10 month old refusing all solids

Hi!

I went through exactly what you are describing with my first child (now 3 years old...and healthy!) It was a major stressor for me, and my anxiety didn’t help the issue. I’d be happy to share details about my experience if you want to message me. 
 

nicole 

I am hoping plenty of parents with similar experiences will respond, and be reassuring.  I am an occupational therapist, and have seen many families in your situation.  If you aren't finding the feeding therapy helpful, consider if you feel the person is just not a good match for your family (find someone new), or if you were secretly hoping for the "magic wand." tIt's taken some time to get to this point, and will take some time to change. Is baby still taking breastmilk and/or formula? Until 12 months, that remains the main source of nutrition for babies, so baby shouldn't lose weight if they have enough milk/formula. Like other professionals, I encourage you to go at his pace; forcing will NOT ultimately result in better eating/weight gain, but may well have an impact on his relationship with you and with food.

One website you might take a look at (if you haven't seen it already): https://yourkidstable.com/baby-wont-eat-solids/

Firstly, give yourself a bit of a break, mama, I'm sure you're doing great! :) I've always heard that "food before one is just for fun" so don't stress too much if your little guy isn't eating much solid food at 10 months. As long as he's getting plenty of breastmilk or formula he's going to be perfectly fine. If you've only tried spoon-feeding purees, maybe give baby-led weaning a shot and offer him small pieces of food he can grab and feed himself. Sliced avocado, sticks of roasted sweet potatoes, slices of banana, well-steamed carrots or broccoli, etc. There are tons of resources on the internet about how to do this and ideas for foods to offer. I did this with my first and planning to do it for #2. It's messy but allows your kiddo to explore tastes and textures on their own and enjoy mealtimes! Good luck!!

In my experience, before 12 months babies are mostly learning how to eat, not getting too much actual nutrition from food. The nutrition is still coming mainly from breast milk/formula. That said, perhaps he is not hungry due to too much liquid. He needs enough liquid to not dehydrate, but leave some room so he is still hungry to try food. Don't feed him, just put some finger food on the high chair tray in front of him during family meal time and hopefully if you leave him alone he will catch on and feed himself. Don't feed him packaged baby food either, mash up whatever everyone else is eating. If you are worried about his growth, please visit the pediatrician rather than letting it "crush your soul."

I’m a early educator for 10 plus years, and a mom of a 18 month old, who also has a love-hate relationship with eating. I don’t know the exact details of your situation, but here’s what helped with my child, and with children I’ve worked with in the past: let them lead. It’s a great idea to let them feed themselves, if you haven’t already. At first, your child might reject this, and not eat and throw their food and etc. But feeding oneself takes practice, so it may take a dozen or so times until they actually start eating. Plus it gives them an opportunity to practice their fine motor skills. Also, consider adding seasoning to the food you’re giving them (dill in yogurt, butter and cinnamon in oatmeal, pumpkin purée served with penne pasta etc.) Again, their initial reaction to the new flavor could be rejection so give it a few tries. Lastly, your child is observing you during this mealtime together. They’re gleaning tons of information from watching you and how you’re reacting. Though mealtime can be incredibly tedious, try to remain calm and make it a pleasurable experience. Perhaps let them watch you eat, while they sit in their high chair. Demonstrate how to carry the utensil from food to mouth. Talk about the ingredients and the colors and the flavors.
 

If your pediatrician is not concerned or worried, I would just give it time and patience. One of the best sayings I’ve read (from a nutritionist) is this, “picky eaters are the rule, not the exception.” 

Best of luck!

Hey there! Have you been trying to spoon feed and the baby closes his mouth? If so, around 10 months most babies don’t like to be spoon fed and are interested in finger foods which they can pick, eat, play with (as part of their learning). I also offer pre loaded spoons of yogurt eg which is thick in consistency and let babe pick it up, my daughter eats so much better if I let her be in charge. Also they learn from modeling, so include babe in family meal time. If you are already offering finger foods and baby is not interested in that either, then I am afraid I haven’t experienced this situation. Hope other parents can provide some insight. Also solids don’t help as much with weight gain as does the milk intake which is calorie rich, hope babe is consuming around 24oz a day which is recommended to be continued until 1 year of age.

