Firstly remember that every child does things in their own time. 

After working with a lot of parents supporting them with their weaning journey, I have seen that too many think weaning is just about the transition from solely drinking milk to eating 3 meals a day whilst being able to sit at the table enjoying a family meal!

As much as this will happen at some point, there are so many more reasons why it needs to be a journey for their individual development. 

Firstly, a child needs to learn to sit up and hold their own weight so their digestive system is In the prime position to actively digest their food. At the beginning you are likely to find your little one will tire themselves out by becoming winey, uninterested or even upset. Imagine all of a sudden being able to do a sit up for the first time and you are expected to do 10 in one go! Your muscles would ache, it is similar for your little one regarding building their muscle strength to support themselves. You can help them by each day giving them a bit more time to sit up with some support until they will happily do it for a period of time without any support.

Another thing your little one has to learn is how to control their oral muscles. Initially this will mainly focus on their tongue movement and getting used to a variety of textures, and tastes on their tongue. This is why your little one will often thrust their tongue forwards which can get misunderstood as your child doesn’t like the food but often it can be done by accident as they are still learning how they have to move it around in their mouth and how to gain control of their tongues movement.  This can take a while again like us if we do it a lot we can get tired out especially when it is a new skill!

Whilst they are learning this skill they are also developing the muscles they will need to continue their speech development as dependent on the position of their tongue will affect their speech sounds. 

Something which is definitely underrated is the amount of sensory input that comes from food for your little one! How sometimes it can be overwhelming and other times not stimulating enough! If you look at food through your little ones eyes they don’t know and neither do they care about its nutrition level. They consider does it smell interesting? Does it look like something that gets my attention from me to want to touch it? When I touch it what does it feel like? Is it a texture I like or recognise from my toys? What does it sound like when I hit it, throw it, or squish it? This is what excites your little one all before what it actually tastes like!

So at first does it excite them enough to eat lots? or it may be something they are not sure about, or something they only want a little of at the moment as it may not be tantalising enough for them or they may have tired out now.
This process is no different to you going to a restaurant on opening night not knowing what to expect, go in through the doors you have that excitement but also nervousness about are you going to like it or is it not going to live up to the hype!

So you are looking at the menu but it isn’t in your language so you just guess what to order, it arrives in front of you and its not something you ever tried before. If it looks colourful, smells tasty and gets your mouth watering, you will often persuade yourself to try some. If it comes out boring in colour and not at all interesting to look at or smell you may move your cutlery around in it but not actually put it in your mouth because you have already decided you don’t like it! However after seeing others eat the same thing and enjoy it, or it is explained what is in it which is all foods you like, or maybe it gets your mouth watering then you will try it and sometimes love it and sometimes decide never to order that meal again!
This is the same for your little one they need things to be offered in a colourful and stimulating way!

Remember your little one has never seen, touched, that alone tasted any solid food before !  So the trick is make it full of colour as much as you can, as well of allow them to being playing in the kitchen whilst you are going all those smells will start stimulating their senses, before giving them the actual food give them time to squish, squelch, pat and explore the food before expecting them to eat it also remember they only have tiny tummies so they will probably at the beggining only each equivalent to 1-2 teaspoons of food in the whole entire meal!  This is great though but allow them them to explore and play as long as they are happy to do so!

All of this they have to learn and master before even being interested in eating a whole meal the key is the more fun you make food and the more options you give them just to explore the less stress it will be for you, and for them and the more they will learn to love food everything else comes after!