HELP! My breastfed baby won't take anything else!

[mailmail]

Oh dear! I need help!

My 7 months old baby has been exclusively breastfed. Seeing that 7 months should be the right age to introduce solid, I went to the shops and bought him some organic rice cereal, but he didn't take any interest, so I tried a jar of carrot, then a jar of peas....still no success. I also attempted giving him formula but that went even worse, not only did he turn away, but he screamed and screamed and burst into tears as well.

What went wrong! Is it too early to start? or should I cook fresh.....what should I do? I am worried that he may only be interested in breast milk. I am not working, so I can breastfeed him for as long as he wants, but I do worry that eventually, I have to stop breastfeeding at some point (say, when he has a full set of teeth...ouch!) then what....?

Are there mothers there who have had similar experiences able to offer me some advise please?

 

[barbwong_130]

Don?t worry! Eating isn?t a stage that your baby will miss if he doesn?t start early enough.

All babies are different and some are ready to start solids earlier than others. My third child was nearly eight and a half months before he?d start to eat, whereas my second child started at five and half months.

I started to offer food at six months but he wasn?t interested. So I?d wait a week and then offer it again. He continued not to be interested for ages and then one day he opened his mouth and ate the food and solids had begun.

I found that he was more comfortable sitting on my knee facing outwards to eat the food. He didn?t like sitting in a high chair with me sitting opposite him until he was about 12 months old.

I have lots of friends whose children started after six months too. The latest was about 11 months before she started eating much ? but it turned out that she had some allergies. Apparently it is common for children with allergies not to be interested in solids. The babies seem to know instinctively what is best for them.

 

[Frenchy]

Hi !
I'm BF my 5 months 1/2 son... because he doesn't want to drink anything else ! I've tried formula too, even tried 5 different sorts, and no way, so till he is at least 1 year old, I guess I'll be feeding him that way.
I don't work neither and I'm ok with the BF, but I would have like to have a spare solution in case something went wrong... let's hope it does not happen !

For food it's different, I've started by rice cereal too, and he loved it (I know some other babies who didn't), mixed with my milk, and it went fine. For each food I give him I add some of my milk, first to make it more liquid and easier to digest, and also because he knows that taste.

I've made the first meals, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini (not his favorite), potatoe, apple and pear. Easy, no sugar, no salt, and lots of milk.

Do you pump sometimes and feed him with a bottle ? then you can start by adding just a spoon of food in the milk.

Bon courage !

 

[mailmail]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences Barb and Frenchy. I feel a lot calmer after reading your posts. I shall try pumping (has been too lazy with the bump which sits unused all these months) and add it to some solids as Frenchy has done and see if it works, if not, I shall wait til he is ready. Will try different positions too, just as what Barb did.

Merci ladies!

 

[niahbear]

Hi,

I started with a generic rice cereal when my daughter was 5 1/2months and she didn't like it much. So I switched to Holle's Organic rice cereal (Bumps to Babes) which she seemed to like more. One trick that I learned was adding a small dash of cinnamon to her cereal. This is totally safe for babies and she loved it! Also, I introduced a bit of cereal (one or two bites) around noon and not when she was really hungry and would only want breastmilk. A super book you might want to look for is Annabel Karmel's "New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner" which really helped increase my understanding of my babies nutritional needs. The recipes were also alot of fun to make too!

Good luck!!

 

[mailmail]

Ah! Niahbar, you remind me a very valid point. Timing! I haven't given much thought to timing. So, you mean the best time to introduce solid is lunchtime? Would the book you recommend includes some tips on timing too?

 

[capital]

Both my children were the same, I started solids around 6.5 months with #1 and 7 months with #2. Neither would ever take cereals at all. With my first I tried everything, every brand of cereal, every grain, mixing with water, and breastmilk, and formula, and even resorted to using fresh juice from a cantaloupe once, mixing with fruit, nothing worked, he just was not interested, I tried leaving it for a while and trying a few weeks later. by this time he was about 7.5 months old so I gave him some mashed potatoes off my plate, puffed wheat, and gradually he started to eat what I ate, mashed, or small soft chunks. He went pretty muched to regular food and skipped "baby food" altogether. With my second, I tried cereals a few times and he didn't like them either, so I just gave up and went right to table food. I was so stressed about starting solids the first time when nothing was working like"the book " says, the second time I did things my own way and was very confortalbe with it.

I think they really didn't like the cereals as they don't have much taste and baby foods are so bland and watery. They really didn't like being fed and pretty much just ate what they picked up with their fingers instead.

It is not really necessary to eat cereals at all as long they they are getting enough iron from other sources. It is the iron that is important.My first was anemic as confirmed by blood test and since he didn't eat cereal and ate only a little meat (ground up in a kidco baby food grinder, I think they are great!) we did give him iron drops as advised by my pediatrician. With the second I also gave him iron drops, but I didn't actually get him tested. I still give my children a mulitvitamin for the iron int hem now (age 2 and 4). the 2 year old eats virtually no meat at all.

If he doesn't eat purees, try the table foods, at 7 months babies can definately have more texture that puree, and maybe try giving foods your baby can pick up himself. Good one to try are puffed wheat, puffed rice, any really soft veggie or fruit. They is really nothing to be worried about unless your baby seems to choke on a lot of foods and can't swallow them (other than liquids), then you may have to see an ocupational therapist abot feeding issues. That is not that common of a problem though.