No interest in eating

I feel at a loss. My eldest is 8 years old. When I BLW him at 6 months he took to it like a duck to water. Ate everything and anything. To this day he is the least pickiest eater and I’m fully aware how lucky I am that he has such a great relationship with food. Now I know the whole food under one is just for fun and nutritionally baby still gets their main nutrients from breast milk or formula. I also know at 6 months and further baby is most likely to just play with food than eat it but my youngest, (6 months old) will just not even try. He gags at everything even throwing up, won’t do anything on a spoon and has no interest in finger foods. I’m of course happy to wait. I keep thinking maybe he’s just not ready yet but he has surpassed all his milestones. He has lost his tongue thrust reflex, he sits up unassisted, he currently actively reaches and puts things into his mouth, he chews, he watches intently and grabs food but after all of this he gags at the taste, spits it out and stares at us all eating like we’ve just tried to poison him. He’ll happily much on the spoon and the plate but won’t want anything on it 🤦🏻‍♀️ The only thing he actively eats/wants is the organix sweetcorn rings. He and my eldest are the exact opposites. My eldest loved calpol, his dummy, food etc. My youngest has never taken to a dummy, refuses a bottle, throws up calpol and nurofen, spat out his rotavirus vaccine etc…The only thing he’s ever been okay with in his mouth is my breast and a teething toy. I genuinely feel like he’s going to be my picky eater. What do I do? Do I just keep giving food and hope that one day he decides and figures out he likes food? Or do I stop for now and try again nearer 7 months. I also want to add he has severe CMPA and is EBF on a strict dairy free diet so I have to be really careful with what I feed him anyway.
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I think the advice is to just keep giving and exposing to food - he'll take to it when he is ready, but exploring now is going to really help. Not making any fuss around him eating is also helpful, but he can still sit with you for meals or watch you prep food and you can demonstrate how great it is to eat by being positive and smiley when you do it - he'll pick it up eventually! However, if you are worried, then either speak to the health visitor or a doctor 😊

I second what Jade said, keep letting him explore it and don’t put any pressure on actually eating the food. sometimes it takes a few times trying a food before they actually like it, even when they show they don’t like it. It could be texture, taste, smell that puts him off. But since you started food, I would keep introducing it every day, if you stop, it might be confusing for him

I don’t think that him not being interested in food right now means he’ll grow up a picky eater. I would continue offering but never forcing I know families who introduced solids after a year or even at 16 months because their kids weren’t interested or ready. Trust your child when he’s ready he’ll star eating just continue offering.

have you looked into probiotics? maybe help his gut build up more enzymes that could change his palate. i’d see about if he’s able to ingest acidophilus

@Andrea it’s finding a probiotic that’s dairy free 😩

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