My grandson is 21 months old. Some of his tooth are already in his mouth. He is on breast feeding even now but he is not getting sufficient milk from that. Since last 10 months he is being given some outside milk or semisolid food but in diffrent way. Actually he never tries to taste or eat the food from his mouth himself. He tries to keep his mouth closed and takes away his mouth as far as possible, whenever he obseves that something is approaching towards his mouth. In response to it his mother grabs him, put him in her lap in laying position, encircle his feet and hands from her one leg and then pushes approx 150 ml of the milk, semisolid food especially paste of boiled rice and pulse, in his mouth forcibly with help of a spoon, 3/4 times daily. In this process my grand son keeps on crying laudly with tears in eyes and trying to escape from her mother' s tight grip. Some times he vomits also whatever was pushed in his mouth forcefully. The scene is really pathatic. This has become a regular scene while feeding him. Child is normal otherwise. He asks to drink water and drinks it as normal child. He takes one/two pices of chapati or salted dalmonth in his mouth.Only problem is, he does not accept to eat or drink any thing other than water. He actually confirms it by looking in the glass that there is nothing else than water.He is afraid of spoon if it comes near his mouth. We are not stopping this practice due to fear that if he was not given any food he will became more weak. Please advice us how to feed this child? Please help in this regard. We will remain obliged to you for the kind suggestion. krishna replied. this is high time to get the baby out of reach of breast feed. I agree with bie new the mother should not be around for couple of time. But not suddenly, gradually.
About the food, try different variety and taste of food like sweet, sour, spicy, salty etc. every baby has unique taste and he loves to eat that only.
So many weaned recipes are available, try with that.
Try to play some music or child rhymes video cd.
Child will eat only if he is in his own game. for example if child is cowling or playing put some mashed food with fingers from his backside of mouth. The same thing helped me to made my child weaned.
Best of luck.. Laura replied. It is very important not to force feed your child FOR ANY REASON. Children who are force fed become increasingly resistant to feedings and NEVER learn to enjoy eating. He is developing what we call a Post Traumatic Feeding Disorder. He is a baby now so you are able to force him, but as he gets older he will not allow it and by then he may refuse everything. For the next few weeks, you need to completely stop force feeding. Let him breast feed exclusively. Put him in a high chair three times per day with some water and chapati and let him feed himself. Don' t go near him with a spoon. You should eat your meal at the same time as he is sitting in the high chair, but don' t offer him ANY food. If he asks to try a piece of food, give him a very small peoce and then ignore him. After a few weeks, you can put some soft easily dissolvable foods in front of him in the high chair and see if he starts feeding himself. But, he should only feed himself. You should not go near his mouth! Make sure he is taking a liquid multivitamin with iron like Poly-vi-sol with iron to make sure that he is meeting his vitamin needs. Please stop the force feeding as soon as possible or he will never recover. bie new replied. Instead of the baby' s mother has somebody else tried to feed the baby. Keep the mom out of sight of baby when he is hungry and somebody else should try to feed him solids.
Another option I have heard from doctors is dont give the baby milk as soon as he is hungry ask him to try other food. If he is really hungry he will eat it. Try it for 7-8 days initially he will cry then he will get used to to it. Second option sounds cruel but it is in your baby' s favor eventually. When you try to wean the baby from mom' s milk it is always good that someone else other than mother feeds the baby solids because if the child sees or smells the mother he always wants milk.