6 1/2 Month Old Dislikes Rice Cereal

My son disliked regular Gerber rice cereal too. As soon as I switched to Happy Babies brand Habby Bellies cereals, he would gobble it up. They are organic and contain DHA and probiotics. My son likes the oatmeal, brown rice and multigrain varieties. You can get them at whole foods and other specialty stores. Mix in some other fruits and veggies - but try to give him a few bites of just the cereal so he doesn't depend on everything to be flavored.

mix the fruit in with the cereal, even the veggies! too bad he's gagging...ask his Dr too. maybe he just needs to get used to it?

It is VERY normal for kids to gag at this age. We went through it with my little one and it is super common. It takes time for them to get over the excessive gagging. In the meantime, keep feeding the baby your milk or formula, which has lots of nutrients, as you know. Some babies just don't like the consistency and taste or rice cereal. Feed the little guy stuff he likes... Think about it this way--we don't like to eat things that don't taste good to us. And, you never know, he may love it in a few weeks. Maybe try it again down the road...

I am at the same stage as you right now just starting my 6 month old daughter on solids. I am not sure she like the rice cereal as I put it in she pushes it out. But what is really important is she is learning about it ,I still am breastfeeding as her main source of food.I would keep trying even watered down so maybe he'll get used to the feeling of food. I just wanted to say I was tempted to make the rice cereal more yummy by adding applesauce or something to it and friends reminded me of how important it is at this stage to only introduce one food at a time. Also it is suggested to wait on the fruit because babies will develope a taste for the sweet and then it's all over for the veges. So I am doing the 3 cereals first one at a time for one week each then I will introduce a vege and go from there. My understanding is this really is a delicate process priming their digestive track so to speak. You can create food allergies by introducing foods to early. I believe this because with my first daughter I was so eager to feed her I think we started at 4 months and she has always had tummy problems. She also has a milk alergy. Now with baby number 4 I'm in no hurry for her to reach the mile stones. It goes by so fast. Hope I was helpful. Best wishes.

My daughter never ate baby food. I tried all types. She wouldn't touch it if it was mushy. We're talking veggies, fruits and any type of baby cereal. Her first solid food was when she managed to get her hand into a bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce and stuff it into her mouth. She was six months old at the time.

If you think about it, it is only the "civilized" nations that have the concept of pureed baby food. All other nations and people who don't have access to Gerber, etc, manage to feed their babies. They cut the food up fine, make sure it is soft, or pre-chew it for them.

Try giving him a bite of something soft off of your dinner plate. See how he does.

Concerning his gagging, I would talk to a throat specialist ASAP to make sure that it is not something serious.

Good Luck,
K.

I get the impression lots of kids don't like rice cereal. If he's eating fruit, I wouldn't worry about it. I mix cereal with pureed fruit (I call it fruity rice, although I use various cereals now). He seems to like that. He was much more into banana than rice cereal at the beginning.

E.

Our son has the gag reflex when it's something he doesn't like eating. He does it with peas and anything that has peas in it, even if it's a little. Now that we know it's his way of saying, "Yuck! Are you kidding me by feeding me this stuff???" we think it's funny. He liked the rice cereal when we first started him on it but when we went to stage 1 foods he didn't like the cereal (watery or thick). We also noticed that his gag reflex doesn't happen as often when we give him new foods to try that he doesn't like. When he first started solids at 6 months he gagged every time we gave him something he hated. Now, since he has more control of his mouth and tongue, more often than not he will make a face and push the stuff back out if he doesn't like it. If it's REALLY bad he will gag and shake his head at us and screw up his face then refuse to open his mouth for another spoonful. So I think the gagging gets better as their control of their mouths and tongues improve with practice.

Now that we're trying stage 3 stuff he doesn't like the chunks of pasta and will purposely spit those out while eating everything else. Funny thing is he is just fine eating chunks of actual food like bananas, potatoes, etc.

We found that the baby foods (brand doesn't matter for our soon) that have oatmeal, rice, and grains in them are one way to get him to eat his fiber.

T.,

My daughter hated the rice cereal also- would gag and spit it out (her way of telling us no way). she did a little better with oatmeal- but did best with the Gerber oatmeal with bananas (all dried- just add desired liquid) She also took the rice cereal with apples better then just the rice cereal alone (again comes mixed in the box). At lest this way I knew she was still getting the Iron benefit from the cereal.

