Getting 5 Month Old to Eat Baby Food

When we started giving her food, the first couple days were great, then it tapered off and she wouldn't eat the rice goo. Took a break for about a week, tried again and she accepted from there on.

Your kidding of course that the 5 month old is going to get more nutrition from solid food than from nursing or formula. Do some research. There is no reason to feed your child "food" until she is 9 months to a year. Perhaps you need to change formula to help with the acid reflux. Are you sure it is acid reflux or are you just trying to get too much into a small space. Feeding every 2-3 hours may seem like a lot of work and time but if that is what it takes to have a heathy child then it is worth it. eventually the little stomach will grow and be able to hold more an as that happens she go longer between feedings. When she is ready for "food" she will let you know. Forcing her will only make meal time a frustrating unhappy time.

One of my children did not eat food for the 1st year. It was more than she could handle. When she was ready to eat she let me know. She was 3 three before she was finish with nursing. But that was what her little body needed. The nutrition in breast milk or formual is easily digested and put to work in little systems while "food" takes much more energy to break down and put to work.
Best wishes

Babies can be bottle feed until 6 months. My 5 month old refuses cereal...your daughter is telling you that she is not ready. Don't force her. It may be harder for her since she was premature. Both of my daughters were premature and we had a lot of feeding problems with our older one. Talk to your doc. good luck!

Will she eat cereal? Maybe it's just the taste. We had to mix out daughters food with cereal to blan the taste for her so she would eat it and then when she got use to it we seperated them.

I'm very surprised that your ped suggested solids at this point. Most don't recomend until 6 months to start cereal, and then 7-8 months for fruit/veg. The reason for this, so I've read/been told is that their digestive tracts aren't mature enough to start processing solids, especially with a preemie. I would definatly wait.
T.
Mom of 4 (6yo girl, and 4yo triplets)
and daycare provider.

My preemie did just fine with rice cereal at about 4mos-6mos.Moved onto actual baby food around 6-8mos. And by a 10-11mo. she was eating more and more table food. She had a minor problem with reflux which she either matured and outgrew or the cereal really helped.

I would just try cereal and not alot if she's only eating 3oz.bottles she probaly can't handly much, maybe a spoonful or two. Work your way up. If she just flat out refuses cereal try it in a month again.

I bought one of those feeding bottles where your add cereal to formula and it had a wider nipple. I bought it at babies r us and that worked wonderfully for me. I also would give my daughter little tastes of my food a lick here and there when she was old enough to start solids so she started to have a taste for "real" food.

Good luck, having a preemie can be challenging but it usually get's easier. By the time my daughter was a year old you couldn't tell she was a preemie she was a fat chunky monkey baby.And hitting her milestones. My nephew was really premature he was only 1 lb. and he was hitting his milestones and mostly caught up by 2years old and now is doing really good. The first year is hard but it get's alot easier I promise. It took me til my daughter was 5 years old to stop being obsessed with her weight and height. I just got so used to going in for weight checks.

What other posters are saying is accurate for most babies; waiting until after 6 months to start solids. However, it is a usual recommendation to start solids earlier or to thicken formula with rice when an infant has severe reflux. My son was early, however not as early as yours! When he started solids, some days he ate ravenously, while others he ate a spoonful at most. There were days we skipped solids and just went on milk. Your daughter will never starve herself and will tell you what she needs. You may want to offer her solids once a day just to see what she thinks and to help her remember the new food routine. Also, I found it really helped to be consistent in our routine. When he first started solids, he always ate at 5 in the evening, in his high chair, so he knew what was coming. I remember a week or two straight that he hardly ate anything and I thought I was doing everything wrong. It always passes.

Hi Karin-
My 7 month old did the same thing. We tried to start solids at 4 months, but she just refused. We had lots of wasted cereal. I decided to forget about solids. However, I tried feeding her here and there. I just made small amounts of cereal. I also let her play with one of her baby spoons whenever possible. She liked the spoon and I think it helped her get used to somthing in her mouth. By 6 months she was ready for her solids. She does really well now.
I just think all kids are different and come to a stage at a different time. My uncle, who is a doctor told me that a baby really doesn't need solids until 5 months. So knowing that helped me get through her picky months.
Good luck!

You mentioned that she takes meds for reflux. My kids took Zantac and we got it grape flavored at Cub. To get them to eat their rice cereal I used to put their Zantac in it because it would make the cereal a little grape flavored. They loved it. I only did it when they were due for a dose of Zantac of course :o)
You can also use a little juice to make the cereal with or get the flavored cereal.
Many times it's just that textures are new and they need the cereal to be really thin and watered down to start getting used to it.
Best Wishes,
J.

Ditto the previous poster. She is just not ready.

I would wait a month and try again. Sounds like she is just not ready. I would hate to push it and have it be a negative experience for her. 5 mos is still pretty young.
Good luck.
S., mom of 3 and daycare provider

If I read your post correctly, I think your daughter is actually about 8 months old (birth age not corrected age). So, in that case it is probably time to start solids. My son was small for his age, and his pediatrician recommended we start cereal at 5 months as well. It helps them to gain weight when they won't take much formula or breast milk at a time. Assuming that is your case as well, it might not be practical to "wait a month" or "wait until she's ready." In that case, I would recommend thinning the cereal very thin and continuing to try every day. That is what we did, and after a few days, he decided he really liked it. If he flat out refused it, we'd forget it for the day. If he took a bite or two and then refused it, we were happy for that bite or two. Good luck and I'm sure you're doing a great job!

Do you use canned baby food, or do you make your own? It's really easy to puree some pears in the blender and food process sweet peas... my daughter loved the fresh stuff and we put the left over in icecube trays and froze it. It worked really great, I got through peas, cauliflower & celery, broccoli, strawberry (be careful with strawberry), apple, pear, and one or two other things before she wanted to only eat cooked solids at about nine months. I don't know if you've tasted the canned baby food, but I presonally wouldn't eat it either.
Good luck!

We have had the same problem with our daughter, she was a preemie as well. We have actually had to take her to a speech therapist to help. They do things to get her to open up that I wouldn't have thought of. Our daughter has reflux too. Therapy has been helping, slowly, but still helping. Good luck.