My daughter just turned 6 months old. She was three weeks early when she was born, has no health problems, gave me a little problems breastfeeding after we got home from the hospital but we resolved them within 2 days. She is feed breast milk only. Breastfed by me and then bottle fed my milk by my sitter.
I have been trying to spoon feed her cereal for about 2 months, she will have nothing to do with it. Lately I have tried carrots, pears, cereal with a little apple sauce. I have tried an infant feeder (actually had my husband try so she wouldnt smell me). She wants nothing to do with it. I will be starting to wean her (started cutting down pumpings this week and expect my last pumping to be August 5th) and then completely wean her within a week or 2 after that. So I really want her to start some solids.
Any advice about what I can do. I am so frustrated within a few minutes because she either smiles at me with the food pooled in her mouth or starts crying and then it all comes flying out at me. Help!
One other thing...this is my 4th child and my other 3 were on cereal at about 3 months.
I want to wean from breastfeeding because I am just so done with it and yes she will be going to formula. She has had formula on two occasions is drinks it as well as breast milk. If I was a stay at home mom and only had to breastfeed I would continue, but I absolutely hate pumping 3 times a day. Tired of feeling like a cow all hooked up to a machine.
There's no rush. Honestly, it wasn't that many years ago when the recommendation was to start rice cereal closer to 9 months. This is very, very young. Plenty of time to start solid foods.
My kids had no interest in solids until 10 to 12 months!
They hated baby food, went straight from breast to table.
Give it up for a few weeks or a month, and try again.
If you are weaning from breast I hope she will still be getting formula?
She isnt ready, all she really needs is breast milk/formula to survive for the first year. Baby food is really just practice.
She's not ready - that's why she doesn't want solids. If you want to wean soon, then wean her to formula. For the first year of a baby's life, breastmilk or formula provide the bulk of the nutrition. At 6 months old, solids are just for practice. They provide fewer calories ounce for ounce than breastmilk or formula, and far fewer nutrients.
I guess I don't understand why you're causing yourself and your daughter frustration when all you're doing is practicing? Why not just hold off a month and she if she's ready then?
She doesn't need to eat solids yet. I would just back off the whole thing and try again in a month or two. If you're still going to wean on your schedule, just make sure you find a formula that she likes. You were lucky that your older kids were easier, but not all babies are ready that early and there is no nutritional need for them to eat solids at all until they're closer to a year old, so there's no rush if she's not interested. My youngest didn't start solids until he was 8 months old because I was too lazy to bother and he's the best eater of my crew.
If she still doesn't show an interest in a few months, check with your pedi.
Its just too early. If she is not interested, wait a few weeks and try again. No need to worry or put pressure on it at this point. She should be on breast milk or formula until she is 1 year old. Maybe you should have a talk with your pediatrician about the normal timeline for this kind of transition, I think you are a bit ahead of yourself. Good luck!
Is there a medical/work related reason you want her to be weaned by a certain date?
All three of my nursing babies were different with regards to solids. But there was no real reason to push as BM is the best thing for them anyway. Mostly they didn't have solids as actual nutrition until they were grasping food in their hands and putting it in their mouths. Everything else was just for fun. They all self weaned.
They all go at different paces. Sounds like this one is just not interested yet. But she WILL be!
:)
Stop forcing her!
Like Julia said solids are practice and there is no hard set rule that they must eat at 6 months. You have to listen to your baby.
Are you switching her to formula? I would be more concerned w/ making that a smooth transition than worrying about solids.
If you are wanting to supplement (milk) feedings w/ solids while you're at work, she is just too young.
My kids never would eat cereal, no matter how tasty I tried to make it.
Some kids just won't eat it. In fact the only thing my kids ever ate really was homemade sweet potatoes.
My advice: take a break. Too many new things at once is going to stress her out-especially if you are switching her to formula. Babies like their closeness to their mama-that is a big enough transition for the moment.
HTH! GL!
My 5th baby did this too. He wasn't interested in foods until after he turned one. It has been slow but he's doing better. His doc said to just breastfeed since that's all he was interested in. Keep trying. He'll get it when he's ready. My other kids were interested sooner. All children are different. Good luck!
Babies only need the nutrients in breastmilk or formula for the first year. There is no reason to rush her is she isn't ready for 'real food'
When you say you want to wean her, do you intend to begin giving her formula? If so, there's no need to push the solids. My older son began solids at 5 months with no problems. In fact, he was really eager and really loved it! My younger son rejected our attempts at 6 months and again at 7 months. He really didn't start solids until 8 months, and even then never really liked baby food. He pretty much went straight to table food. He just didn't want to be spoon fed (mister independent, that one!)
Give her some more time. If you're done breastfeeding (and I'm not criticizing if you are), just start giving her formula. No need to rush. If she seems to not want the formula, just mix it with pumped milk until she gets used to it. She'll be fine.
My son refused all solids until close to 8 months and my daughter was gobbling it up at 4 months, both were exclusively breastfed too. Just wait a few weeks and try again. Things might change when you switch her to formula so just wait and see.
