Baby not interested in solids

J

joyofliving

Registered User
Hi,
Any ideas on how to generate baby's interest in solids. My 6 month old eats a spoon or two of cereal/ fruit and then starts to fuss. She is quite active so making her sit still and getting her to open her mouth is so difficult/ many times impossible. I have tried turning the TV on while feeding her but that too seems to work for a few minutes only. I have been feeding her solids since she was 4 1/2 months, so I think by now she should take more than 1- 2 spoons. Any innovative ideas would be highly appreciated :)
Thanks.
 
Sounds like my son. He is 21 months and still a poor eater. When he was your baby's age we could still trick him in eating like one for mama, one for dada, look outside find me a car etc, but it is very difficult especially when they get older as they get stronger.
I would suggest u not to force your kid to eat, let her eat whatever she wants and dont use TV as a distraction. She should know that its eating time and not tv time. Eating is per priority at that time.

Best of luck
 
At 6 months, milk should still be the main source of nutrition. The recommendation is to start solids at 6 months, so I wouldn't be too worried at this stage and wouldn't push it if baby's really not interested. Talk with your paediatrician or go to a well baby clinic if you really are concerned. I agree with Neha - I would caution against getting baby used to watching TV while eating as this could be a very hard habit to break in future.
 
Yes I agree that milk is the most important source of nutrition for my baby right now, but I have heard from many mums that their baby are happily eating cereal and fruits starting 5- 6 months. I have seen other babies takign great interest in what their parents are eating.
I don't want my daughter to watch TV and eat but without it she is totally distracted and does not sit still for even a few seconds :(
 
I went through the same thing with both my children. The first time I was concerned and tried every trick in the book but still didn't wrok, the second time I was much more relaxed and didn't worry about it at all.

I started at 6 or 6.5 months with the cereal. Tried mixing it with breastmilk, water, juice, pureed fruit, every consistancy, etc, nthing worked. The odd time he would eat it he'd only take a few spoons, but he could swallow it fine, so I knew that wasn't a problem, Nothing worked, so then I tried fuits and veggies and nothing worked there either, so around 7 or 7.5 months I gave him some puffed wheat and he would eat that, So in the end he didn't really eat solid foods until he could feed himself finger foods and he ate off the table, whatever we were eating. I also bought a baby food mill for meats, it grinds up food, but it is not as fine as puree and that worked well too.

My guess is that your child may be wanting more texture, so I would stop the pureed food and try table foods and once he can pick things up let him eat himself. I was always concered about iron as my children wouldn't eat the iron fortified cereals, so with my oldest, we did have to give him an iron supplement as he was anemic. I don't know if these are available in Hong kong but I bought in canada Nutrios which are like cheerios but have a higher iron content, and you can get toddler porridge which has a higher iron content too.
 
my baby wouldn't eat her solids either!!!

i started her on solids at 6.5mths, for the first week, she loved everything i fed her including baby rice, avocado, brocolli, pumpkin but then we saw her pd for injections and he said she needs to have protein and advised me to include fish. Well, after I introduced fish (pureed wild salmon) mix with the baby cereal, she refused to eat anything i feed her. She is now almost 7.5mths. Nothing works. She refused to open her mouth. Does this mean she will be a fussy eater? I am afraid she is not getting enough nutrition. I don't top up her with any milk when she refused to eat her solids. I reduced feeding solids to just once a day. The rest of the other feeds I give her milk. BTW, she has had solid poo since we started solids. Her face is all red and she poos really tiny 'malteses' size about three times a day. I also tried giving her papaya juice while feeding her. She drank very little of it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
hey unity,

i ddin't know we can feed fish to them so fast. the wholesomebabyfood says about 10-12months
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/fishbabyfoodrecipes.htm

my baby, now 7 months, is going real slow with solid. so far, he's only been eating cereals and bananas. earlier on, when we fed him avocado, sweet potato and apples, he developed rashes. because of that, my sister advised me too to only give meats and fish after 12 months. anyone can clarify please?

geomum, up till only a week and a half ago, my baby was refusing solids like yours. then suddenly, one day he just started to open his mouth and demand to eat his cereal without hafing to trick him to :)

now, after some spoonfuls, i still need to "encourage" him to eat. i'd sing his fav songs or recite his fav story. once sentence... one spoon. it worked for us! when he turns his face away and clamps his mouth, i know he is full.
 
Thanks guys for your replies, after stopping for a few days, I started trying solids with my baby again. this weekend. As soon as she sees the spoon coming near her mouth she starts shaking her head and booing. When I try feeding her she starts to tear up and becomes very very angry. She is exclusively breastfed till now and I really want her to sleep through the night. Right now she wakes up 2- 3 times for a feed in the night. And I definitely think she wakes up because she is hungry, she couldn't sleep through the night on breastmilk alone for 10- 12 hours straight or could she? I also tried giving her formula and she completely rejected it. What more can i do at this stage??
 
i dunno if my experience will be any consolation to you... actually geomum, starting solids for my baby didnt stop him from waking up in the nights. he still wakes up to feed. im exclusively bfing too.

although he does take some (or few) spoonfuls at meal times, he sometimes just rejects completely. out of 7 days in a week... he rejects 2 days in a row! even at meal times, he gets impatient and demands to be done immediately.

all i know is i have to go slow with him and if he rejects... i'll try again at the next meal time. i do feel sad and alittle afraid that he may not be getting enough nutrients, but the doc told me he's still ok and told me to keep trying n encouraging him.

hope that helps.
 
hi pixelelf

the fish was what the pd suggested. also, according to the book 'super foods for baby and toddler' by annabel karmel, salmon and other fatty fish should be given after 7 months. since i also believe that they need the omega 3 for brain devt i thought i'd give it a go.

my dd rejected the fish with oat the other day. then i decided to spoon in some apple and banana sauce to make it taste less fishy. she seems to be happy with that and opened her mouth and ate a bit more than usual. i was happy cos i didn't have to 'trick' her to open her mouth. so, off to 360 to buy more apples and banana and make more of the sauce. ;)

btw, i also added some parsley to her meals since it supposed to have high level of iron which is important after 6 mths.

good luck!
 
thanks unity! my folks also told me to feed fish but his initial rash flare ups were so bad, im hesitant. sigh.
 
my ped suggested that if he is not interested, feed him less formula in between so that he's more raveneous during meal times and will not care as much about what is being fed to him.
 
Thanks for your replies, I will keep trying to feed her everyday hoping to get her interested. I don't think she considers anything other than breastmilk (Directly from the breast) as food. I have tired so many different things but nothing is working right now.

PS: Unity I have sent you a PM.
 
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