Dear Laura... My baby isn't into solids - HELP!

Hey team - welcome to ‘Dear Laura’ - a monthly column where I fashion myself as an agony aunt and answer the questions that readers submit. If you’d like to submit a question for me to answer next month - then you can leave it as a comment below or submit it here.

I’m happy to answer Qs about anti-diet nutrition, developing a more peaceful relationship to food and weight-inclusive health, annoying diet trends and news stories, body image challenges, and, of course, challenges with feeding your kiddos. Please give as much detail as you’re comfortable with and let me know if you’d like me to include your name or keep it anon.

Please remember that these answers are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical or nutritional advice; please speak to your GP or a qualified nutrition professional if you need further support. (I have a limited number of family nutrition spots available for Feb - if you’d like to work with me then you can email hello@laurathomasphd.co.uk to book a preliminary call to see how I might be able to help you.)

Today we’re talking about what to do when a baby isn’t super into solid foods. 

LFG

Dear Laura, 

My youngest son is 7 months old and, about three weeks ago, we started weaning. Suffice to say, it’s not going well. 

He seemed ready for it in as much as he can sit up properly, has the motor skills to hold things and put them into his mouth and has his eyes glued to whatever food I or my partner are eating. His initial response to purees was to spit them straight out, and any finger foods would be immediately thrown on the floor. This has shifted a bit in the last week or so, in as much as he’s not doing as much spitting, and he’ll occasionally put a finger food in his mouth, but he’s basically not interested in eating any of it. We’ve had two occasions when he’s eaten a bit more of something, but when we’ve then returned to that food, he’s not interested again.

Foods we’ve tried so far: a variety of shop-bought purees, some shop-bought melty sticks / ricecakes, mashed banana, mashed avocado, cucumber sticks, sticks of toast, sticks of cheese, sticks of carrot. There are obviously still lots of foods that we’ve yet to try (broccoli and sweet potato are next on our finger food list). 

My concern is that I don’t want to make eating a distressing experience for him. If we’re giving him the purees we’ll try and be responsive to his cues, but within a few moments he’ll end up crying. Similarly he might be interested in a finger food for a few moments, but will then drop it on the floor, get upset that he’s not got it any more, and do the same again when we provide him with a new piece. I’m not sure whether we should be trying to stick with a smaller range of foods so he gets used to the taste or adding in new ones, trying different times of day for food (we usually do one “meal” at lunchtime) or whether we should ditch purees and stick with finger foods or vice versa. 

In case it’s relevant: he’s hit most of the milestones that babies commonly hit by 7 months, he’s on the bigger side for babies his age, and he is combination fed with no issues with either breast or bottle. 

Thanks for any advice you’re able to give us!

Ooooft - it feels like the weaning-industrial-complex has a lot to answer for here. Why is it that  the second Instagram knows you’re pregnant, it starts spamming your feed with babies chomping down on heads of broccoli, chicken thighs, and asparagus spears? 

While I’m no fan of ‘baby food’ manufacturers, I think the push to show that babies can eat the same foods as the rest of the family (with appropriate modifications) also creates a lot of unrealistic expectations of how some babies eat. Yes, there are tons of babies who gleefully shovel food into their mouths, seemingly having the time of their lives. 

And then there are babies who are more cautious. Who take their time to warm up to eating solids. Babies who prefer the comfort of a boob/ bottle and snuggles to a cold hard highchair. And,  I mean, fair play.

My baby fell into the later category. They were not in the slightest bit interested in solid food when there was warm milk going about. And when I opened Instagram and saw babies chowing down on steak strips and mango fingers rolled in hemp seeds, it was hard not to panic. I frequently had to get the nutritionist side of my brain to have words with the parent side of my brain that couldn’t help but compare my baby to the highly staged videos I saw on my phone.

All of this is to say that not all babies will be a Solid Starts baby and that’s OK!