Not Swallowing

I think you might find when he starts nursery and can't rely on breastfeeding there may be a natural progression regarding his interest in solids. Try not to stress... and the food before one is just for fun thing, just to clear up any confusion, basically their main source of nutrition is still milk up until the age of 1 but they are learning to eat and developing the skills of eating prior to this. The amount of calories they consume from solids varies from child to child so try not to worry too much. Babies are not linear! X

@Elena he definitely is swallowing something but not a huge amount and it can vary really! He has an appointment with the health visitor next week so it’s definitely something I’ll be bringing up with them x

@Elena thank you 🥰 x

Yes my may 28th baby was exactly like this and I was starting to worry, in the last 2 weeks she’s suddenly changed, is chewing and swallowing more. Loads still comes out but she’s consuming actual food which she wasn’t before, her poos have changed too so you can tell it’s going in now, they all do it some are slower than others but they can also suddenly change really quickly. Do you eat with him and exaggerate chewing and tongue control so he can see/learn how to move the food around?

Could have written this myself, in fact I posted something similar I think. Everyone reassured me that if you keep providing food they will keep practicing and eventually just start swallowing properly. Usually 10-12 months they just get it. Don’t get me wrong we still have days of predominantly spitting it out but some meals she does actually swallow it all. My LG is also EBF won’t take a bottle so I know how challenging that is. I’ve increased the time between feeds and made sure food is always 2h after a feed to make sure she is actually hungry and it definitely made a difference. That and not being too tired at the dinner table. Finally now my LG has a pincer grip I find she has a better of chewing and swallowing if food is bite size rather than finger food. She used to just bite a huge pieces off before and then always chew and spit out.

@Philippa his poos have definitely changed come to think of it! Yeah we do always make sure we eat with him or everytime we eat make sure he can see and even let him try what we have as he’s so interested in food and loves to feed himself but he just doesn’t seem to swallow much unfortunately. Don’t think it helps he seems to have been ill ever since we’ve started weaning too 🙈😂

@Katie thank you that’s some great tips! I definitely feel i need to give more time between his food and feeds now thinking of it! I’ve really noticed his pincer grip the last few days so I’ll try doing some smaller bits for him too x

I don’t really understand the phrase ‘food before 1 is just for fun’. My health visitor also said this to me, and yes, I do understand it’s probably because their main source of nutrition is milk before 1, but their iron levels deplete after 6 months so they need iron from food. So, which is it? Do they need food or not? 😩

@Levi it’s all so confusing isn’t it! There’s so many different conflicting advice aswell no wonder we all second guess ourselves!

My son is 9 months too he will be spoonfed but also likes to feed himself. When he feeds himself 90% of it ends up on the floor (or in the dog) i only really spoonfeed him to see he's actually consumed something so I think it must be normal. The more they practice the better they get i guess 😄 x

@Abi that’s so true! The floor and the dog that’s my little one’s favourite places too, he’s now realising he can pass food to the dog 🙈😂 x

@Hannah I like the regret when they realise the dog isn't giving it back and it's gone forever. 😆