Advice on feeding solids

My girls are 7 months old (5.5 months adjusted) and we have been practicing with cereal for about 6 weeks now one meal a day and they are still no better at it now than they were in the beginning! They still push it out and act like it tastes terrible, etc. I've served it warm, room temp, with water, formula, EBM, nothing seems to make a difference. My older daughter just took right to it so this is new for me. Any experiences similar to reassure me or any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Allison

 

I think it's fairly common for it to take a while for them to get used to eating solids. It might just be that they hate the cereal. Maybe you want to try something that tastes better, like sweet potatoes, bananas or applesauce? You could try mixing one of those in with the cereal. Also, Gerber makes rice cereal with banana flavoring - my girls liked this better than plain.

Good luck

 

neither of mine liked cereal either, we moved right to the foods, started out with bananas then onto others applesauce, pears, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and it takes a while for them to get used to green beans and peas. Good Luck

Keri

 

Allison,

There is a lady here that is a Registered Dietican. I was frustrated feeding mine for a while, and she gave me some really great advice. Her name is Angel. It has been really slow for us, but the past couple of weeks has gone a lot better. I guess they do it when they're ready, not when we're ready. How much in control are we, anyways? Good luck to you and your babies.

 

I am also going to suggest trying something different, like jarred foods. Those have better tastes to them, and she would probably like that much better. I did bananas first, and my guys LOVED them.

 

quote:
I guess they do it when they're ready, not when we're ready.


This is the philosophy I took with one of my girls. She was tough from the beginning, good days and bad. If she wanted to eat, I kept going. If she refused, I stopped and tried again in another day or so. One thing that worked for me was to put the spoon up to her lips and let her suck the food off. I let her dictate when it was time and now she does a great job!

My other dd ate like a little birdie from the beginning and now if I don't feed her fast enough she shakes waiting for that bite. It's priceless!

 

I agree: try a different, more tasty food. My ds LOVES oatmeal cereal plain or mixed with fruit. My dd however hates cereal. So we don't force her to eat it.

 

I've been feeding mine cereal for a few weeks now. DS took right to it & I thought DD just wasn't "getting it" until Saturday when I tried mashed up bananas mixed with a little formula. Seems it wasn't the eating of solid foods/using a spoon she didn't "get"- it was why anyone would actually eat that nasty cereal! She gobbles the bananas right down- even chews on the spoon! So definitely try a different food before deciding they just can't get the hang of eating solids!