Question:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->>I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating >>formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as >>Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t >>eat. >>I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns >>her >>head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she >>is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. >>Nothing seems to work. >>She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under >>my supervision of course). >>Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start >>straight off with real solids? >>Should I be persistent or what? >>Sharon, mom to Jordan >Have you tried giving her table food that she can hold, with the only >difference being that it’s cooked longer (so she can gum it)? Once my >oldest daughter saw my husband and I eating real food, that was it for >the baby food. The same thing happened (only earlier!) with her >sister; she saw big sister eating by herself and refused to be fed >from that point on. She’s 1 now, and still refuses to be fed with her >spoon. all food must be finger food!!
My children were both like this too. My second (now 1) didn’t start solids much until 8.5 months, but eats a wide variety now – with the exception of baby food. She likes what we eat – potatoes, teeny bits of soft meat (finely chopped if needed), soft-cooked chunks of veggies and fruit, cantalope, crackers, yogurt, etc. She isn’t as picky about feeding herself as her older sister was, but she does prefer to do it herself. Finger foods definitely rate high for her, though she enjoys dipping her spoon into refried beans or mashed potatoes or yogurt to get some bit of it on it herself. We did the whole baby-food thing with our oldest, and feeding was always a struggle. She wasn’t interested. This time we decided to skip the baby food and either make our own (she wasn’t interested in mashed or pureed anything early on), or wait until she wanted what we were eating, basicly. This time everything is so much easier and more relaxed. And cheaper, etc. etc. Plus, she doesn’t have to get used to a whole other menu of foods, this is the real thing. I have also found that a little salt can do wonders for how well food is accepted, sometimes. I also think that since breastmilk has sodium, it must be necessary to some degree, and a little teeny bit here and there can make life more enjoyable and maybe healthier too. (Moderation in all things, I suppose.)
Response:
I would wait another month, then start solids again. You don’t want meal times to turn into a power struggle, so if she’s not interested in the food yet, why not wait? Best, Lisa
Response:
Have you ever tasted baby food? That may have something to do with it. When our kids were little we bought a small food grinder. You put normal food in it (the same food you’re eating) and turn a crank grinding the food to a consistancy a baby can eat. My kids also loved Cheerios, which are easy to carry and don’t make a big mess. — Mike Brannick
Response:
> I have a 9mo who won’t eat pureed (or any other type of) food!!!! IMO, a > 6 mo doesn’t *need* to eat … if they want to, fine, if they don’t – > that’s fine too. I would just keep offering it, and one day they’ll > take it. My son is bf, and is perfectly happy and healthy – sometimes he > eats [babyfood] twice a day, sometimes not at all. It seems to me that > people are really into pushing their child to eat at very young ages, and > we tend to forget that they can be healthy on just milk [or breastmilk, in > my case] alone for a while. > carin
Amen to that!! Breast milk is the perfect infant food. It changes composition as your baby grows, and can easily sustain your child for months more than society currently believes. Check out the La Leche League homepage for further information. Bottom line: Look to your baby for the answers. My daughter wouldn’t eat pureed foods. Since she was about 9 months old when she developed an interest in solids, she was able to eat finger foods. She loved them. Never wanted to be bothered with "baby food." My son was the opposite. At age 2 he’d have preferred being spoon-fed. Doesn’t like getting his hands messy to this day (and he’s 14 now!). Children are so individual. When parents can tune in to what they’re trying to tell us, and when we can toss out the rule books, life goes a lot smoother. Maggie
Response:
Don’t worry too much about your baby’s refusal of the puree food. Do keep offering the food, but don’t force it. There could be several reasons why she doesn’t want it -texture, flavor, color, not liking a spoon, etc. Eventually she’ll begin eating. I never had this problem with my first child (except for the first few times we tried cereal, at four months, and whenever we introduced a new, different flavor of jarred puree). He ate like a horse, but he didn’t do well with "adult foods" and gagged on them constantly. (Scary to a new mom.) He didn’t really start eating finger foods until he was 16 months. Needless to say we went through a ton of jar food by then, and he had a full mouth of teeth by the time he was 1. Good luck –parenting is full of these little "glitches". – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating >formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as >Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t >eat. >I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns >her >head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she >is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. >Nothing seems to work. >She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under >my supervision of course). >Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start >straight off with real solids? >Should I be persistent or what? >Sharon, mom to Jordan
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating >formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as >Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t >eat. >I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns >her >head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she >is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. >Nothing seems to work. >She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under >my supervision of course). >Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start >straight off with real solids? >Should I be persistent or what? >Sharon, mom to Jordan
Have you tried giving her table food that she can hold, with the only difference being that it’s cooked longer (so she can gum it)? Once my oldest daughter saw my husband and I eating real food, that was it for the baby food. The same thing happened (only earlier!) with her sister; she saw big sister eating by herself and refused to be fed from that point on. She’s 1 now, and still refuses to be fed with her spoon. all food must be finger food!!
