 2 different types of food in front of him, it was too much variety and he'd rather eat a meal of just one or two different things, then the next meal 2 other things.  He wouldn't have eaten a 'balanced' diet in one meal with a few mouths full of each food group.

She won't starve herself, probably just needs a bit of time to adapt to the finger foods.

[nippo]

Today did porridge and finger food - toast. She had about 3 spoons of porridge and one finger of toast.

Lunch I tried pasta. Complete refusal. But she will eat fruit puree. Do I give it to her or am I reinforcing that if she refuses her lunch she will get fruit - effectively her dessert?

Thanks for your help xx

[creations]

I usually had no rule about something being the main meal and something else being dessert when my LO was that young. I sometimes saw that a bit of fruit at the beginning of a meal whetted his appetite and he'd go one to eat his 'mains' afterwards. I mostly took the approach that I was going to offer these foods regardless of what order he ate them. I didn't increase the fruit portion size though so if he was hungry he'd have to eat the mains.
I would probably mix a bit of that fruit puree through the pasta as a dressing and see how that goes.
(I did limit fruit once and had a very frustrated LO for a couple of days but he was much older and his diet was becoming out of balance so I chose to radically reduce fruit until his other food groups picked up which they did within a day or two)

[nippo]

Weirdly our girl was refusing food so I gave her some fruit to get her going and she took the main in between spoons of fruit. That seemed to work although all of it was puree...

She had a toast soldier this morning and all her porridge so she seems to be coming around to the idea of eating.

I will try some broccoli and hummus today for lunch.

[creations]

[lauradj]

If it makes you feel any better, this is my world right now!  I'm actually glad to hear you're going through the same thing. 
I definitely sneak in the 'meal' between bites of fruit/yogurt/hummus.  Yesterday I served him pork stew and topped it with a little dollop of unsweetened apple sauce every other mouthful.  He managed to eat most of it before throwing up the left arm block.  Good enough I say!
It's really really frustrating but I keep reminding myself that it's probably just as hard on them learning to eat all these different things.  It's nice to know I have company! 

[nippo]

Thanks Lauradj,

I only wish I could sneak it in between spoonfuls of fruit but my girl only likes savoury and hardly eats sweet. This was great at mealtimes as she would clean her bowl but now its a bit hit and miss, I've had one meal where I've done dessert - dinner-dessert-dinner.

I have puree days where I attempt to give her her puree but right now, lunch is a big no-no! And today dinner - she managed half then started trying to make herself sick!

I don't know why she is doing it, but she is doing little dry heaves whilst sticking her tongue out as far as she can!

[creations]

Is it gagging?

[nippo]

No she just wants to force herself to be sick by sticking her tongue out. She did it again at breakfast and while she was playing on the floor. Not sure why she is doing it really, hopefully she will get bored of it...

She does like watching reactions at the moment so she will stick her nail in my arm and watch my face to see whether I scream, or look shocked. Right now I am not giving any reaction apart from explaining that it hurts and moving her away from me.