Weaning - worried my baby is not eating enough

[Caro13]

My little girl is nearly 7 months, we've been giving her solids since 5 months on the advice of our GP and the Health Visitors as she was not growing very fast on EBF & also still seemed hungry after breastfeeding off both sides. She will eat purees & also nibble at 'mummy food' (e.g.sticks of fruit/veg, toast with hummus etc) but can't seem to manage mashed food yet. She is having 3 meals & 5/6 breastfeeds during the day and 2/3 breastfeeds at night. Sometimes she will wolf down her dinner no problem but with breakfast and tea she can also be quite fussy - I am sometimes struggling to get her to eat half a jar of puree or the equivalent of home made food. I keep trying her with different things & she cries & doesn't want it & then - surprise surprise - she's hungry at night. I love her to bits but it's driving me mad, and I worry that she's not getting the nutrition she needs. Am I expecting her to eat too much? Or is fussing over her meals a sign that I'm breastfeeding her too much? What is everyone else's experience?

[Hidden]

Hi Caro,

I personally think ( from what you've described) there's absolutely nothing wrong with her diet as children/babies do tend to go through a fussy eating stage at some time in their lifetime it's hard to get them to eat what we want them to have but as long as she seems to have something I.E..... breakfast or lunch & as you're still breastfeeding she's kept well hydrated I wouldn't worry too much at the moment.

As she is now nearly 7 months old have you considered giving her some follow on " formula milk" ?

As this can also provide her with some of the nutrients she may be missing with her food intake.

xxx

[2princes1princess]

Hi hun, she sounds perfect to me! The thing is with gp's and hv's is that if our babies aren't following the "norm" textbook weight gain then they make us worry and sometimes gets us down, I had this with my first and I felt like I was doing something wrong and in the end I said im not worried about her, how much she is eating etc she was and still is a dainty little girl-im 5ft nothing and size 6-8 in not expecting my kids to be big! If you are worried about her not having enough nutrients maybe give her wellkid vitamin syrup? And ive found my bf babies compared to formula fed have been smaller. Your doing a fabulous job mama xx

[Dozymum]

Sounds very similar to my 7m old's diet. I too find that sometimes he'll eat tonnes and other times he'll be really picky. I'm slowly introducing new foods, some of which he shows little or no interest in and he does tend to gag on textures.

He also has breast milk in the day - either from me or a bottle when I work - and he'll sometimes wake up in the night and feed. I know with Joshua that the night feeds are now a lot more for comfort than out of hunger and I think this is something that will need to be phased out (I think I'm taking the easy option to re-settle him).

He tends to be pickiest in the evenings and when he's tired, so I try to avoid giving solids at these 'tired times'.

I would say it sounds like your little one is getting plenty as it's still early days and milk provides a lot of her nutritional needs x

[mummymummy]

Give her what she likes if it's the pureed foods stick to that for now. ... my lo took ages and I mean ages to start solids over 6 weeks of trying and he now loves banana and peach dessert so he mainly has that for pudding and breakfast but I do try other foods before I give him his favourite... He now loves chicken and butternutsquash dinner...slowly slowly he has be the one who has shocked me cos all my others just took to solids straight away and ate everything I have to them! Dont be too concerned sounds like ur doing everything great! X

[Caro13]

Thanks everyone for your reassurance - she won't take a bottle so can't try follow on milk but I'll have a look in Boots tomorrow for some of the vitamin syrup - at least then if she has a picky day I'll know she's getting that.

[cheekymonkey3791]

Hey, only thing I can really add is that I am weaning too, baby is 8 months and EBF. The HV's advise the multivitamins from 6 months as we cannot give them enough Iron from them on and babies short of Vit D due to shocking British weather at times.

When I spoke with her last week, she said see food as an extension to their feed time and they would not worry unless still having problems come 1 year old. So hope that puts your mind at rest a little X

[mummymummy]

They were doing well kid half price in superdrug... But it's on another offer now I got the one from 6 months as it's a bigger bottle!

[Pjmontgo]

My baby is EBF and wouldn't take a bottle. I got a tip from my nct teacher who suggested the vital baby breast like anti colic bottle. It has a slightly flattened soft flexible teat which is more like a normal nipple. I tried it for the first time a couple of days ago and she drank an oz of expressed milk without a fuss. Very happy as I have to go to a meeting all day on Monday and she will have to eat from a bottle then. Might be worth a go if you want to try and get her on a bottle. Haven't started weaning yet so haven't got any advice there but as with all of these things I think I'm just going to go with the flow and not put any expectations on it. Good luck x