I'm so sorry you are going through this! The woman who runs Solid Starts often mentions that one of her motivations for starting her business was the fact that her son started refusing all food at 12 months.  It sounds like you are being really thoughtful and have consulted resources, but just in case you haven't come across these specific tips, here are hers https://solidstarts.com/10-steps-to-prevent-or-reverse-picky-eating/ and she has a webinar linked on that page.  Good luck!

Hello, 

My child is now long past this stage, but was just like yours when he was an infant.  I fretted and worried. But my doctors told me that as long as he stayed on his own growth curve--(he was in the 5th percentile for weight so he was very small) that he would be okay. I was breast feeding, and I was also told that up to about 1 year of age, that breast milk is really all a child needs to stay healthy.  Solid food can be for practice.  I'm sure the same is probably also true of formula. So, I would check with your doctor first, and if they tell you it's okay, I would trust that.  You can always try offering a little food first when you know he's hungry, but if he really doesn't want to eat, I would try not to let it bother you.  My child eventually started eating small amounts around a year, and was always a light eater (and small child) but was healthy and keep growing at his own rate.  The more I fussed about him eating, the more he didn't want to eat!!!

Hi!

I'm so sorry to hear you are going through this. I have a 1 year old and he was kind of refusing at first when we started (6months). A couple of weeks into starting solids, I noticed that he wanted to do things on his own. So, I started preloading a spoon for him and giving it to him on his hand and he started bringing it to his mouth on his own. He started eating more and began enjoying solids just with this small change. We also did finger food early on because he was determined to take control of his feeding so we just went along. Maybe try letting him go at the food and getting in there. Some days he might get very messy and it may seem like he is just playing but all babies are prone to bring to their mouth whatever they have in their hands. So, hopefully he will eat some and discover that food can be tasty. Also, perhaps try to establish a flexible feeding schedule. So, he has milk first and 1-1.5 hrs later solids. Hopefully he will be a bit hungry but not starving, which can frustrate them more and contribute to the not eating issue. Overall, I've learned that exposure, allowing them to touch, smell, smash, etc the food, and working on removing some pressure from eating time, can help in this situations. I have been enjoying this website https://solidstarts.com & https://www.feedinglittles.com
I hope they help you and know that you are doing awesome!

Hi there! I hear you - it's so hard to think about your baby being hungry!

I would highly suggest checking out Feeding Littles Infant Feeding Course. So much *helpful* information about feeding your baby (and toddler - they have a separate course for them). One thing I learned is that baby's primary nutrition until 12 months is breast milk or formula and that solids are for oral motor practice, and (ideally!) a fun learning experience for baby about new textures and tastes. Even after they turn one they can still take a bottle or nurse and get good nutrients that way to supplement what solids they may or may not be eating.

Not sure if you have talked with your pediatrician (if you are concerned and haven't done that yet I would suggest reaching out), but so long as they are continuing to grow they are getting enough food (either solids or milk/formula).

Our son was not jazzed about eating solids most of the time - he preferred to play. I usually had to leave the table and let my partner finish mealtime because it stressed me out so much that he wouldn't actually eat anything. But as he grew he tried more and more things and now I don't even think about it. He eats when he's hungry and stops when he's full and I can tell he's getting enough because he is growing and in a good mood (or at least not in a hangry mood!).

Best of luck on the feeding journey. You're not alone!

Highly recommend Kids Eat in Color/ Better Bites with Jennifer Anderson https://kidseatincolor.com/ 

My daughter's first born started to refuse solids at 10 mos. or so.  She only wanted to breast feed.  It was happenstance that an opthamologist saw her at a public event and noticed a lowered eye lid.  This led to reveal a nerve that was near her esophagus was being pressed by a tumor in her brain.  It's all very sad and hard to  talk about someone so young and sweet. But there maybe other issues that make her not want to swallow.  Your post brought it all back.  All children are so different, but that's hard to realize when they are your first.

Have you thought about teething? He might be on strike because his mouth hurts. It’s just a thought. Try giving him a nice full dose of Motrin and then 45 min later offer some food. Even if he doesn’t seem overtly fussy like “teething” he may be uncomfortable. My boys went off food during bouts of teething and just wanted milk. Good luck! 

Have you tried BLW?? Until the first year the main food ys the milk. Let him try the different textures and play with it , he will maybe try to try something...
Wishing you good luck