Not Eating Solid Food 5 1/2 Month Old

Hi K. B;

My daughter Amanda didn't eat like the cereal mixed with milk either so I started mixing it with things like applesauce or a babyfood jar of mixed fruit and then she would eat it. I think the milk makes it taste funny to them. Try doing something like that a little at a time in case of allergies.
M. B

None of my three kids liked the cereal or oatmeal plain. I had to mix a fruit with it. Pears Applesauce Bananas. They have one step with Gerber. It worked for mine. It's worth a try. If that doesn't work, I would start later.

K.,
my little girl wouldn't eat the rice cereal either when it was mixed by itself but when I mix it with baby food, she gobbles it up! She likes the oatmeal though- don't have to mix that with anything but formula and she'll eat that with no problems.
C.

Hi K.,
If your baby is able to sit independently (without support), has lost the gag reflex and shows interest in eating...those are the three rules I followed to decide when to start solid foods. I can't imagine a 5 mo old being able to sit independently but I bet some can.
The research shows that until the baby can sit independently and doesn't show the gag reflex, the stomach is not ready for solids. There really is no rush. I would say hold off and try when he can do all those things!
Here are some websites for you:
http://www.parenting.com/parenting/article/0,19840,###-##...
and
http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/fit3.asp
Best of luck :)
L.
Elliott's Mama age 6
Maria's Mama age 1

L.

My son didn't care for cereal either. I started him on one brand and my sister used another. Eventually I said "forget it" and started him on fruits and veggies. He loved those. He does like cereal now, but he prefers the brand that my sister buys as opposed to the one I get, but he eats them both. So just hang in there!

I know it sounds messy, but maybe put a spoonful on his highchair tray and let him play in it. Eventually some will go in his mouth of his own accord and he may want more. Also, my little guy hated any sort of cereal so I ended up making my own and he would eat that. Just overcook brown rice so it's really mushy and then put in a blender or food processor. (I used to make a huge batch and freeze in ice cube trays). If he's still on breastmilk, he's getting all the nutrition he needs, so if all else fails, no biggie waiting and trying again later.

Good luck!

K.,
One of the signs that your baby is ready for cereal, is that your baby will actually eat it. If your baby spits it out, that means the little angel isn't ready. This may be debatable with your pediatrician, but your baby can thrive on breastmilk alone for up to one year. Many moms want to get the baby on cereal as soon as possible because they think the baby will sleep more & be less demanding. Perhaps your baby is just content with breastmilk for now. If it is working for you, stick with it.
Good luck.
Warmly,
J. Guttman

Lots of good advice so far. I am a RD and worked with children (before becoming a sahm). I would wait a few more weeks and try again. If he still refuses, try something else. I usually suggest avocado blended with breastmilk until smooth or mashed banana. If he refuses those he just isn't ready. Some babies aren't ready to eat solids until 7 or 8 months. Babies CAN survive on breastmilk alone until a year. Your baby might just be one that is fine with bm only until then. Don't stress. He will figure it out!!!

If his weight is OK, and your pediatrician hasn't told you to start him on cereals yet, I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. When my kids started eating, I would mix the cereal with fruit juice or even fruit baby food to give it a better taste. That may be the problem in a nutshell--let's face it, that stuff tastes nasty. Try putting some kind of sweet fruit or juice in it, put a little on your finger for him to try, and put it on his tongue. If he still scrunches his nose up and acts like he hates it, maybe he just doesn't like cereal. But don't worry, he'll be wanting to eat off your plate by the time he gets teeth, just watch! :o) Good luck!

I would say that if he is healthy and with the okay from your doctor that I would not worry about giving him cereal for now. He obviously has a texture issue. Have you tried any other foods or just the cereal. Sometimes I would mix banana's
or some fruit or veggies in but he might be a little young for that. Both of my boys started cereal around 4 months. It would prob be best for you if you just didn't try for a few weeks then reintroduce the food to him.

You might try the rice cereal with bananas, some babies need the extra sweetness the fruit provides. Good luck!

I do not think you started too early. I started giving my daughter cereal in her bottle at 3 months! But she ate anything. She went from breast to bottle to formula to cereal to baby food with no problems. As long as she was full she was happy. She loved to eat & still does at age 3 1/2! Maybe if you gave it to your son in his bottle it would get him used to the taste before the texture. Have you tried mixing it with breastmilk in a bottle then feading it to him through the bottle? This may get him used to the taste. Make sure to have a nipple with big enough holes so the texture can get through.
If he won't take a bottle then don't worry. Breastmilk is the best thing for him anyway. I think he can be healthy on that alone for a long time. Try again next month!

