Hi,
I have posted (a lot) on here about my daughters poor sleep and allergies...but we also now have a bit of an issue starting with solid food. Gah.
She has an immediate allergy to milk and soya and also a very recent diagnosis of silent reflux.
We started weaning at 5.5 months due to poor weight gain associated with allergies and at that stage, my daughter ate literally everything we gave her. It was wonderful. She ended up on beefy purees pretty quickly. we progressed to a more baby led approach at 7 months when she started to refuse the spoon, and initially ate really well - eating heaps of spaghetti bolognese, toast, veggies and pretty much whatever hubby and I were eating. I was over the moon and very happy with her progress.
However, since then she has gradually eaten less and less at each meal and despite my best efforts I feel mealtimes are becoming a real battleground. Sometimes she starts yelling the moment she is in the highchair.
Recently she has only eaten a small mouthful or two at each meal. Occasionally she will suck a pouch, but only the 4+ vegetable/fruit ones. I usually offer her several types of food to see what she fancies - but will this create a fussy eater?
She just bats the spoon/fork/my hand away and clamps her mouth shut and if we put food on her tray she picks it all up and throws it on the floor.
She has had a diagnosis of silent reflux which has only recently been treated - could this be an issue?
Occasionally, for example, if we are at a busy family gathering she is so distracted she will let us pop loads of food in her mouth. A friend recommended putting the TV on to distract her, but shes only 9 months, I dont really want her to discover TV yet and figure that is going to be a difficult habit to break later....
I am desperately trying to be blase about it, but it is really hard when I'm cooking every meal, including breakfast and offering lots of different foods to entice her and she point blank rejects it all.
Does anyone have any advice? Should I just back off completely and let her feed herself? She literally wont eat if I do this, and I'm still uber sensitive about her weight just as she is getting back on track...but I'll do whatever is best to get her eating again.
Thanks for any advice.
x