6 Month Old Refuses Bottles and Baby Food

Is she teething? That might explain why she doesn't realy want the spoon in her mouth. Maybe try a tiny bit of infant tylenol a little while before trying to give her the bottle. Our daughter refused the pacifier as soon as her 1st tooth poked through at 6 months old. We didn't complain though because we didn't have to worry about breaking her of the habit!

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Your six month old does not need to eat yet so don't worry if she doesn't want cereal. Is she breast fed or only bottle? Some babies refuse the bottle so try sippy cups. Also, try skipping cereal and go for smooshed or blended bananas, peas, applesauce, etc instead. Cereal can be harsh for some babies tummies.

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Have you gotten larger flow nipples for her bottles? Our kids did this too and we found they had to suck so hard to get anything out that they would rather not. We went to higher flow nipples and they were fine.

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Maybe try sippy cups instead of a bottle. There are so many types. There are some made by Rubbermaid called juice boxes (in the tupperware section, not the baby section) that work well for my daughter. At 3 months, babies can have sippys, they don't need bottles.

Maybe try finger foods, let her pick them up and try to eat whatever it is. It's more fun for them that way and until 1 year of age, solid foods are just for practice anyway, their main nutrition comes from formula or breast milk. My daughter never did like "baby" food and went straight to finger foods.

Good luck!

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Have you had her ears checked? My son got an ear infection, and sucking and swallowing became painful for him. When the ear infection cleared up, then his eating patterns normalized.

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My youngest son is now 9 mos. old and he has never taken a bottle. I just give him sippy cups with handles that he can hold and he does really well with them. He has also never been a fan of the baby food....can you blame them, it is so bland. He did okay with the fruits over the vegetables, but I grind up our meals in one of those hand held manual processers and he loves that. Good luck.

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If you are breastfeeding, then it is not at all uncommon that she would refuse the bottle (my son did the same thing at 2 1/2 months. Once you decide to wean and go totally to the bottle, she will for sure take it one she figures out it isn't coming from the other place. Some babies do nicely part breast, part bottle, but for others, it's an all or nothing proposition. As for the solid food, every baby differs as to when they are ready for it. My son wouldn't touch solid food at six months. I kind of freaked out, because you always hear that by six months babies should be eating solid foods. My doctor assured me that he would be just fine only on milk for quite some time. I decided then to take it easy. I continued to offer solid food about once per week, but didn't get frazzled when he refused. All of a sudden, when he was about eight months, he magically decided that he was ready to eat! It was still slow going for a few weeks, but now he is 10 months old and eating like a champ. Be patient, she will eat when she is ready.

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you've got tons of advice so far so all i have to add is this: please don't use splenda! just google 'splenda side-effects'.

also, have you tried introducing a straw? have you let her play with the spoon first so she's not afraid of it?

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My daughter was the same way! I had such a hard time getting her to eat solids, because a dumb doctor told me to force them on her early because she "wasn't getting enough breast milk" and wouldn't take a bottle...that's a whole 'nother story! Anyway, she loved Avocado. I'd mash it up with some coconut milk and a little salt to make it tasty and she'd eat that from a spoon just fine. She also would eat it by herself from those little food strainer toys. They come two to a package, and I got mine at Target near the bottles and pacifiers. We put all kinds of things in those food strainers and let her feed herself. She'd suck them empty if she liked what was in them, and turn her nose up if she didn't. Might work for you :)

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She's only 6 months old. Thats all she needs right now is nursing, my second didnt take anything but me till she was well over 8 months. Her body isnt ready, let her be a baby while she's a baby , she'll grow up soon enough!

Katie

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6 months is still early in the food process so I wouldnt feel bad about backing off for a bit. Also, maybe a breadstick type thing that she can chew on herself would be more to her liking? My daughter is very strong willed and always prefered to feed herself. There are some children who go straight from breast to sippy cup and skip the bottle completely. The Nuk sippycup is almost nipple like and doesnt leak too bad. Dont force but continue to offer and hopefully she will give it a try. Good luck, Jen

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Hi,

Have you tried giving her a sippy cup? Some babies just don't like bottles. Mine took one twice. He loves his sippy cup though. Nuby has some with soft spouts and handles. As far as the food goes, she might not be ready for it yet. When she looks like her mouth is watering, that's when to try. I think with nursing or formula, babies can go quite a while with only that. Maybe she'll be more interested in a month or so. They change so quickly.

Good luck

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If she is physically healthy she will eat when she's hungry, especially if you can be calm and patient.

My granddaughter didn't like the bottle when my daughter stopped nursing her. We tried different nipples and bottles until we found one that she liked. Until then her mother or I would hold her and put the nipple in. She'd swallow a little bit and push it out. We waited a few minutes and tried again. Swallowed some and pushed it out. When we got tired of it we quit even tho she hadn't drank enough. And repeated the routine later.

It was important to feed her at the first sign of hunger before she was overly hungry. I don't remember how long it was before she was nursing on a bottle with no difficulty.

Looking back I wonder if it was the formula that she objected to because she had taken bottles, with breast milk, in between nursing on the breast. Eventually the dr prescribed a dairy free formula after testing her for allergies. She drank that fine.

During this difficulty with the bottle she continued to gain weight. The only time you need to be concerned about eating is if she loses weight or doesn't gain over a period of time.

As to solid food perhaps she's not ready to have solid food yet. For her to eat solids her digestive system including her ability to swallow solids has to be developed.