K.-first don't worry if he is not eating solid foods. Mine didn't start until 6 months. Go back to the rice cereal and mix in a little fruit. He will gobble it up! He may not eat it the first time or two--but he will. Hold off using the oatmeal until he is a year old. This will reduce risk of allergies. Good Luck & don't fret@

We had a similar problem, our daughter showed incredible interest in us eating, our utensils and what we were doing, however we ended up having what amounted to psychological warfare with our daughter from 6mths with solid food. It got to the stage that when she opened her mouth to talk in the highchair, she got a mouthful of food. So she started to "talk" with her mouth closed - in and out of the chair. There were tears and there was the "closed mouth and turned head". We stopped after a few weeks to try to avoid "food and eating issues" and didn't seriously try again until 9 mths. She started exploring tastes but never ate cereals. And at 12 mths she just started eating what we are, so long as it had come off our plates - I guess she wanted to be sure she wasn't getting that "baby food" that noone else seemed to eat. She's now 19 mths and eats with gusto - seems no harm done and we were talking to our pediatrician the whole time who agreed we should stop to avoid problems later. It seems that eventually they decide to try what everyone else is trying.
Good Luck - my daughter was also exclusively breastfed and hated/refused bottles.

As a licensed childcare provider, I'm not required to start infants on solid food until they are 8 months old. I suggest just holding off for a while. If he is gaining weight and taking breast milk just fine, the don't worry about it.

B.

Have you tried mixing it with a fruit juice instead of milk or formula? When my son was that age and not eating, I got some of Juicy Juice's (100 percent juice) punch flavored juice, and mixed that instead of milk, and he loved it!

Wow, I sure hope you like breastfeeding. It sounds like he's really hooked. I hope it gets better soon. I really don't have any good advice on this one. When my kids didn't like a new food I'd mix it in a bottle with some formula and make a little bigger nipple hole for them to drink the food. Once they were old enough to enjoy the textures and eating, they was used to the various flavors. Obviously, that's just not going to work for you right now.

Maybe someone else here will confirm this. But I was under the impression that some real die hard breast feeding fans say it's ok to keep them on breast only until 1 year. I'm sure your son will get hungry one of these days.

Suzi

K.,
If you haven't already.. You might try breast feeding a little bit first, then the solids. This helped my daughter quite a bit. She was too hungry to try something new so I gave her enough from the bottle to get her comfortable and then she was more apt to try the solids. Don't give up, he'll get the hang of it eventually. And just when you think he'll never do it, it will happen :)
H.

Check with your pediatrician to be sure it's okay, but I remember mixing a little mashed banana into the cereal for my daughter. They usually love the taste of banana.

Even though most peds recommend starting solids between 4 and 6 months, babies do not produce digestive enzymes until at least 6 months...sometimes later depending on the kid. It is not important they start solids so early. It helps them practice and learn for when they need to eat them nutritionally later - when they can digest them. The main source of nutrition in the 1st year is breastmilk or formula. So long as he takes his breastmilk and is making all the dirty diapers he needs to make in a day, then he should be doing great. One physician I talked to said that certain enzymes start with teeth popping through. Barring that in mind it seemed to coincide with when my kids were ready to eat. My oldest wanted nothing to do with food until 8 months. My middle guy wanted food at 4-5 months, but I held him off until 6 because I didn't want to incorrectely train his ability to digest food. My youngest wanted her foods at about 7 months. Both my latest solid starters were late teethers with my youngest starting teething late, but then getting most of her teeth relatively quickly thereafter. My oldest was not only a later teether but also he took a very long time to get each tooth. He got each tooth every other month until they were all in. My middle guy started cutting one tooth at 5 months and then a week later he woke up with 6 more. Digestion is key for little people. I wouldn't worry about him not wanting solids now. It is honestly better for his body if you wait anyway. Good luck and God Bless!

B. :)

Neither of my girls (now ages 4 and 1) liked baby cereal or baby food very much. I think it must have been a texture thing. We started at around 6 months with both of them. They both loved having something they could hold and chew on though, so we did lots of crackers and bread and cereal and other quickly dissolving things. By 8-9 months they were both eating whatever we ate cut into tiny pieces that they wouldn't choke on.

If he doesn't like it and he won't eat it I wouldn't push it. There are no rules that say your child has to eat baby cereal before you can try other foods.

Neither one of my two daughters would eat baby cereal either. Try putting a little fruit baby food in with it for some flavor.

