We finally weaned DD when she was around fifteen months, but from eight months, after a lot of angst with 'flying spoons' and aircraft control going on strike, we started following the 'baby led weaning' model and letting DD feed herself. Success! She got it. We got it. Everyone was happy and sparkly. We went to Australia on holiday and she ate MOUNTAINS of food. Then we came back and she got sick eating some dodgy strawberries. Projectile vomiting of the Exocist variety. Really, she was redecorating the living room walls at one point. Not pleasant.
Anyway, our doctor recommended that she start eating very simple pureed fruit and veg when she was over the worst of it and, not knowing any better, that's what we did. I mixed the puree with some apple juice so she could easily drink it through a straw and she LOVED it. I patted myself on the back and congratulated myself for being such a good Mummy. Right, I thought, now to reintroduce solids.
Toast? Urgh!
Cheese? No!
Carrots? Yuk!
Porridge? Blurgh!
Erm...what happened to my baby-led-weaned baby?
Three months on and DD still only eats her 'juuuuuice', Cheerios, Marmite sticks and yoghurt. I surrendered after about four weeks. Bad mummy, very, very bad mummy. BUT thanks to the lovely Ghostwritermummy and Rosie Scribble who also wrote fussy eater posts recently, I'm going to bite the bullet and get her back onto solids again if it's the last thing I do. I just want her to eat as much as she wants of what we're eating as a family. That's my goal.
Then I got to thinking that there are clearly other Mummy and Daddy bloggers out there who have the same goal that I do. Perhaps we can support each other? So I decided to start the Fussy Eaters Support Club. Each month I'll post up a linky thingy for anyone with a fussy eater to air their story, share their tips for what works (and what doesn't), to celebrate their fussy eater successes or to just have a good old fashioned whinge about it all. So here goes.... the February Fussy Eaters Support Club is open!
EDIT: We now have a lovely shiny new badge for the club! Feel free to grab it from the right hand side if it takes your fancy. Huge thanks to Cass@TheDiaryofaFrugalFamily and Nikki at Typecast for all their wonderful help with making this.
Photo credit: Dinner by Salvatore Vuono at freedigitalphotos.net
This sounds a fab idea, currently Baba eats anything you put in front of him, he doesn't care. But who is to say that that wont change however my nephew is a fussy eater. He has a long list of things that he wont eat and we all know the list but it seems to grow and grow everyday. I know how much stress my sister goes through with him and his food, so I wish you luck with it all xx
ReplyDeleteFor anyone going through this, we have been there, and come through the other side so this is just to say there is hope and it does get better. Both my boys were weaned identically yet my eldest eats everything - declaring at the weekend that dauphinoise potatoes and salmon are his favourite food and could he have it every day, to my youngest eating like a sparrow.
ReplyDeleteAs a baby it took Jude until 16 months to even chew, prior to this all food was pureed but unless it was sweet, then forget it. I even went through a phase of dipping all food regardless of what it was in strawberry fromage frais as I knew he would automatically swallow it. He has never done meat and still doesnt really.
At 4 he is still a fussy eater. He gets the same as us doesnt often finish it, veg are eaten but not with relish, its only because he knows he can;t leave the table until we see a good effort on them! However, he is a very solid build, and is healthy so I have now learnt to relax. I guess we can't all be people who eat everything. Jude is now old enough to understand hunger and to understand that he won't get food inbetween meals if he has left his lunch or tea etc, and he never asks for more food, I just think he simply doesnt need as much. He definately not starving. We have days where he eats a whole plate of pasta, but then its like he has stocked up as the next 3 days he will just pick.
Believe me, it will get better, going to school helps as they eat with other kids, and as parents we also learn to relax (possibly because they are not being weighed every 5 minutes by health visitors so we feel under less pressure).
Good luck to all of you with this
Thanks Kerry, appreciate the support. Sometimes it's just good to know there are other people out there going through the same thing :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this! It's encouraging to know that there's light somewhere at the end of the tunnel. I want the courage to give DD just what we have even if she won't eat it. Damn these mummy instincts that make us so paranoid about our little one's starving! Would love to have you write a guest post for us with your experiences of Jude's early eating days and how you got through it, if you're interested?
ReplyDeleteYou can make a badge really easily using Piknic. Just upload your photo or image and resize it to about 200 x 200 then add any text and frames that you want.
ReplyDeleteYou are BRILLIANT!! Thank you so much Cass xx
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely not alone. My son was a fussy eater (it does get better, well a bit anyway), where as my daughter will eat and try anything, they are so different despite being weaned exactly the same. My son wouldn't eat fruit or vegetables or meat, I would be forever trying to think of things to cook, but he seemed to survive on cereals, sandwiches, yoghurts and pasta!
ReplyDeleteThings are improving, but getting my son to try anything new is a miracle, but it is getting better, slowly but surely! Shall definitely do a post on this topic soon and once you have the Fussy Eaters Support Club badge will put on my blog.
Thanks for this - another rower in the boat would be very welcome! Just finishing badge, hope to post today!
ReplyDelete