Hello!
Have you tried offering your ds finger foods? The baby-led weaning approach suggests that from 6 months baby's are able to explore foods in their natural state. Obviously you have control over this, and some foods are more suitable than others, but mainly ds gets to experiment with biting and chewing and rolling food around his mouth, and eventually some gets swallowed and then he gets the hang of the whole thing.
With my dd, she doesn't manage to eat enough doing it herself, so I top her up with mashed fruit and yogurt (banana, stewed apple and pear, roughly chopped peaches and apricots) for pudding on a spoon. But first off I just let her play with foods, and she'll try anything as finger foods, tonight she had salmon, steamed babycorn and potato wedges, she gnaws on raw apple, pear and carrot sticks, strawberries, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips, as well as rice cakes, toasted pitta bread, and chicken strips. Oatmeal is pretty bland - I wouldn't be keen! I introduced the spoon feeding once she'd got the hang of what food is!
It's worth a try, you don't want him to be put off food 'coz he doesn't like the method of delivery, and this approach lets him learn to eat at his own pace! Unfortunately you might have to accept that he feeds at night for some time yet. Dd is a little over 8 months and still feeding once or twice a night - you can't rush these things!
Google 'baby-led weaning' and 'Gill Rapley' for more info on the approach - it might just be what your little one needs!
Hope this helps,
Ax