Response:
I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t eat. I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns her head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. Nothing seems to work. She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under my supervision of course). Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start straight off with real solids? Should I be persistent or what? Sharon, mom to Jordan
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating > formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as > Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t > eat. > I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns > her > head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she > is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. > Nothing seems to work. > She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under > my supervision of course). > Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start > straight off with real solids? > Should I be persistent or what?
Patience, not persistence, is the word here. You’re not going to be able to impose your will on her eating at this age and I suspect everyone will be happier if you don’t try. She’ll eat when she’s ready. Enjoy! -Troy
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating > formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as > Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t > eat. > I’m not talking about spitting it out again , she shuts her mouth and turns > her > head. I tried feeding her at different hours: when she’s hungry or when she > is about an hour or two after a bottle feeding. > Nothing seems to work. > She does like to hold food and lick it. Like pickles, apples, carrots (under > my supervision of course). > Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start > straight off with real solids? > Should I be persistent or what? > Sharon, mom to Jordan
When my son was 6 months old, my sister-in-law fed him _gumbo_ at a family gathering. He never would eat the pureed/canned stuff after that. (I can’t say that I blame him!) I just started giving him whatever we were having, after I’d run it through a Black & Decker Handi-chopper. If he wouldn’t eat his peas or carrots or whatever vegetable, I’d just mix it with some rice or mashed potatoes and a little gravy, or even pasta and sauce, and he’d eat it right up (luckily, I make fairly low-fat gravies and sauces, so I didn’t feel too guilty about giving them to him). He would only eat fruit if it was mixed in with his cereal, which I gave him every other morning for breakfast, and as a snack on the afternoons in between (he had scrambled egg and whole-grain toast on the other mornings). I always gave him his daily multi-vitamins every night, just to be sure he was getting what he needed. As he got older and grew a few teeth, we graduated to mashing he food up with a fork, so that he’d have more texture. He’s three years old now, and I would say that he’s a better-than-average eater. (he’ll try anything that I ask him to, and he’ll eat most of the things I offer him). He still gets a vitamin every day (Flintstones’ Chewable), anyway. Oh, and he did like some of the Gerber desserts (stage 3, maybe?). Dutch Apple Dessert, Peach Cobbler, and Blueberry Buckle were his favorites, as I recall. His favorite thing now is soft oatmeal cookies or brownies that he’s helped to bake. He prefers his cookies warm from the oven — the only store-bought kind he’ll eat is vanilla wafers, and he prefers to help make those into banana pudding, rather than eat them from the box. Maybe she just wants food with more flavor? He did. Hope this helps! Renee`
Response:
> I am a mother to a 6m old baby girl, she has a good appetite when eating > formulas but since last month when I started to feed her solid foods such as > Gerber stage 1 (different kinds of fruits) and even stage 2 she just won’t > eat.
This rings a bell with me, because a friend of mine with a 4 month old just wrote to me asking my advice about a feeding schedule. I had to tell her I was clueless because my now 19-month-old daughter was barely interested in solids until her 8 month "birthday". She did occasionally indulge me by eating a bowl of applesauce or oatmeal – some days even a fair amount, but then she would go back to refusing it altogether. > Can it be that she doesn’t like the puree texture and eventually she’ll start > straight off with real solids?
I think that could definitely be part of it. Even when she wouldn’t take puree, Sarah enjoyed gumming a bagel or melting a cracker in her mouth (with me beside myself all the while thinking she would choke). Sarah got her first set of teeth at 8 months, and simultaneously started eating Cheerios and other small finger foods regularly. You would think that this would mean she skipped purees altogether, but it’s almost like the finger foods awakened her interest in other stuff – she started taking the pureed stuff much more regularly after that, too! > Should I be persistent or what?
Well, I would keep offering stuff, as long as you don’t get too upset if she refuses. She WILL learn to eat eventually, but I know that it’s frustrating! Hang in there… Laura Mom to Sarah, 3/5/95 http://scalos.mc.duke.edu/~brook006
Response:
I have a 9mo who won’t eat pureed (or any other type of) food!!!! IMO, a 6 mo doesn’t *need* to eat … if they want to, fine, if they don’t – that’s fine too. I would just keep offering it, and one day they’ll take it. My son is bf, and is perfectly happy and healthy – sometimes he eats [babyfood] twice a day, sometimes not at all. It seems to me that people are really into pushing their child to eat at very young ages, and we tend to forget that they can be healthy on just milk [or breastmilk, in my case] alone for a while. carin
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