6 months is still really young. Our doctor didn't even recommend we *start* solids until then. Some babies just take longer to get interested in food, and that is totally normal. In fact my son was slow to start and it wasn't until he was close to a year that he really started eating a significant amount of food. We were so worried at first but over time we realized it was no big deal. Here is what I would say based on my experience:
First, some babies don't like cereal. There's no reason you have to start with cereal, especially for a baby of that age. Try some fruits or veggies or even a different cereal (oatmeal, brown rice, etc) and see if she responds differently. And keep trying without forcing the issue. Offer it and encourage her to try but if she refuses, don't make a fight of it. For my son at least, we started making it a fight and he's very stubborn so he just dug in his heels more. If we had relaxed a bit I wonder if he would have come around sooner. Keep trying too. I know for us, my son would refuse some food one week and then a week later it was his favorite! Babies change so quickly.
Don't forget your daughter should still be getting almost all of her nutrition from milk or formula anyway. At the start, eating is just practice. Cereal has minimal nutritional value (mainly iron but if she starts formula she'll be getting it there), and even if they're eating fruits/veg they're not eating enough to give them tons of calories or nutrients. (There's a little discussion of this here http://www.babycenter.com/0_introducing-solid-food_113.bc... and actually the site has all kinds of info about solids that I personally found helpful.) The weaning and solids don't have to correlate--you can wean her onto formula while you keep working on solids. I too weaned right around the time we started giving solids, and it took some perseverance but after a few months it started going better. If you're really concerned and feel like maybe some physical issue is preventing her from eating talk to your doctor--never hurts to ask. Otherwise, based on my experience I'd say just keep plugging away at it. Good luck!
i'm having a hard time with my twins eating baby foods too, they are 7 months old. it may be a texture issue, maybe try putting a bit of the rice cereal, or whichever one, in the food to help thicken it a bit. or try warming it up. one of my twins only likes table foods, he actually ats small bites of whole green beans, he likes whole peas, mashed potatoes. my other twin will only eat runny baby food, nothing else. they are stikk drinking 4 8oz bottles a day, trying to space them out, some days it works and some days it doesnt. just try to stay patient, and good luck!!!! i dont think its to early, she may just be picky.
I just went thru a similar experience with my 6 month old. He was nearly 10lb at birth and it seemed like he was getting more hungry around 5 1/2 mo so I did my research and waited until he was 6 months to start feeding him. He is a BIG boy and I just figured he'd take to it w/in a few feedings. Nope. He kept pushing the food out of his mouth and it would run down his little chin and I was getting frustrated by the end of the first week. My daughter had it down w/in a couple feedings--what was going on? I kept trying to no avail and finally backed off for a week or so and then at 7 months he just got it and started to eat no problem! He is still only eating a couple ounces of food twice a day and sometimes doesn't even finish that.
I've heard that early babies are developmentally behind by the number of weeks early they are. Your baby was 3 weeks early so you might want to anticipate her being about 3 weeks behind in general developmentally, which will even out over time.
Honestly though, according to my recent research, the lining of the stomach and intestine aren't in place/ready to digest solids until between 6-8 months and there is that tongue reflex to deal with as well. She is still well within normal for starting solids and I wouldn't worry yet. It's probably just that her body isn't ready for it yet. When she is ready she'll eat--it has to be right for her even if you are very eager for her to just do it already. Here is a link:
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/readyforsolids.htm
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/babymenu.htm
She may not have the reflex yet. I remember with my son, we tried to start him on solids at 5 months, but he was lacking the swallowing reflex for solids, and kept pushing his tongue up like he was nursing or taking a bottle which made it flow out of his mouth. We simply had to give him more time to mature. My daughter, who is older than my son, took to feeding right away! As in, couldn't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough! It kind of caught me off guard that it took my son longer to like it and get the hang of it.
At 3 weeks early, I am assuming that you mean she was born at 37 weeks? So she was full term. She may just need a little more time. Keep trying, but I wouldn't push the issue.
i hope you dont wean her! there are some kids not ready for solids until much later and when they arent breastfed or weaned early they are diagnosed as failure to thrive. i hope you are able to find a solution to whatever reason you are weaning her. please reconsider
I would just relax. Most kids starts anywhere from 4-6 months but a lot are not interested until near 10-12 months. Keep trying in little portions so when she rejects it it doesn't get everywhere.
Most pediatricians don't recommend starting any solid foods until at least 6 months, because it takes many babies that long for their digestive systems to mature enough to begin handling variety. Many babies are simply not interested in solid food until much later, 9 months or even longer.
This is actually a good thing, because breast milk or formula are the most nutritionally-dense foods they can get, balanced to meet their needs for growth and energy, and least likely to cause them problems with indigestion or allergies. Cereals are a poor second, fruits and veggies are okay when they are beginning to experiment with new flavors, but they are still not balanced nutritionally.
If you want to wean her and she's not accepting solids, just switch her to formula, since she accepts it. She can live on that alone through for her first year. Just try introducing solid foods once in awhile to see if she's interested yet. If you're not forcing her to eat things she finds distasteful, she'll probably become curious about and start reaching for foods she sees you eat.
