any ideas anyone?

[winegirl]

My little girl is over 7 months now and still not to bothered about weaning. The HV suggested I give her some finger foods as she might respond better to feeding herself so I have been giving her little bits of toast. She seems to like it but still hasn't got the hang of swallowing the food. Just mushes it up for a while before letting it fall out of her mouth!

Anyway, I was wondering about what other finger foods I could give her? I am at abit of a loss as I don't want to give her anything that needs chewing or that she might choke on and so have no ideas at all!

Any suggestions that anyone has would be great. Do I have first time mum written on my forehead or what? (Last time mum as well as still not come round from the trauma of the birth I'm sure!)

Thanks in advance
Winegirl x

[beverley]

Hi winegirl,

As you know, I've also had problems with weaning. I tried finger food but it didn't work for us. However, good things to try for finger food are sticks of cooked vegetable (e.g. carrot, or a broccoli floret), sticks of fruit such as cooked apple / pear or a stick of banana. Make it a long enough stick so that when she holds it in her little fist there is some still poking out the top.

After the failure of the finger food I went back to purees. I decided to make feeding times fun. At his 11am feed, I gave him a 4oz bottle (so that he wasn't ravenously hungry) and then gave some solid. I let him stick his hands in the puree and wipe them all over his face, I gave him a spoon to play with (and sometimes put food on the spoon and let him try to get it in his mouth) and inbetween times I used to shove in a few spoonfuls of my own. He also rolled it around his mouth a bit and spat it out. After we had finishd playing (about 30 minutes), I gave him another 4oz of milk.

After a week of this I noticed that he started to swallow some of the food. Now, 4 weeks on, he eats 3 solid meals a day.

Like everything associated with babies, what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another, but it might be worth a try.

And don't get stressed about it cos then food will become an issue! Just make it play time.

Good luck!
xxx