What is your 7 month old eating?

[mum1day]

My DD does not like solids. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I wonder if she hates it because it's terribly bland and she's not used to bland food because she's EBF?

I make everything and after our play group today I was shocked that she's the only one not eating as much as other babies her age and younger.

In the morning I give her a few TBS of Earth's Best Oatmeal. At night I always make veggies. She'll take 2 or 3 tiny spoonfulls and then seals her lips shut.

I am still nursing her about 5-7 times/day and she's gaining fine.

Any thoughts?

[californiagirl]

Yesterday mine ate: A few tiny bites of my toast, a teaspoon of homemade applesauce, 8-10 grapes, about a cubic cm of boiled potato, a teaspoon of homemade acorn squash (with a lot of garlic in it, thinned with breastmilk), and maybe half a teaspoon full of rice. Oh, and a slice of lemon out of my glass of ice water, but that ended in tears when she smeared it across her face and got some in her eye. She'd eaten all the flesh by then, though.

Today she was in daycare so had fewer choices through the day and ate about a third of a cup of cut-up grapes and peaches, and more squash -- DH overthinned it and she wouldn't take it off a spoon and through confusion they gave it to her in a bottle and she drank 4 oz of it!

I originally wrote up yesterday's list for this thread: http://mumsnet.com/Talk?reverse=1&topicid=4&threadid=38443&rnd=19396747285219257

[tarahsolazy]

Only breastmilk here. Nursing when I'm home, bottles of pumped BM when I'm at work. We tried solids, Oatmeal with BM twice, and sweet potato (homemade) twice. Forrest just sat there with his mouth open and the food on his tongue, unsure about what to do next. The last time, last week, with sweet potato, he looked panicky! So, my chunker is not ready, I think. He's 23 or 24 lbs at 7mo, so the BM is working fine here, too. We'll try again in a week or two. To be honest, we are in the middle of getting ready to move cross-country next week, so introducing solids is sort of low on the list of priorities. I know, bad Mama! I think you are doing great offering frequently, and not pushing the issue. She'll eat, eventually. Let her get her fingers in the food, maybe she just wants to feed herself?

[mum1day]

Tarah-Our babes are a few days apart, so I am relieved to here this about Forrest. He's growing SO well. Giuliana is only 18 pounds. AND you're our resident Doc here, so I always listen to what you have to say. :)

Thanks for the reassuring words.

[mum1day]

hmmm...I didn't know I could start adding garlic. ETA: I don't know where you're getting your info from but Salt is not a healthy additive to baby's food. And children under 1 should not have citrus.

[californiagirl]

If you read the post I referenced more carefully, I don't put salt in her squash! I put salt in mine and breastmilk in hers.

Garlic is the same as citrus; some people say you can't do it before 1, others don't.
There's an actual reason with citrus (some children react to the acid) but I've never seen any justification for the garlic. Lots of places say that spices (not salt!) are just fine for babies. For instance, Ellyn Satter's "Child of Mine".

My baby doesn't react to the amount of citrus in a single slice of lemon or lime. We don't give her orange juice (or any juice) or bigger amounts of citrus. But a slice of lemon like you put in a glass of ice water doesn't have all that much flesh on it, and she loves it, and she has no bad reaction to it.

You asked what my 7 month old is eating, and that's what she's eating. I tried feeding her more normal things, and she won't eat them. So we avoid salt and sugar, overt dairy and egg whites, choking hazards, strawberries, honey, shellfish, and nuts and otherwise let her eat mostly table food.

[smallestangel]

Hi

Jacob's still just nursing here (with ebm in a sippy now & then). I do give him Earth's Best rice cereal w/ bm on some mornings. He does really well with it, however I don't give it to him every day yet. We've just been testing the waters the last few weeks...I think it's time I become more consistent with it though....I'm planning on starting sweet potato, avacado, and bananas in the weeks to come. We're taking things slow since I'm worried about allergies. And I'm in no real rush anyway, he's nice & plump so all is well. :)

I agree with a pp, she may want to feed herself. Jacob will take a few spoonfulls and then seem anxious to take over,lol. :) So I'll make it thicker and spoon some on his tray, he loves it.


You guys are doing great!


Amanda & Jacob :)

[CBB]

Have you tried pureed fruits? Your DD may like it better since they are sweeter. DD's favorites are prune, pear and banana. Just be careful with prune since it's a laxative. But DD has always done okay with prune.

HTH

[audys]

Hi Natasha,

My son started at 6 months with rice cereal, stage 1 carrots and sweet potatos (we introduced a new food every 4-7 days). He developed constipation so we (slowly) changed to oat cereal, green beans, sweet peas, spinach, pears and prunes.

We most recently started turkey, apples and barley cereal. He drinks about 2 oz of prune juice daily (to keep the BM coming).

He's basically eating stage 2 foods in addition to breastmilk at this point.

We're on the other end of the spectrum - our baby LOVES the solids and has not been eating enough BM lately so we've had to cut back his food to get him to eat more of the important milk and get his weight gain back on tract (he was flat on weight gain for 2 weeks but is improving now). I certainly think slower may be better :) Our baby also has 3 teeth already making BF a little more exciting...

Take care, Audrey, mother to Graham

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050210/3/15/1/+10/.png (http://lilypie.com)

[new_mommy25]

Natasha, my DS showed NO interest in solids until he was about 8 months old. Then he just took off and never looked back. I wouldn't stress at all about it. I know a mom from LLL who is not giving her DS any solids until he turns 1. They have a terrible history of food allergies in the family so it is best for them. She has 3 other kids and says she did the same with them with the exception of her first (which is what made her change her ways). Her DS is very healthy and actually weighs more than my DS.