How Do I Get My 5.5 Month Old Son to Eat His Veggies?

I wouldn't really worry about it R.. Despite what your ped says, the pediatric authorities have been recommending not starting solids before six months for some years now. He really doesn't need any food. Up til a year old, their milk is their primary food and gives them all of the nutrition they need. Foods are just for tasting and experienting. Your 5-6 month old doesn't specifically need the food and I wouldn't go crazy trying to trick him into eating veggies, mixing in fruit, decreasing the fruit. It can take multiple tries for a baby to take a new food. At six months, he should only be eating maybe a tablespoon of food twice a day and never in place of his milk.
Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Eh kids are picky just keep trying. they say it takes somthing like 12 trys somtimes to develope a tast for things.
My son ate anything i gave him til heb was about 14 mo old. now at 2 i sneek veggies into pasta sauce by pureeing them up in the food processor first because he will not eat any vegitables at all he is super picky now it's really a pain.

you definatly don't have to still mix things with cereal you can give them strait fruit at this age. by 6mo old my son didn't even eat baby food anymore. he was eating pasta,chicken, frozen vegies, canned fruit,cut up berries, grapes, bagels,ect.....

my kids werent crazy about some of the veggies either.. i do remember they liked squash, carrots, sweet potatoes .. but if you keep introducing it he will come around. wait a few days and try again :0) in the mean time you can keep giving him the fruit.. hmmm... i wonder how it would work if you gave him veggies and fruit at the same time and switched every other spoonful perhaps... idk..lol.. i wish you luck.. but this wont last forever.. he will eventually eat them :0)

R.,
Alot of the purees come mixed, fruit and veggie like Sweet Potato Aprricot and Carrot Tomato. You can definately mix your own. You should try yogurt for lunch, our son has been eating yobaby for lunch since he's about 7 months old. Check with your pediatrician first, but babies love it!
He eats a veggie at lunch too.
S.

6 months is the recommended MINIMUM starting age for solids, so I would say back off on them and wait a couple of months until your son shows an active interest in the food for example I didn't start solids with my daughter until she stole the strawberries off my breakfast plate ;-).

Until at least the age of 1, your baby should be getting most of their calories and nutrition from breastmilk/formula. Your son may take more interest in vegetables when he gets to the stage where he can feed himself (carrot chunks, broccoli spears, etc.) There are no benefits to feeding baby cereals--they don't have as much nutrition in them as regular fruits and veggies, so don't push them. Grains are very hard on the digestive track in general, so if your baby will eat the puree'd fruit/vegetables without the cereal, that is actually better for him from a nutritional standpoint. Another possibility is your son may prefer home cooked vegetables to the ones from a jar. Just mash up whatever veggies you make for dinner and see if he'll eat that.

Hi R.,

I don't think you need to worry a bit. He is still so young. He'll be just fine without fruits and veges for awhile longer. I would just try out different stuff and see what he does seem to like. Sweet potatoes were a hit for my little guy. And bananas.

Good luck!

K.

Hi There,
My pediatrician said to start with a veggie, then alternate with fruits, so they don't get used to just sweet stuff... anyway, too later for that. I think you have a good idea of mixes things and gradually decreasing the amount of fruit. Just make sure you mix it with things he has tried. And, don't give up... it takes MANY tries before kids will accept some new foods! Good Luck!

I would not worry too much if he is not eating his veggies. He is only 5.5 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends beginning solids at 6 months old. At that time, a babies primary source of nutrition is breastmilk or formula until they are a year old. You are just trying to introduce solids at this young age. Why cause added stress? Sometimes it can take numerous attempts before a baby will accept a new food.

Best of luck to you!!!

My ped recommended starting only with veggies because they like the fruit so much you rarely have to struggle.
I suggest you wean off the fruit right now and just give veggies for a while. At less than 6 months this food is "practice" he'll get all his nutrition from breastmilk or formula. All the more reason to practice with veggies.
And my ped said yes straight purees were fine after 4 month, but stick to stage one fine purees
Good Luck!

It is not that important that your son eats cereal. Neither one of my children has ever had the cereals. They only ate the pureed foods. My son loved things mixed with banana. I mixed spinach and bananas...avocado and bananas...chicken and bananas. It was either banana or yogurt. And I believe you're not suppose to introduce yogurt until 10mon. Good luck!

That's still pretty young to be eating food outside of breast milk at all. Fruit should be the first food. Pears are the closest in molecular structure to breast milk. I wouldn't feed grains at all especially not at such an early age. The digestive system is not ready for it. Have you noticed your baby spitting up grains but not fruit? Babies who eat the food they should be eating don't spit up and very seldom need burping. Avocado is very high in fat for a tiny one. Breast milk is very low fat. Hold off on the avocado until the baby is quite active--like around 18 months when they're really running around and losing the baby fat. Always look to nature when deciding how to eat--don't look to doctors who don't actually study nutrition or to the corporations who fund massive campaigns to get people hooked on their foods. We're the only species who doesn't have the sense to wean children from milk and even continue to feed them milk from other species. Most of what you learn about nutrition in the media is propaganda and simply not true.

Veggies have a lot of bulk and little calories so sticking to fruit which is self-digesting, full of nutrients and tasty is not only easier but more beneficial to babies and toddlers. Offer veggies later. Sweet potatoes are often liked by young ones, very finely grated carrots and apple mixed together with a bit of orange juice is also easy to digest and tasty if you want to get some veggies in. Almost all babies have an aversion to green veggies. That doesn't mean they will never eat them later in life. You don't need to force the issue. Let it happen naturally and if you don't pollute the foods with all kinds of flavoring they will appreciate all foods. Many parents try to trick children into eating veggies by smothering it in sauce. This just serves to addict the child to sauce. It's not training them to like veggies which are very tasty in the raw state but require flavoring if cooked. Of course they are too hard for a baby to eat in the raw state. Fruits are soft and many can be "chewed" even without teeth. Once again, do what nature says.

When it comes to food introduction, there really are no hard and fast rules (except I would avoid citrus and piecy-foods like hot dog bits and raisins) -- anyway, I think that mixing foods is fine. I used to mix applesauce and sweet potato a lot and my son loved it. You can also start off with other naturally sweet veggies. Good ones to try are corn (pureed) and peas.

Try dipping the tip of the spoon in applesauce.

I am surprised that your ped started your child feeding solids so early. Is your child particularly developed for his age?
The general consensus in pediatrics now is to start babies on solids after 6 months old, first starting with bananas and cereal and gradually moving into other fruits then into starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes. Carrots is one of the last things to give (after one year) because they are very hard for young babies to digest. Avocado is particularly fatty, so it is logical that your son would have an aversion to it. He is not able to digest it yet!
Take your time introducing your son to these vegetables and get better informed. His poor stomach is not ready for all of this.
I have a two year old daughter who loves veggies and fruit, yogurt and tofu and a lot of healthy foods. I kept her on breast milk and formula until 6 months, started her on cereals and bananas from month 6-8 then started her on things like sweet potatoes and pears. I introduced a new fruit or vegetable around every one or two weeks. I made all her food myself until she was 1.5 years old. It is so easy to just steam some vegetables or fruit and put them in the blender!
Try this and hope it will work for you as well as it did for us.

You haven't mentioned which veggies you have tried. My kids hated the greens but loved the carrots and sweet potatoes. I mixed some cereal in the veggies when they wouldn't eat it and sometimes that worked. Most pediatricians recommend starting veggies first for this very reason once they get a taste of the sweet stuff they don't want the veggies. As long as he is getting his formula or breastmilk he will be fine. I would lay off and try again in a while it won't hurt him. Good luck!!