5 Month Old Won't Eat Solids

He's not ready, babies don't need to eat solids, parents just feel a rush to get them to. Come back to it in a month, maybe then he will be ready.

My son didn't eat any food at all, even though it was offered many times in many ways, until he was 9 months old. He pretty much skipped baby food altogether and went straight to solid, very very soft foods. He would only drink breast milk up until that time. He's 2 now and in great health, so no worries.

I'd wait until he's six months, at the earliest, to begin offering solids. That's what pediatricians recommend. The fact he is gagging is his way of telling you he isn't ready yet, even though his sister was. He is an entirely different person, he always will be. Don't expect him to be a male copy of her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/health/many-babies-fed-...

I really had hoped I was going to see that you were a new member and that this question was just bait for a debate.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?
Parenting 101: Babies don't need solids at 5 months old. AAP recommends not starting them until 6 months old at the earliest.

PLEASE educate yourself about how to properly raise your babies. Formula should be ALL he is having (assuming you aren't breastfeeding) at this time.

You really couldn't have expected a different answer on here, right? And if you found this website, then you probably found this same answer as you googled to try and find a different answer. The answer is simple: he isn't physically ready for food yet, and there isn't any place on the internet that you will find a different answer.

Sorry to be harsh, but I get incredibly frustrated and irritated by questions like this, when the answer is so plainly found at the doctor, on the internet, and the poster simply wants to find someone who will back up her poor choice.

Just the fact that you say you force it is disturbing. I'm concerned for both your kids.

I don't have time to read what others have said, so sorry if this is a repeat. Your baby is not ready for it. Babies don't NEED to eat solids until 12 months. Wait a month and see what happens. Or wait until he starts trying to grab your food.

He's not ready and he's not like your 18 month old.
He's his own self and will develop at his own rate.
Don't force it.
Our son didn't take to solids till he was almost a year old.
Formula kept him fed and well nourished.
Just relax and don't expect him to be a carbon copy of his older sister.

My daughters didn't start eating solid foods until they were 12 months old.
Please don't try to force your infant to eat. He is gagging and to force it down his throat could cause him to aspirate the food into his lungs. If that happens he could end up hospitalized for pneumonia. Babies only need breast milk or formula.

Um, why does he need solids? Sure some babies like them early on but many do not, and often it gives them digestive trouble. Under 12 months of age all babies need are breast milk and/or formula. Eating and feeding should be a happy time, don't force it. Wait a few months and try again. Check with your pediatrician if you're worried about his health or growth.

I feel very strongly about this because we believe that food is a part of life that should never be forced and should be served with love. period. But none NOT ONE of us is the perfect parent, so get out that wet noodle for yourself and /facepalm your mistake a little. We've all had to do it at one time or another, anyone who tell you different is lying.

When my youngest was 4 months old, the doctor had me convinced that I should start rice cereal. He hated it. HATED it. I thought I was doing something wrong, that he was suppose to eat it and that it was important that he did eat it. ONE time I got frustrated and started to force food into his mouth. I had a friend there, she looked at me incredulously, as if to say, "what the hell do you think you are doing to that baby?" It changed the way I looked at feeding my kids, and although I had nursed on demand up to that point, I had to be careful to pay attention to my kids, not some arbitrary time line. Not with this, anyway.

We all make mistakes and when we know better, we do better. Now you know that the AAP recently changed it's guidelines after an intensive study of women and their babies. Starting solids before 1 year old deprives the infant of the nutritionally dense breastmilk or formula, it should only be given in addition to a full menu of those. That said, this is the finding based on many women and children, but many fed their children solids before a year and the kids were fine (obviously), the recommendation is a baseline for you to work from. It's not nutritionally beneficial but it is acceptable at 6mo and after if the child wants it and seeks it out. That's the key, this is one thing in which you can follow your kids' lead.

I wish many happy meals upon your family in the future!

He does not need solids at this age.

Continue to give Breast milk or formula. Many infants do not eat until much later than 5 months. This is normal.

If you have to force, he is NOT READY.
He doesn't need solids right now. In fact, he doesn't even need it until 12 months. Until 12 months, eating solids is practice, and should have NO nutritional significance. His nutrition should be met by breastmilk or formula, and the solids are practicing for when they are not.

For goodness sakes, stop shoving food in his face. He doesn't want it, he's not ready, he doesn't need it. Take a chill pill and stop. You're going to cause your son to choke.

Simple. Unless you have a doctor's request to feed him solids, stop forcing him. Go at *his* pace.

My son did not like solids, initially. By 7 or 8 months, he was a fairly cooperative eater, but I had to be very patient. One thing I did was to feed him a bit before I nursed him, to ensure he was hungry. If he wasn't interested, I'd wait a bit and then nurse him if it was time and he was signalling he was hungry. Some kids have a textural issue when adjusting from liquids to solids and there is a pretty broad spectrum as to when an infant will be game to eat solids regularly. Some babies do not have well-developed tongue movements for swallowing food and will gag, which can be dangerous if they inhale the food.

