HELP trying for 4 weeks but baby does not want to eat

[Anonymous]

We have been trying to introduce solids, but once the inititial excitement of the spoon gone DD has shown no interest in food.
I have tried (introduced with 4 day intervals to test for reactions) rice and oat cereals, green beans, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apple, pear,....
I am not sure which strategy to use. I don't force it on her so I don't fight. I give her a spoon and/or a toy and when she opens her mouth I put some food in. She takes what gets in but works hard on not opening her mouth (very hard for her as she puts everything in her mouth). I tried putting some in the spoons she uses but she has started wiping it off before putting it in her mouth.
Doing this way there is no cry or no fight but clearly she has no interest in food for now.
Pediatrician says to keep on trying like that twice a day. So I keep on doing it but ....
I do it in the morning or lunch time and at 6:30pm before the bath.

Any advice? Should I stick to only rice cereals or keep on introducing new tastes (sometime it seems marginally better if it is something new)?
Did you have the same experience?
What ended up working for your kid?
Is there some other food I should try that might work or just hope that it will come with time?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I forgot to precise but she is 6 month and a half and has been fed only breastmilk (most of the time in a bottle)

[Anonymous]

here's a thought: are you giving your baby a chance to get hungry? i just went through this with my son. he was always drinking milk, which i thought was a good thing. but he was refusing solids. the less he ate, the more milk i gave him (thinking that at least he was getting nourishment from milk), then the less he wanted to eat. i was in a vicious cycle! we started subbing water for milk between meals and now he is showing more interest in food. (he's 13 months, by the way).

[Anonymous]

PP here...don't give a 6 month old water, but do perhaps cut back on breastmilk?

[Anonymous]

I sometime try in the morning when she wakes up and is hungry but it has never worked then. The 6:30pm --another time when she is hungry -- works marginally better but not great...
And like 9:29 I am worry about cutting on the milk since she eats so little

[Anonymous]

my doc told me that there was really no hurry to introduce solids and that the child would let me know when he was interested. I gave just a little taste of this or that for several weeks and like you was very worried at first. the doc reassured me that all the nutrients were being provided by mommy milk or formula so the food was a bonus. The one thing I did that helped was mixing breastmilk in with the purees. my little one is 13 months now and eats up a storm. His favorite word is cheese. good luck!

[Anonymous]

We were having similar issues with DD when she was 6/7 months old. The pediatrician recommended giving her a banana (mushed up, almost "soupy" at first) and for some reason, that seemed to do the trick. It still took a little while, but she was more interested in that than the baby food I had been giving her. From there on, she started being more interested in fruit (apples/pears), and only afterwards she started eating veggies. I think perhaps it took her a little while to get used to the new texture, and the sweet fruit gave a bit more of an "incentive". I also agree with PPs about trying a new food when she's hungry. My daughter (now 14 months) will eat things when she's very hungry that she would normally not touch. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think the first thing my baby really ate with gusto was baby oatmeal mixed with breastmilk and pureed banana. I almost gagged, but whatever.

Is your daughter showing signs of wanting solids? Does she reach for your food? Does she make lip-smacking noises and motions while she watches you eat? If not, she's just not ready. No rush. Try again next week.

[Anonymous]

9:29 poster here:

at 6 months, you are really just trying to get her used to eating with you. it's not really for sustanance. it's ok if she is living on breastmilk and shunning solids. just keep offering. the problem is after a year, when you are on whole milk. that's not good in quantities above 24 ounces a day (no iron!). so that's when eating solids matters.

[Anonymous]

My ped told us (and I've also read) that any solids before 1 yr old are really just for fun and developmental learning (picking up food, feeding self, trying new tastes, etc.) There is no reason that your baby NEEDS to be eating solids. I know a few moms whose older infants (nearing 1 yr) hardly eat any solids at all. I definitely would not force it if your baby doesn't seem interested and would NOT cut back on BM since that should be her primary source of calories and nutrition until 1 year old. Give the mashed banana a try mixed with some BM but don't force it if she's not into it. Try again after a few days or a weeks. She'll take to solids eventually!

[Anonymous]

OP. I do mix in breastmilk in all my purees.
No, except for one day when she was trying to reach for my bowl of oatmeal, she does not show any interest.
I'll try banana.

[Anonymous]

My baby also has little interest in eating. She is now 12 months and what we found that works is this. She would NEVER eat baby food, rice cereal or oatmeal. She won't even eat applesauce because she thinks it is the same consistency as baby food. From the beginning, I gave her small bites of bananas, little pieces of soft apple, rice, spaghetti (I'm embarrassed to admit that Chef Boy Ar Dee is one of her favorite foods - introduced to her by her older siblings), carrots (she particularly liked them if they were out of chicken soup), yogurt (no stirring though because it gets too much like the consistency she hates), cheese, pineapple, and anything else I can think of. As she got older, I added eggs, fish and other easy to eat foods.

She will also only eat when she is in a good mood. That means she has to be up from naps for at least 30 minutes before there is any likelihood at all that she will accept an offer of food. She will not eat in the morning no matter what I offer. If she is teething, I am lucky to get a few bites in a day.

I offer food every 1.5 to 3 hours depending on what we are doing. If I have time, I let her feed herself. I never force her to eat anything she doesn't want. I taught her to shake her head no when she doesn't want something and I respect her decision although I will offer at least three or four times over a several minute period before I end our feeding session. I often feed her while I hold her or while she is sitting on the kitchen counter because she does not like to be in the highchair unless she has crayons and a piece of paper. I let her taste anything of mine she wants except coffee, soda, alcohol and peanut butter. I let her eat cheerios whenever she wants - in her case, it doesn't seem to make a difference with whether she will eat other foods and she really enjoys them. I never offer formula with food. Formula is given four tims a day - morning nap, afternoon nap, bedtime and middle of the night bottle (would love to get rid of that one, but it hasn't happened yet). I also recently reduced the amount of formula I give her at naptime bottles to try to make her hungry.

FWIW, my ped thinks she is behind in her eating, but is not worried about it.

[Anonymous]

OP here, to the last poster

you tried pieces at what age? and how big are your pieces? DD is good with her hands but I cannot see her picking up very small pieces of food.
when did you try yogurt?

[Anonymous]

Our baby is a little over 8 months and just this week really became more "open" to eating solids- very pureed food although we had been trying for the past couple of months. Our ped. told us that between 4 and 7 months most babies will show interest. A little over 6 months we started offering pureed fruit or veg. once a day if we felt like it since she didn't seem like an enthusiastic eater. She didn't take to it and still gagged/choked so I worried, went to a La Leche League meeting, and just figured out she wasn't ready. I still offered her something whenever we felt like it. Then a few weeks ago we decided to consistently offer her food so we started when we ate dinner, maybe she would take 1-2 little spoons of food, nothing much, then she was done. Last week she gagged everytime we put food near her. This week I have offered her food everytime I eat and she has been eating much more. I think it is a process. I wouldn't stress too much. I, also, wouldn't cut back on breastmilk since this is really where babies are suppose to be getting their nutrients and calories the first year of life. I, also, wouldn't listen to the ped. too much about what your baby should be doing in regards to food at certain ages because everyone is different. I, also, wouldn't force the food because you do not want to create bad eating habits or aversions towards food. Good luck. Enough ALSOS already

[Anonymous]

I suggest checking out the book "Child of Min: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter.