BLW advice - 11 month old not interested in food at all

wifeofadam

My 11 month old is EBF.  We introduced some purees around 9 months and she would have them maybe 2-3 times per week, but never really enjoyed it.  After a month she started fighting me on the purees, so I decided to stop and introduce table foods instead.  Since 10 months I've been throwing random foods onto her tray during meals hoping she will eat, but she isn't interested at all.  She'll put one piece in her mouth and then spit it out and never try again.  If I try to feed her the finger foods, she clamps her mouth shut and turns away. 

The only real success we've ever had in her feeding herself is with the mesh feeder.  I would do cubes of frozen purees in there and she would eat those.  So recently I started trying more whole foods in there - bananas, peas, etc. - hoping she would work on chewing on the food that way.  No such luck.

We've tried the following solids - bananas, eggs, chicken, green beans, peas, rice cakes, toast, pasta, ground meat, apple, homemade pizza, and other random things from meals.  She won't touch any of it.

She nurses about 5 times per day and twice through the night (but is also up every 45 minutes to be comforted back to sleep).  We co-sleep and I'm ready to start putting her in the crib and get some real rest.  I have two older children to also take care of and am tired of being tired.

Any ideas?  I delayed solids until 10-11 months with my second child and he went straight to table foods without a problem.  I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here.

3003girl

My LO didn't really get into foods until about 15 months. She would eat a little bit of something here or there, and sometimes surprise us with eating half a banana or 1/4 cup of pasta, but she really was not thrilled with the idea. We asked our pedi about it at her 15 month well visit and he said as long as she's had different foods (i.e. no texture aversion) and eats *something* everyday - meaning a few cheerios or a bite of banana - he would not be concerned unless she started weaning. He said some babies just take longer to get into foods, and some babies like to BF more. 

BUT, I would talk to your pedi about it the next well visit you have to make sure there isn't a food/texture aversion. Mine would eat purees, yogurt, crunchy things like cheerios and pretzels, pasta, veggies and fruit. Just not a lot of it. 

We started BLW at 6 months, and were not consistant with it at first because she didn't show much interest in any foods/textures. Now we offer her a variety at every meal, but we are lucky if she eats 3 meals a day. She does eat a full meal once a day though. I laugh at the LO's who eat 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks. Not my kiddo for sure. 

I would keep offering her a variety of foods. I've heard some kiddos need to see a food 25+ times before they actually eat it. 

Also - with the frequent waking - I wonder if your LO has a food intolerance?  

nosoup4u

We did BLW with both our sons, and my first son took a lot longer to get into food - he was around 14-15 months. Until then, he'd eat fruit and yogurt, but even then it wasn't consistent. Talk to your doctor at her 12 month visit, but I would try not to stress, and wait a few months before getting really concerned. hth

wifeofadam

solidio:

Also - with the frequent waking - I wonder if your LO has a food intolerance?  

I think it has more to do with the poor sleep habits I created.  For the first 10 months of her life she had her morning nap on my back in the Ergo and her afternoon lap lying next to me on the couch while nursing the entire time.  I just recently started putting her in the crib for naps and she'll do 45 minutes each there.

At nights I have always slept with her in the bed next to me and she nursed on demand.  Through teething I allowed her to sleep while latched on because she wouldn't take a paci and it was the only way she would sleep.  When I took that away all heck broke loose.

She now starts the night in her crib and then ends up with me.  I've figured out that her sleep cycles last 45 minutes and because she never properly learned how to self soothe she doesn't fall back asleep between them.  It's getting better, but very slowly.  I said that at age one we're going serious sleep training because I can't handle it anymore.

I will not repeat this mistake again if we have a fourth child.  That's for sure!