Feeding troubles: advice sought

I would truly appreciate the feedback and advice of other parents on this:

Our son (7.5 months) has been eating veggie and meat purees since he was around 5 months. For the past month it has been a struggle every lunch and supper to get him to eat. In the morning he loves his cereal, but at lunch and/or supper he just can't get around to eating veggies and meat (of any kind) "willingly". FYI, the fruit purees we give him AFTER supper he has NO problem whatsoever downing

His reaction always seems to be to rub his fists in his eyes (as though he was tired) and turn his head away. We always managed to work through this (albeit painstakingly) but recently (last 2 weeks) he has been very difficult to feed.

I should mention that my GF was recommended to slowly prioritize food over milk. Not to say that the bottle is no longer part of his diet, but that he eats BEFORE getting milk (because we thought drinking milk before the meal was filling him up too much and causing his "fussiness").

We ruled out allergies as he does not not have any allergy symptoms.

The other thing I should mention is that this weekend our doctor told us our son had a throat infection and started a small ear infection for which he know has anti-biotics.


My questions:
1. Could the infections be the only cause of his mealtime problems?
2. Should we still be giving his milk AFTER meals?
3. Have any of you experienced this? What did you do?
4. Any other comments/advice are welcome.

Wow, meats and veggies since 5 months. That is awfully young. With that said, if he has a ear and throat infection he is ill and likely won't have much of an appetite. The antibiotics could be mildly upsetting his stomach as well. I wouldn't be forcing him to eat solids whle sick, but instead making sure he gets lots of fluids...

Originally Posted by CSK'sMom

Wow, meats and veggies since 5 months. That is awfully young. With that said, if he has a ear and throat infection he is ill and likely won't have much of an appetite. The antibiotics could be mildly upsetting his stomach as well. I wouldn't be forcing him to eat solids whle sick, but instead making sure he gets lots of fluids...

Thanks for your comment. Makes sense to prioritize fluids while he is ill. That being said, he has always been kinda fussy about veggies and meat so we wonder if there's more than the infection involved here.

My GF wants to give him a structured feeding routine while I favor the "let's listen to our baby's clues" approach. She is worried that giving our son what he wants (in terms of food) will make him difficult later on.

When you say milk, do you mean formula? Kids under 1 can't have cows milk, they can't digest it properly, so I assume you mean the latter.

An infection will definitely affect appetite, so if the problem is recent, that's probably a good part of it. Other than that, I'd basically say just get used some degree of food fussiness. When kids learn they can reject food and yummier food will be forthcoming, they start doing it, they aren't dumb! One thing we did was not give the yummy fruit until a while (30 minutes or so)after trying the veggies/meat, that way we broke the association of yummy food following less yummy foods.

Originally Posted by Bullseye

When you say milk, do you mean formula? Kids under 1 can't have cows milk, they can't digest it properly, so I assume you mean the latter.

Yes I meant formula.

The rest of your post is bang on what my GF wants to avoid...him refusing certain foods so he always gets the ones he wants (or the formula for that matter)

My son is kind of doing the same thing. He will start a meal eating a few spoons fine, and then all of a sudden refuse to eat. Something he wolfed down previously (so we know he likes it) he refuses to eat and gets upset if we try to feed him. I know he's hungry because he'll always eat cheerios. We're trying to get him on more solid lumpy foods, but he likes the puree and only for the beginning. His weight gain isn't high, but it isn't alarmingly low yet. He was at around 60-70 percentile a few months ago, now he's more like 40-50 percentile. But he did get taller by A LOT, so that will account for some of the drop.

BTW, he's 9 months now and we want him to eat more solid type foods so that we can start him eating more table foods and such.

looking forward to further insight on this topic.

My sons both went through changes in their eating patterns on a regular basis. Some weeks they would eat fine and others they didn't have much of an appetite. Then sometimes they would want to eat all the time! As long as he is growing normally, and gaining enough weight I wouldn't worry about it. Kids go through growth spurts, and their eating habits can change from day to day, or week to week. When he starts to feel better, he will probably start eating normally again.

Good Luck!

At 7.5 months, the mainstay of your son's diet should still be formula (or breastmilk) and not solid food. The use of solid food at this age is more to get him used to different tastes and textures and less about nutrition. I wouldn't worry too much about what he is and isn't eating as long as you continue to offer the foods (even the ones he doesn't seem to like right now).

You may want to try allowing him to self-feed with finger foods if his pincer grasp is developing. Well-cooked carrots, peas and beans are good ones to try. He may be more apt to eat his veggies if he's allowed to do it himself. My youngest never really cared for pureed/strained baby food and would eat better (both more food and more varied foods) once we allowed her to have table food.

Here's a great link on feeding the 7-9 month old.
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030600.asp