Solid foods... very close to 6 months and maybe not ready?

Hi there -

So we started "introducing" solids (rice cereal and oatmeal cereal) to the babies just after Thanksgiving. Miss Mia loves 'em. Easily can eat 1.5 tablespoons mixed with formula. She doesn't love the veggies or fruit yet but will try them.

Lady Lauren hates it. She can't quite figure out the swallowing thing no matter how I present the spoon (sideways, straight on, thicker food, thinner food, etc) and has made very little progress in the past 3 weeks. We still offer it to her every night but if she eats one whole spoonful I'm surprised. We've tried the veg, the fruit, mixed in, separate. Nada.

I know the books say if they spit it out to try again the next week but my ladies will be 6 months next week... shouldn't they be ready? Any ideas?

 

There is truly no magic age for solids. Some kids are gobbling up rice cereal at 4 months and others don't get the hang of swallowing until 9 or 10 months. Unless there's something serious wrong (like sensory issues), it doesn't seem to matter at what age kids learn to eat solids. They're all eating them just fine by age 2 or 3. Given that ALL of a six month old's nutrition comes from breastmilk or formula, don't sweat it. I'd even say not to try next week. Give her a few weeks or a month and you might be surprised by how ready she is by then.

For what it's worth, I didn't even bother to introduce solid food until 8 months old and my kids were perfectly competent by 10 or 11 months.

 

Hi Carrie,

I think you have the PERFECT excuse not to bother with solids for now - you have TWO sets of twins. I didn't really bother with solids until they were 8 months and they just got it fast at that age. Before that age we were trying solids once a week, I was taking a picture and it was more for fun. For now it's only for practice anyway, so don't worry, maybe give her a month or so, I am sure she will start eating when she's ready.
Merry Christmas and have fun with all your girls!

 

I agree with PPs - don't sweat it! We didn't start the girls until almost 7 months & will let this LO decide when he's ready (which if it happens to be 10 months - yay! Less work for me )

 

None of my kids were ready until after 7 months, until then I got everything pushed back out at me! Don't stress...just because the books say they should be ready doesn't mean they are .

 

my girls are actually almost exactly a month younger than yours. We just started giving them some baby food recently and one twin likes it better and understands what to do better than the other. It almost seems as though my miss Amelia is a couple weeks behind my little linebacker princess Teagan. Teagan knows what to do the second the spoon comes out she gets really excited and opens her mouth ready to gobbile up her sweet potatos. But Amelia just looks at me like "seriously, you want me to eat that?" LOL so i just give Teagan as much as she wants and then Amelia i just keep trying if she doesn't want it and gets fussy about it then i clean her up and thats that. I'm actually not to worried about it i know she will get to where her sister is in time.

 

I waited until they wanted it..which was prob 7 or 8 months..they went from fruit to veggies to meats all in a month! I wouldn't worry or stress..just let em do what they want..they know when they are ready..take a couple weeks off and then try again.