I started giving my son the single rice ceral at like 4 months old. He was always hungray lol. Anyways, I mixed his with stage one applesauce. That was the only way he would eat it.

Hope this helps.

M. G

You could try to warm it up and also mix it with a little Gerber fruit or yogart. I have not seen a baby yet turn down yogart!! I hope this helps. 5 1/2 months is not to soon.. That is about right! Good luck.

Try mixing apple sauce in it. or other fruit flavored starter baby foods. I wouldnt worry too much though. My pediatrician didnt advise me to start my 2 yr old on solids until he was 6 months old. Just dont give up...keep trying!! He will get the hang of it soon enough...although, i would try and stay away from the banana cereal because it could make him gassy!! But it never hurts to try!!! you just gotta keep trying until he finds something he likes...good luck and hope you find something soon ;)

It's not too soon. I started my son on cereal at 4 months. If he absolutely won't eat by the time he's 6 months, I'd try mixing in a little peaches or some other sweet fruit from the stage one baby foods with it. The only drawback though is that he might not want the vegetables if he starts out on something sweet. Good luck.

Stay with the Rice because it's gentler on his stomach. Mix fruit in with the cereal. I never gave either of my children cereal without fruit mixed in. Hope that helps.

K.
try putting something with flavor in it. Such at a little bit of applejuice. or mix some applesauce with it. give him a spoon to hold in his hand also. Give him something to "distract" him from eating. And remember 3-5 bites is success! Also you could try and warming it up a bit. Try feeding him some bites inbetween switching breast. Also, have your husband try and feed him. He might be associating you with the breast. Your husband can try with a bottle and sippy cup too. Dont let him hear or see you while your hubby is trying this. Boys love their momma's at this age. Good luck hope some of this will work for you!!!!!!!!!
B.

My son was not a fan of rice cereal either and my pediatrician told me to mix it with a little apple sauce in order to sweeten it up a bit. Make sure you use natural applesauce. That is the type that has no sweetening to it. It seemed to do the trick. To this day, my son does not really like rice cereal at all. We always mix it with fruits in order to sweeten it up. Likewise, when you start him on fruits, mix it with a little cereal to make it not as sweet. This makes eating and trying other foods a lot easier. Also, when you son gets to be around 6 1/2 - 7 1/2 months, we tried mixed cereal and he liked that much better because it was a little sweeter. We still mix it with baby food, but he will definitely eat it easier.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

K., keep breastfeeding!! Don't worry about solids. I had the same exact problems you are having (except my pediatrican said don't start solids till 6+ mos). Anyway mine never took a bottle, never took rice cereal (or any other type of cereal), and never ate baby food. Fortunately he got teeth at a very early age and I was able to give him peas, corn, bananas etc much earlier. As long as you are breastfeeding don't worry about solids!

it would all depend on the child. I start mixing Single Grain Rice Cereal in my daughters bottle at 5 weeks old so she would eat and wouldn't scream that she was hungry ever 20 minutes. It sounds like you have a very rough situation at hand. Please e-mail me when you can figure something out and let me know what happens. ____@____.com is my e-mail address.

My son was having the same problem. Although it is not recommended i started to give him his ceareal in a bottle feeder. It worked. He started to eat. I slowly started to wean him of the feeder because i did not want him to get used to it. i would say it took me about 2 to 3 weeks to get him off the feeder and eating with a spoon. Now he eats from a spoon with no problem at all. I started around the same time you did. My son will be 7 months in 2 weeks. Some babies are just different. I was told that most babies take at least 10 to 15 tries to get to like a new food. You may and may not want to try the bottle feeder. It worked for me. Let me know how it comes along. Blessings to you and your family.

Maybe try mixing it with a fruit. That's what I did with my son and it seemed to work better.

I had the same problem and my mother-in-law suggested mixing apple juice or apple sauce with it. I found a 100% real fruit apple juice and this worked great! Luckily you can start adding other foods not too long from now...good luck!

K., I went through a very similar thing with my little one. Except he ate well a few days and then didn't want anything but his bottle. I then discovered premixed rice cereal that had apples and cinnamon in it. He loves it! I also have to make sure that I feed him about 30 minutes before he normally wants to eat, if he gets to his hungry stage he is too mad to eat solids and will only take his bottle. We've been at this routine for about 3 weeks and it's going well. After about 2 weeks he started accepting rice cereal with formula mixed in (I mix a full scoop of formula before adding water so that he's still getting all of the vitamins.) If you want any information about the specific brand name of the cereal I found I will get you that info.
Good luck and happy feeding!