Six months is early in the window of when to start solids. My granddaughter's pediatrician suggested that it was better to start later because the baby is less likely to develop allergies when food is started later.

If your daughter truly isn't eating, is lethargic, or appears ill you definitly should take her to the pediatrician.

If she's not ill, she really will eat when she's hungry if you are able to be calm and relaxed about it. If you're anxious and tense she will pick up on that and may not be able to eat. It's important for meal time to be pleasant for both babies and adults. When you say she cries when the spoon reaches her mouth I suggest that perhaps she associates that spoon with pain, either physical or emotional.

I just picked up on your description of your daughter being "stubborn and knows exactly what she wants and likes." That's good. A passive baby may be easier to care for but they have their own set of problems as they get older. Both of my grandchildren could be said to be stubborn but that has such a negative connotation to me. We call them strong willed. It is frequently good to give them what they want at 6 months, especially food. The parent should make reasonable adaptions to their needs. If we fight with them over everything we are reinforcing their stubborness. I don't know if stubborn has a negative meaning for you. If it doesn't please disregard this paragraph.

To reassure you, no healthy baby ever starved if food was available to them. They will eventually eat.

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Try letting someone else give her the bottle. They will always prefer Mama to the bottle, so you have to eliminate that option. She won't starve herself, she'll eventually take the bottle. I have 2 VERY stubborn boys and you just have to remind yourself that you are the one who knows whats best for her at this point...not her! She has plenty of time to make her own decisions down the road ;) Once you get her comfortable with the bottle, use a needle to make some extra large holes in one of her bottle nipples and then add a little cereal to her milk. Increase the amount gradually (but not so much that she can't suck it out :) Hopefully she'll acquire a taste for the cereal and you can just try to offer it to her by spoon daily and just keep offering it daily until she takes it. Don't push it on her...just keep offering it to her. And I don't know if I dare suggest this (so I apologize if this is a big no no for you), but you could add a 'little' splenda to the cereal...this may get her really interested in it. You could then gradually ease the splenda out of the cereal. Mixing applesauce with the cereal is also an option. At 6 months old, she'll be fine with fruits and applesauce is a good one to start with. Best of luck!

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one have you called the pediatrician about this and sought their advice? Have you tried a different type of nipple or soap that may not be washing out? will she take a sippy cup? if so then give her her formula in a cup but insist that she be held when taking it for that nuturing time, if she gets down then the feeding is over for at least a half hour then try again. On the food issue my grandson did this too, but I must say a did force the issue because I found out he was hungry once we got over the hurdle that time he hasn't done it again, plus I think they try to wait too long and are over hungry and refuse it, try half hour earlier and see if this does the trick...remember try to be calm, patient yet in control, not them in control, because they control with emotions at this age. a M. of seven

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My boy seems to be the same way, he'll be 6mo at the end of the month. He ate cereal great when I tried a couple weeks ago, now he yells and when I put it in his mouth he just sits there with his mouth open and won't swallow. Ugh. Tough because he always acts hungry and is nursing all the time. I don't have any advise there, but you're not alone :) He only wants to eat solid solid food- like graham crackers in the mesh feeder. I'm thinking about thickening baby food with cereal and seeing if he'll eat it out of there.
We tried a bunch of different bottles and now he will take one most of the time (we only use it a couple times a month). It's called BreastFlow- I think by the First Years, I found it at Target. It has a double nipple and looks a lot like the real thing- he latched on right away.

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I am assuming you are nursing... thats all she needs right now is you. If you are trying to wean I would suggest you go buy several different kinds of nipples and see which one she likes. As far as the baby food goes.... Dont push it try one thing at a time if she doesnt like it now try it again in a couple of weeks before trying something else. Good luck everything will be ok.

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One of the main signs that a baby is ready for food other than breastmilk or formula is that they start showing interest in food. Try holding her in your lap during meals give her a no-pressure chance to see what this eating thing is all about. or just let her hang out with the family at the table in a high-chair and feel the good vibes of a family meal. When she starts to show interest in what's on your plate she will probably start to show interest in other foods for her.

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I would take her to the pediatrician and have her thouroughly checked out. My stepson did this when he was a baby and the pediatrician kept saying he was fine, by 8 months he was living off of 12 onces a day. They finally got a referral to children's hospital from his eye dr. When they checked him out it turns out he was silently aspirating (basically cholking without any outward signs). He would take a drink but then he would start choking so he would push the bottle away, same thing with food. I'm sure it's nothing and your daughter is just being picky but better safe then sorry.

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My little girl, now almost a year old, didn't take bottles after the second month or so. That's when we hit our stride with breastfeeding and I guess she figured, why bother with a bottle when she can have it right from the source. However, if you haven't tried DIFFERENT bottles and/or nipples, that might be worth a go. Some babies do well with one type of bottle, others with another type. Some babies do well with a sippy cup (that's what we ended up with). It might even be worth trying a cup with a straw (First Years makes one for little ones that doesn't leak that I've seen).

There are also tons of other options for solids than cereal and baby food. With the cereal, have you tried mixing it with her milk/formula? Sometimes it's the texture--she may not like the smoothness of baby food. We've been doing table food for our daughter and the first thing she really liked was hummus, which is neither super smooth nor bland (as "stage one" baby food is!). Another early favourite was sweet potato. There we just cook real sweet potato until it's nice and soft and then squish it up for her. Real banana is also a favoured early food for a lot of babies, just make sure it's a nice ripe banana (yellow with brown spots).

Good luck with all this--feeding a baby is certainly an adventure!

S.

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