10 month old hardly eats much

[mumofesme]

My daughter will be 10 months next week. I started her on solids at about 6 and a half months and we progressed slowly, mainly because she just wasn't interested. 2 mouthfuls was a victory. Meals were becoming stressful and I would get upset, so I decided to chill and just let her eat her tiny amounts and breastfeed her more instead.

At her 8 month checkup I was chastised by my MCH nurse because she should have been on 3 meals a day, when I was lucky if she had one proper meal a day! Since then I have been trying really hard to give her oppurtunities to eat and a variety of food. So far she LOVES orange that she feeds herself, likes toast that she feeds herself, but she suffers the rest, forget about vegetables. Any other finger food mostly ends up on the floor and if I offer her stuff on a spoon she doesn't open her mouth but lets me sort of squash the food in and she slurps a bit up.

I'm starting to get worried that A) she'll have eating problems later in life and B) that she's not getting enough nutrients etc. Her weigh-in is next week and I just know that her nurse will tell me off (which she always seems to do - ugh). What am I to do to get my daughter interested in food? And how can I get her to open her mouth for the spoon? Help!

[the pero clinic]

Dear Mumofesme,

As you are aware, your CHN is right – your little one should be eating more solids at 10 months – but you are obviously trying your best to achieve this!

If your bub has never really been interested in food to begin with, she may have very little motivation now if you are satisfying her hunger with breast feeds. Clearly you need to provide her with nutrition, but it is probably worth discussing with your CHN a suitable way of decreasing your breastfeeds to increase your bub’s hunger for solids. It is always a good idea to do this under some guidance and to look closely at your current feeding patterns to find the best way to do this.

Your daughter may continue to prefer finger foods, given her age, and she may also be interested in helping to feed herself with the spoon. She will need lots of praise and encouragement to do this, and you can turn it into a game. Start with her feeding you. Make a big deal out of her helping with the spoon, and you eating the food. Give her the same praise if she allows you to put an empty spoon towards her mouth. Gradually move to putting the spoon into her mouth and encouraging her to open her mouth for you. From here she can put the spoon into her mouth herself, and you can use this new interest and skill to make meal times more interesting. You can also use the same principles to introduce new finger foods.

Take advantage of your visit to the CHN and ask for some realistic and practical advice and ongoing support to help the situation – rather than just accepting reminders of what isn’t going right and dreading the next visit.

the pero clinic