I don' think it's to early to start your child on cereal. I started both of my kids earlier than that, but they were hungry and my ped said it was ok!

I think the best advice has already been given......both of mine loved the cereal w/ fruit mixed in it (applesauce was the biggest hit). Plus, you might just have to work w/ him a little bit because the texture is totally new to him.

Good Luck!!

I personally think 4 or 5 months is way to early. Most kids start solid foods around 6-9 months. Both of my kids were Breastfed for over a year. Your son should be getting as much breastmilk as he can at this age. I always considered solid foods that early in life as just "fillers". My Daughter didn't start solids until 9-10mths, and my son didn't start until 11 months. They just weren't really interested. There is something in solid foods and formula that breastfed babies don't get. I can't remember right now, so in that case solid foods are good. Whatever you do don't get frustrated and think you are doing something wrong. Every baby is different and start things at different times. My ped said to just try one tablespoon a day, that's it. Then eventually he will get used to it. You are doing fine, he just maybe a picky kid, like my son. Talk to your Ped about this though.

My 2nd daughter was the same way...I nursed her only for quite a long time. She had no interest in food. They are getting all of the nutrition they need from the breastmilk. Food for them is just supplemental at this point...My doctor told me that if after nursing she was still showing no interest in wanting to eat just to wait....She was atleast a yr old before she would eat anything food wise...She hated cups and only wanted nana. The biggest mistake that we made, for us, was to give her a bottle to try to get her to wean. then she decided that she did not want to nurse anymore, but that she could suck down a bottle much faster and still did not really enjoy food, I think that is was a texture thing. However, she now eats great, does take a bottle anymore, and does drink out of a cup! Just hang in there-When he is ready, he will let you know!

K., if this is on the advice of your pediatrician, then you need to discuss with him or her the problems you are having. I'd say, don't worry. I didn't offer my son any solid foods until he was six months old. His older sister had all sorts of foods by then and had also developed alot of food sensitivities, and as a result is not a good eater to this day. My son, on the other hand, was ready for solid foods at six months and although it took a few times to be exposed to it, before he would actually eat it, he took to the food much faster than I expected. If it's not a physical issue, and it's more the child, go with their cues and talk to your pediatrician. DON'T WORRY. Some children are solely breastfed until they are one and do well too.

have you tried putting fruits in with it? my 4 month old didnt like the blah taste till i put fruits in with it now i cant get him to slow down when i feed him its like i cant get the food fast enought to his little ol mouth lol

My son never ate the cereal. Our doctor felt like he was big enough to start trying jar food at about that age. We tried the cereal and he did the same thing your son did...turned his head. My best advice would be to ask your doctor for his/her opinion.

Ya know.. I started my son on cereal.. he did not like it.. Keep this in mind for later. RICE cereal tends to bind them up!!! IF you start having solid poo's Give you little one some warm PEAR juice.. Mix it half with water equal parts!!!!!
OK.. back to food.. My son did not want to eat it eather... Still at 9 months will be Nope.. Not hungry...

IF you are breastfeeding.. He might just think.. Hummmm Mommy is trying to trick me.. I not going to do it!!!!! IF you give him a bottle ever.. Try maybe a feeder bottle that could help....

Also... Maybe try to give the 1st stage foods!! You are to start with cereal.. then veggies.. then fruit they say.. I did not reallly do that... we hit and missed... but You are to give for at least 4 days in a row the same thing.. To test for food allergies....

TRY some applesauce.. or Pears... * My son Loved the Pears.. Infact.. I mixed a bit of the Pear with the soooouuupy cereal and he woofed it down!!!!! Keep it reallly liquidededededyyyy ok....

Good luck!!! and have camera ready.. You will get some fun shots!!!!

My little boy is 5 1/2 months also. We just started solids last Saturday and he wasn't happy about it either. I made it very watery, almost the consistency of cream. He wasn't happy with it the first time so I didn't give it to him for a couple of days, then I tried again. He still wasn't too thrilled so I gave it a couple more days. I know he is ready for solids because he is insatiably hungry in the late afternoon when my milk supply is lowest. Today I mashed a tiny bit of ripe banana with a fork and mixed it in and he seemed to like that quite a bit. If he's not showing signs of being ready for solids yet, then give him a week or two and try again later.

Signs that I looked for were:
1. Hungry when my milk supply was lowest.
2. Didn't shove everything out with his tongue as soon as I put it in his mouth.
3. Started waking up hungry at night which he hadn't been doing that for a couple of months.