Maryland Babies
Baby hates purees/BLW
Anyone have experience with a baby who refused baby food? I make DD's baby food; at 5.5 months we started with oatmeal and she's since had sweet potato, avocado, applesauce, carrots, mangoes and green beans (not in that order). When we first started she'd eat a few bites of oatmeal and she'd tolerate sweet potato. There were times it even seemed like she might like some of the foods, but she'd never take more than a few bites before she refused it. Now if she takes one or two bites before shutting her mouth and pushing the spoon away it's a good day, lol and I'm trying not to push it on her or anything.. It seems like some of the time it's little miss independent wanting to hold the spoon herself (she does this w/ her paci too, she doesn't want it until she puts it in herself) but the majority of the time it just seems like she hates pureed food. Which is kind of leading me to think about BLW, which I know nothing about...Is there a good website out there I could be directed to? Any advice you guys have would be appreciated...:)
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Re: Baby hates purees/BLW
You exactly described my daughter. She's 10 months old and has never gotten on board with purees. She hates being spoon fed and like your LO, wants to hold the spoon herself. She doesn't really get much in but we would let her play and try to get her comfortable with the spoon. Sometimes she'll let us feed her some if she's distracted with her spoon, but rarely.
So, that led us to baby-led weaning. www.babyledweaning.com was a good resource. We would give her big pieces of soft foods (avocado, cooked apples, banana, cooked sweet potato, bread, etc). She took to that pretty well and it was obvious that she liked being in control of feeding herself. But did we ever get a hearty meal into her? Nope....and we still haven't at 10 months. We give her pretty much what we're eating at meals now, either in tiny pieces since she can use her pincer grip or in big pieces for her to gnaw at. But, she is just not diggin' the solid foods (except for cheese, Gerber puffs and bread...she could live on those!).
Everything I've read says it's fine and she'll eventually get the hang of it but it does bother me as we approach one year. I can completely empathize with your situation but just keep trying new things and see what works for her. I figure, one day...maybe when she's 15, she'll eat
Someone's getting a little brother!
Remember that for the first year of life babies get most of their nutrition from breast milk/formula. Food is about learning to eat and swallow and not so much about nutrition.
Our DD didn't like purees, so we did BLW. At 13 months, she STILL does not have teeth, but she can gnaw a bread/pizza crust like nobody's business. She also eats cheddar bunnies, cheerios and pasta.
We started with bits of avocado, banana, and sweet potato that she could feed herself . Be careful with banana because it stains clothing really badly AND it can cause constipation. We also gave bits of canned (in water/fruit juice and fresh) peaches. We also microwaved apple and pear slices so that they would be soft enough for her to chew.
We pretty much give her whatever we are eating and she is fine with it.
This. Don't stress about getting a full meal into her, it's just practice at this point. Just keep offering different things over and over again. We didn't do 100% BLW, but did offer quite a few non-puree's. But there were some things that he just had to get used to the different texture and taste of. I found it really was trial and error and repitition that helped. We always gave him a spooon and would dip the spoon in the food and let him try himself and then we always got a few spoonfulls in while he was trying. It's messy, but fun!
The best thing you can do for you and your baby right now is to keep it simple and NOT stressful! Meals should be a fun, easy experience for the 2 (or 3) of you. If she wants a spoon (or 3), let her have one while you use the other one to feed her. Play around w/ feeding her at different times/in different locations - if you want to keep doing purees, I would try giving her some finger foods to play w/ at the same time. Your LO isn't going to starve from only eating a few bites and she won't be 2 and only drink BM or formula, so don't let yourself get too caught up about it and turn it into an unpleasant experience for either of you. Keep it fun!!!
The BLW is a good resource.
Here's a good blog too that has some information.
https://baby-led-solids.blogspot.com/
And I like this site a lot too
wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com
ditto Cooper, Madlady and Kathryn- don't stress, your baby is only 6 months old. At this point w/ both of my kids I was giving them solids when I felt like it. We did BLW w/ DS and always just let him feed himself. At such a young age it's really more about exploration, texture, play than actually getting any food inside them.
Under one food is just for fun!
This was totally us too. I didn't make it a point to try and feed him 2-3x everyday until he was about 9 months old or so. He is now 2 1/2 isn't a picky eater and eats lots so fear not.