Hungry 6 month old won't eat solids - help!
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Anonymous
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My DD turned 6 months old today and is exclusively breast fed - she is hitting physical milestones well ahead of schedule (she is sitting up unassisted, just started crawling on all fours, and has been rolling all over the place since 3 months). I've been trying to introduce oatmeal, purees, baby lead weaning items (banana/avocado that she can hold) for about a month now but she is not having any of it.
She confuses me because she tries to grab food off my plate, is very interested in food, and she is HUNGRY. She is nursing approximately every 2 hours and often gnawing on her hand in the meantime. She is so, so active (never stops moving) and I really think she shows all the signs of being ready for solids. I just can't get her to swallow anything - she gags, spits it out or blows bubbles with the purees and doesn't really "eat" any of the BLW larger items although she will hold and suck on it. She sometimes will eat a tiny bit off one of those chewy spoons while feeding herself, so it might be that she will just have to self feed somehow? I don't have much experience with this though, absolutely different from my first born who happily ate purees. She sleeps pretty well with an 8.5 hour stretch at night (7pm-3:30am and then 3:45-6:45am) but I'm also afraid to drop that last night feed before she eats solids because she is obviously hungry. I had her 6 month checkup this morning and she is a big girl, 98% for height and 56% for weight, but up until now she was closer to 70% for weight so I'm a tiny bit worried. The pediatrician said "definitely start her on solids" but how am I to do that if she just spits them out? She also spits out Tylenol, vitamin drops when I've attempted those things. :/ |
Anonymous
| This is fine and appropriate. If she spits them out you just keep offering. Keep offering different foods, it's mostly for experimentation and play at this age. Eventually she'll find something she likes and work from there. |
Anonymous
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She has to figure out what to do with her tongue, and she will. Keep offering different things in different ways.
And while babies don’t need to start with cereal, it’s a great starting food if you mix with some expressed milk - she can sip some off the spoon if you make it thinner. Just keep going. She’ll get it. Up until now, all the food she needed and wanted came in a handy breast. |
Anonymous
| My #2 would only eat what she could manage on her own. Nothing off a spoon until she could hold the spoon herself. She never ate baby food. She started with teeny pieces of very soft banana, sweet potato, avocado etc. Veggies that are part of soup are really soft too. I would just put some things on her tray and see what she does. |
Anonymous
| It takes time, just keep offering. |
Anonymous
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Sit her in a high chair with some Cheerios. She'll get it!
Keep on trying to spoon feed her and letting her play with the spoon and food (will be messy). |
Anonymous
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Give her your food. Trust me. Please report back.
No, don't give her a piece of steak! But, tiny smased up rice(regular rice not baby food rice, and even ground beef, smashed up too.) Or smashed it up between your fingers and let her eat from your fingers. Please don't worry about it, she will be fine. Please report how it goes. |
Anonymous
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My oldest was like this too. We kept trying solids and it was so frustrating because she really didn’t eat them until 9 or 10 months. We just kept trying at least 1x day.
She’s six now and a great eater, so it wasn’t indicative of a long term problem, FWIW. |
Anonymous
It just takes time. Keep offering and also know that even when she does start she will be getting minuscule amounts for awhile, so it’s not going to fill her up necessarily. Unfortunately that’s still all on your breast milk 
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Anonymous
| I think this sounds normal. 6 months is just beginning solids. Think about it, they don't even have enough teeth yet to really process their food. It's okay that your 6 mo is still breastfeeding frequently including once at night. And a lot of breastfed babies start out really fat and drop down on the weight curve at about 6 months. If she were really starving, she probably wouldn't be able to make it 8 hours at night. 6 months is the age to START solid foods, not to be a proficient eater getting a large amount of calories from solid food. |
Anonymous
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cheerios, soft tiny pieces of solids.
My kids never liked baby food/purees, made them gag. What they wanted was our food. My oldest grabbed at my husband's spinach pie from Vace in Cleveland Park, so he gave her some of the soft spinach stuffing and there was no turning back. I'm sure it was at 6months or earlier even. |
Anonymous
| They have to more or less reverse what they do with their tongues to drink in order to chew and swallow, so this is normal. 6 months is really young. |
jsmith123
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I think when pediatricians say to start solids at 6 months, they should also say: "but like any other milestone, your child might not be ready for a couple more month." There really is a wide range of normal here. And interest at 6 months, but not ability, is totally normal.
It sounds like she'll be a good candidate for BLW. Let her grab and chew whatever is on your plate. She'll spit and gag, and every time she does that, her body is learning a little bit. One other thing you might want to try is these little feeders. They let kids chew and get some flavor without being spoon fed or getting big chunks. My kids liked these a lot at that age. https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Pacifier-Soothing-Silicone-Teething/dp/B07RKZ21BD/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2GGA8HK5YOLO3&dchild=1&keywords=solid+food+pacifier&qid=1601513497&sprefix=solid+food+%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVVJGOERUU1E5OU1YJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODQzOTk5TFVSMEJPVkhFM0VDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNTU3MDgxSU80OVcyTzZWM1BMJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== |
Anonymous
| Keep trying! If you think she doesn't like something, offer again in a few days. |
Anonymous