8 month old who only wants to breastfeed - anybody been there?

[lizzytra]

My DD in about three days will be 8 mo old. She ONLY breastfeeds. We have tried offering solids (rice cereal, applesauce, bananas) to no avail. She winces w/each bite and clamps her mouth shuts. She has even gone so far to cry until she is given the breast. She is very chubby and almost off the charts for length and weight.

Has anyone been in a similar boat? Did you worry about anemia? That is my real concern.

I don't mind bf-ing exclusivly but I can't believe my DD is this old and not on solids as my DS by her age was eating all kinds of fruits and veggies.

[jillc]

Hi there,

Just wanted to say that I can remember seeing several posts about this in the past, so it's definitely not uncommon. Maybe if you did some searching, you could find the posts?

My gut feeling would be to just keep offering solids every week or so & when she's ready, she'll start eating them. I can't speak educatedly about anemia, but I'm sure that someone will have info for you.

My DD was a slow starter - we started at 6 months, and she'd eat only maybe 10-15 bites of solids at each "meal" for a looong time.

Hope this helps in some way. :)
Jill

[kimbe]

I know exactly what you are going through. I will never forget the frustration of trying to get DD to eat. She did the same mouth clamping that your DD is doing. Have you tried offering her finger food? DD refused to eat anything off of a spoon until she was 18 months! (And then SHE had to do it!) However, she would happily eat anything that she could pick up and eat herself. Then she took more of an interest in solids. She ate a lot of steamed veggies, chunks of soft fruit, pasta, cheerios, bread, avocado etc. There are lots of threads on this subject as it is one of THE most frustrating things. I know that it is hard, but keep following your DD's lead and it will be fine. As long as she is growing (and it sounds like she is!) she is getting what she needs. I found a lot of reassurance by reading the book Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter. To sum it up, she basically says don't force anything. Just offer and let your child do what they want. (She sort of uses solids as a means to wean so you have to take that aspect with a grain of salt, but overall, the book helped me relax.)

Hang in there. She is getting more than what she needs by nursing. Solids are only practice right now. Try some chunks of soft things on her tray and see what she does. Hugs to you, I know how you are feeling!

[maestramommy]

We started solids 2 weeks before DD turned 6 months, big fat waste of time. From time to time she would eat some table foods, but most of the Earths Best cereal and jarred foods, AND homemade cubes I made her went into the trash. While she didn't react as negatively as your baby, she would take a bite, then spit it out. It got so I was actually keeping track of how many bites she ate at each meal. Things didn't change until she was about 10 months.

My dd was rather low on the charts, but her anemia test came up negative, so I just let it go.

[kimbe]

LOL --- "big fat waste of time." That is exactly how we felt about solids. We've decided with the next kid we are just going to wait to start solids until they can walk to the fridge and make themselves something or say "Hey, I am hungry!" ;)

[daisymommy]

Hannah had about 2 bites of baby food at 9 months, and only really became interested at 10 months. Even now though, at 1 year old, she's slow going with the solid food. She loves mommy milk and Cheerios, and if I can get her to eat some yogurt and a jar of baby food in a day, I'm doing good. Sounds crazy, I know. BUT she is still gaining weight, and has stayed in the 50% since birth, so I guess she's doing okay!

[gina]

ITA. LOL I think solids are really overrated at this age. We started at 6 months but I felt like I was just stuffing her with jars of food she didn't want. Sometimes she would just eat and eat and eat and I felt like I was way overfeeding her. Anyway she ended up getting constipated and then got a UTI. So while she was sick she basically rejected all solids for a few weeks and I slowly had to start reintroducing them. This was when she was about nine months old so I think by the time we reintroduced them she was more ready for solids, like around 10 months.

I have also heard of babies who do not start taking solids until a year or later. I think as long as they are breastfeeding well they will be fine. Now that my DD is a toddler, she is even more picky and half of what she eats ends up on the floor. She does not like cows milk at all, she just spits it out. The only dairy she will eat is cheese. So I feel more comfortable knowing that she is getting breastmilk because I know she is getting nutrition there even when she wont eat real food. I guess that is my plug for extended breastfeeding!
Good luck.

Gina

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/ginaelms/Dec06020.jpg

DD 15 yr Jade
DD 14 mo Olivia!

[KrisM]

DD didn't want anything to do with solids until just past 9 months. Now, at 10.5, we've given up on baby food and she's doing table food and loves it all.

[pastrygirl]

My son is 10 months old and is very late on the solids thing even though I tried to start at around 6 months. He now eats jarred food and yogurt, but won't touch anything truly solid other than Gerber puffs (and even those are a relatively recent addition). He finally accepted some Cheerios a few days ago. I've been hearing about other kids his age eating Cheerios for months! He still nurses a lot, too. He'd definitely rather nurse than eat solids.

ETA: Anemia test last month was negative. He's been in the 90-95th percentile for weight all his life, so I think he's OK without solids!

[hellbennt]

I am RIGHT there with yoU! ds just had his 9 month appt & he's now in the 5th% for weight, ugh (from 25th% at 6months). we tried to start at 6 months bcse he gave all the 'signs' that he was ready, HA! he won't eat purees and so I've been trying the baby-led solids approach (btw I like it!) and give chunks of foods- he tries to eat things but volume-wise it's minimal...
just yesterday he ate 2oz of blueberry yobaby & that's the most I think he's eaten of anything- so I suppose it'll get better?
I sure hope so!

here's the baby-led solids (don't let the word 'weaning' throw you off, LOL!)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW/

http://blwbaby.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_blwbaby_archive.html

http://www.myblwexperiences.blogspot.com/

~laura in miami~
ds1 7/03
ds2 7/06

[Canna]

Oh, yes. We started solids around 7 months and DD wanted nothing to do with them until around 10 months. She thrived in that manner, just as your DD is, and at her 9 month (or was it 12 month?) appointment tested fine for iron (not anemic).

They really will eat when they are ready. Your DD is not that old! We just tried solids about once a week or so up until she started to eat more enthusiastically around 10 months. I just didn't want dinner time to be stress-time.

Around 14 months, my DD again increased her solids intake. Now at 27 months she loves a variety of foods, eats adventurously whatever we are having, and is perfectly normal (if not usually good) eater. She still nurses several times a day at this age, too.

I found the book My Child Won't Eat! to be an interesting and reassuring read. Now I can't believe all the time that I totally wasted stressing out over this issue. In retrospect it was totally not a big deal.
http://www.amazon.com/MY-CHILD-WONT-EAT-International/dp/0912500999/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3119715-0629551?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176920607&sr=8-1

[billysmommy]

Benjamin is almost 1 and is still take it or leave it with solids. Some days he will eat tons and some days all he wants to do is nurse. For example: yesterday he nursed when he got up, ate a jar of EB peaches, bananas and oatmeal and 2 handfuls of Cheerios for breakfast, nursed for mid-morning snack, lunch was a cut-up banana (ate the whole thing) and the Gerber puffs (he is addicted to those :) )and finished with nursing, nursed for mid-afternoon snack, dinner was a jar of EB sweet potatoes (he would eat these all day long if he could) and a container of YoBaby fruit and cereal yogurt. He still wakes up to nurse 2-4 times a night for about 10 minutes each time.
Today he nursed when he woke up, had 4 Cheerios and 1 spoonful of EB apples and blueberries for breakfast and has only wanted to nurse since then. He did have a handful of Cheerios while I was picking out his pictures today but he was really just playing with them and most ended up on the floor. I will offer him some sweet potatoes at dinner as he never refuses those.
He's very different from Billy who was eating pretty much all solids at 1 and only nursing before bed and in the morning.
He's gaining weight and is a very healthy happy little boy so I don't worry about it. Now if he's still like this at 3 :)

[August Mom]

DS was like this. I had grand plans of making homemade babyfood for him, but DS skipped babyfood all together. We tried various cereals, homemade babyfood, jarred babyfood, etc. and he wouldn't eat any of it. He would clench his mouth closed and turn his head away. I was stressed about it, but the ped kept reassuring me that all a baby really needs nutritionally during the first year is breastmilk. Other foods are more for tactile experience rather than nutrition. So, I stopped stressing and stopped trying to get him to eat babyfood all together. DS went straight to eating some finger foods like dry cereal/crackers around 10.5 months or so. Interestingly, I noticed that he was much more receptive to eating regular table food when the time came than the other kids in playgroup who had babyfood. DS always liked meat and that seemed to be a struggle with the other kids who were used to having all their food relatively smooth.

Try not to worry about it. Personally, I would stop offering it for awhile. If you want to try again in another month and see what happens, go for it, but you don't have to and your DD should still be fine from a nutrition standpoint.

Good luck.

[Tondi G]

Maybe she doesn't like to be fed and would be happier with fingerfoods!

Gerber puffs
cheerios
soft chunks of fruit
soft cooked vegis
soft noodles

My DS's both would never eat meat from a jar. Both had meat from soups that we made for dinner. chicken soup and we would take little pieces of thigh meat and they were thrilled. With my first we took the thigh meat and pureed it with some broth and some of the carrots. My DS gobbled it down. Both of my kids were not totally thrilled with jarred food and moved to table food fairly quickly.

Good luck

~Tondi

[mamicka]

I wouldn't sweat it if I were you. DS1 didn't eat more than a couple goldfish a day until he was *completely* weaned at 15 months. & we started introducing solids at right around 6 months, so it wasn't because of lack of exposure. He never had any problems with anemia & wassn't a big meat eater.

DS2 weaned a bit earlier (13 months) & started actually eating solids a month before that. He was, & is, a *huge* meat eater but tested positive for anemia for about 6 months straight. He still has lower iron than you would expect given his diet, but the ped isn't concerned.

I think when it comes to eating, there's only so much you can do.

Allison
Surprise #3 due 7/07