My son reacted the same way. The rice cereal also made him constipated, so we switched to oatmeal, and he was fine. It's also true when they say that it takes up to 10 times of offering a new food before a baby/child/etc will eat and/or like it. :)

Gag reflex is norma, my son threw up all the time and fianlly outgrew it. I would still take him tl the dr. to be sure everything is ok. Try the oatmeal which is the next step after rice cereal and see what he thinks. I get the oatmeal with bannanas. Also, add yogurt or applesauce to it.

He is just becoming accustomed to the texture - it may take a month or so of regular, daily solid food feeding for him to acclimate to it. Remember, all he has ever known is liquid, and baby cereal has a much stickier than other pureed baby food.

Try mixing the rice cereal with a container of pureed fruit and a few ounces of breastmilk to thin it out. By mixing it with a smooth fruit baby food, it will smooth out the grainy texture a little bit for him. It is important that you not thin it out TOO much though, he needs to get used to texture in his mouth if he is to move on to other, chunkier stuff as he gets older and grows teeth.

However, I stress the importance of pushing the veggie baby foods as opposed to all the fruit and starches - children who are introduced to only fruit and other sweet baby foods when they start on solids are very difficult to get to eat their veggies for the rest of their young lives, often into preschool-hood. If they only get the sweet, they will refuse anything but sweet! The pureed vegetables also tend to have a little more texture, and are much healthier as far as vitamin and mineral content too.

*Just as an edit in response to the above response, as a medical doctor that specializes in children with special needs (75% of them with some sort of feeding/textural issues) he does NOT need to see a throat specialist. It is developmentally normal for baby that has just started on solids to gag on texture such as rice cereal.

Have you tried mixing it with Apple Juice? That gives it a little flavor he might like if he likes applesauce.

Try adding the fruit into it but not alot of cereal. I am sure its the texture that he dislikes.

From what I am learning rice cereal actually has a lot less nutritional value than we think and my dr is big into fruits and veggies and grains way later ... Hope that helps good luck

Dear T.,
I think it takes time for kids to get used to the different textures and consistencies of foods.
Have you tasted rice cereal?
My daughter HATED it and I realized it was just too bland for her. I added applesauce or some plums or apricots to flavor it up. You also might want to try a little bit of brown sugar to sweeten it. Mix the stuff your son does like in with it. My daughter preferred oatmeal and cream of wheat to rice cereal.
My baby son didn't like bland stuff either and I couldn't blame them. To this day, they are very healthy and non-picky eaters, but they definitely like flavor.
Best of wishes!

some times you can mix a little at a time to the fruits . BUT don,t really worry the fruits and vegitables will be enough for a while and as he grows he may be able to eat it later. good luck S.

My son also didn't like plain rice cereal. We mixed it with some fruit, and then he loved it. It sounds like you son would like a bit more flavor mixed in. :)
Best of luck!

Don't get discouraged, this is normal - my kids had major gag reflexes in the beginning, just try and water it down a bit until he gets used to it. If he doesn't like the taste, but eats fruit and likes it, try mixing with apple jiuce at first or get the cereal with the fruit added and then you can mix with breast milk or formula for more nutritional value.

Good luck!
Steph

My pediatrician always said to add 1/2 rice cereal to 1/2 pureed pears (jar food), and dilte with a bit of formula or breast milk. The pears add a bit of flavor, but most importantly, it keeps the kid "regular" as often the rice cereal alone can cause constipation.

My son never liked rice cereal, oatmeal, etc. I think it was too bland tasting. I tried mixing it with just about everything. In retrospect, I think maybe I should have just added some sugar. He was a little under-weight and could have used the calories.

try multigrain or oat....my daughter didn't like rice either. I also mix half a jar of pears or apples in with multigrain and that has been a hit!

You can feed him anything that you can puree in the blender-- beans, peas, lentils, cereals. Also, my kids loved yogurt, and practically lived on it when they were little. I never spent a cent on commercial baby food.

The rice cereal isn't really very tasty. I have always added a little to fruits and veggies to thicken them for the children in my care. That doesn't seem to fit with your need to add liquid, but if you add the cereal and some liquid to the fruits and veggies, it will likely still work. I think they do need the nutrients in the cereal. One more thing... rice cereal is usually recommended as the first cereal because it tends to be the least likely of the cereals to cause problems. However I've heard of some children being allergic to the rice and better able to tolerate another grain. You may want to watch to be sure your child's reaction isn't more than just a dislike. I think that's a rather remote possibility, but still one to consider.

Add his favorite fruit to the cereal. That was the only way I could get me daughter to eat it.