Solid Food - Valley Village,CA

I have a strong opinion about solid food this young.

Her tummy is just not ready for it. Please check with your Pediatrician about this. Formula and Breast Milk is all a baby needs until they are a year old, solid food is only for teaching them to chew and swallow. The little kids need stuff packed with nutrients and they don't get near enough from solid food. the vitamins and minerals just aren't in enough quantity to give adequate nutrition. Most Pediatricians and even the local Health Department tell you only rice cereal mixed with a little formula at 6 months and then introducing limited solid food and 100% juice until about 10 months. With WIC you can't even got juice until they are at least 6 months old. Please consider talking to a nutritionist about how to introduce solids and when.

A web site I trust and love is parentcenter.com or babycenter.com. There are experts and also other moms that share information on just about every topic to do with kids of all ages.

It depends on what it is your trying to get her to eat. Have you tasted some of those baby foods? YUCK! No flavor at all, start her with fruits, they are pretty good. As far as vegetables go, sweet potatoes are good too. Its just something you have to experiment with. Try baby cereal too, Rice cereal is the best for digestion and I cheated and put a little bit of sugar in it. Not too much mind you, just enough to give it a little bit of flavor thats not bland! At 6mos. you can also give her things from your plate, nothing she would have to chew of course, mashed potatos & gravy, creamed corn things soft and easy for her to swallow. She'll figure it out don't worry. She'll be eating you out of house and home before you know it LoL!!
Good Luck
S. in Vegas

don't worry if she doesn't like solids now - she's growing and changing so much that it's quite possible she'll be more receptive in a few weeks or a few days. And at this age she's getting *all* the nutrition she needs from breastmilk and/or formula so she's not missing out on any essential nutrients if you decide that you want to wait a few weeks or months before giving solid feeding another try.

Some good references: nutritionist Ellyn Satter's book "Child of mine - feeding with love and good sense"
the "Starting Solids" FAQ from askdrsears.com: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032000.asp
the homemade babyfood web site http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Hope that helps!

As others have said, she just may not be ready. Solids at this age are for tasting and practice--her main source of nutrition should be coming from breast milk or formula. I've also read, and found in my own experience, that it takes multiple introductions to know if a child "likes" something or not...like 10-12. So once you try something, try it over and over several days in a row and then add something else in the mix.

Be patient, the thrust reflex your baby is born with is meant to protect them against things they shouldn't be swallowing.

I never did rice cereal...it didn't provide anything my daughter wasn't getting from breast milk. Instead, I opted to wait a few months and start between 7-9 months with avocado, bananas, mashed sweet potatoes, pureed "adult food" (her favorite was pot roast with brown rice and carrots), oatmeal, mashed peas...there are a lot of appealing options that you can introduce in just another month or two that will likely be a lot more appealing to your baby.