Once he does seem interested, keep it friendly. Forcing him will only upset him and he will experience eating solids as a demoralizing and invasive experience. If you are nursing you can also try adding some breastmilk to the food to give it some familiarity.

Remember, too, that babies and kids sometimes need to try new foods up to a hundred times before they 'like' them or are ready to actually swallow them. I know, sounds crazy, but they also have a biological imperative to spit out anything which might be a potential toxin. If it were me with a tricky eater, I'd offer foods on the slightly sweeter side first to reassure the palate that 'food is good'. (From an evolutionary standpoint, humans learned long ago that more bitter foods could be poisonous, while the sweeter ones were usually safe for eating, hence the preference for sweeter foods.)

Remember, too, that all babies are different, even siblings. As your infant ages up, I'm sure you'll find more differences as well as similarities between your two kiddos. :)

Just let it go. Most kids AREN'T ready at 4 months. My first didn't take to "solids" until she was probably 7 months, but my second couldn't get enough when we started at 4 months (I only even tried so early with her because she was already reaching for my food at the table!).

I'm assuming you mean baby food, the mushy stuff. If he doesn't want to eat it yet, stop trying to make him. Once every couple weeks, try again. He's not ready. Every kid is different so just because your first child liked it, doesn't mean the next one will react the same way. Nowadays most pedis recommend 6 months at the earliest to try non-formula stuff.

I doubt that he pushes it out because he doesn't like it. Most likely his tongue thrust reflex has not diminished yet. It takes some babies until 6 months until they are able to coordinate their tongues enough to take baby food. Until then, their reflex forces them to push out anything thing that comes in there. Practice but don't force it.

My son did the same thing. My oldest took to it at 5 months. Couldn't get enough! My youngest had no interest. I decided to try again later, but I can't remember how long I waited. I do remember he still wasn't interested. Around 8 months my doctor was like, um, I think you should try again. Oh, right, I guess that would be a good idea. He did just fine then. He's now 4 years old, and eating like a champ.

What was my point? Oh yeah, give it time. Some babies aren't ready at 5 months. I'd give it a couple of weeks and try again. Even then, don't stress. He'll want to eat before long.

As long as you realize that solids keep the baby from getting the nutrition they need from their formula or breast milk then I guess it's okay to give them food. They aren't really supposed to start any solids until they are at least 6 months old and even then it's only a teaspoon of rice cereal in formula or breast milk. Extra runny too. That's all for the whole day. Anything other than cereal can sit in their tummy and basically rot. They can't digest much food yet and it often starts decomposing and they get horrid gas. So don't press him to eat.

Formula and breast milk are full of nutrition. Baby food is only flavored goo with very minimal nutrition. They don't need baby food at all. They DO need formula or breast milk first.

Baby food has only 1 purpose, to teach a baby to chew and swallow. NOT NUTRITION.

If they fill up on food then they have a tummy of flavored goo and no nutrition so they'll be hungry in a while and starving. If you give them even more food they don't get their needs met so they cry and cry and cry then get an upset system trying to digest the stuff they're not supposed to be eating anyway.

So give the baby their bottle or breast for at least another month. Then try a teaspoon of dry cereal mixed with formula or breast milk once per day. When they're older, maybe 10 months or so they can start eating foods right off the table. Like mashed potatoes, banana's, avocado's, any soft food. Then when they're able to chew and swallow okay you get a food chopper and any table food you're eating can be her's too. I whacked the food about 15 times when our boy was 1 then about 8-10 times when he was a toddler.

Baby's need their formula and breast milk. They don't need baby food at all. It's just a passed down thing that the baby food people keep telling us. Baby's all over the world never taste baby food. They nurse until they eat food from mom's plate.

Give them time, they'll eventually eat but 5 months is way too young.

Just wait and try again in a few months! There really is no rush, he has LOTS of time before he really needs to be eating solid food!

5 months is still VERY little...give him time, he is just not ready yet and that is perfectly OK!!!

Ask your doc.

Wait a week. Don't even try. If he has breast milk or formula, he will be fine. Some doctors don't want you to try till 6 mths. When he is ready, he will. If you force him, it will not go well and he will fight it. He's not ready. His muscles or something are not ready to make that leap to swallowing solids.
Be gentle mama. Let your doc guide you.

Please wait until 6 months, or the child's body can suffer disease and trouble later. 6 months is the time to introduce solids (really no special order). Mine didn't really "get it" @ first. Not until 12 months did they really take to the baby food. As long as he's nursing OK, the first year needn't be a time to worry much about solids.

My pediatrician said not to start til 6 mo. Then DD didn't really get going til more like 7 or 8 months. If he doesn't want it or isn't ready for it, then don't force it. Breastmilk or formula should be primary til 1 yr old anyway. I'd hold off and in a month or so give him little bits of your food. It doesn't need to be baby food. Friend's son tasted exactly 2 jars of baby food and didn't want it ever again. I wouldn't add the cereal to the bottle. IMO, it's a choking hazard. I always fed DD with a spoon. Rice cereal is gross, so DD ate oatmeal as soon as I figured that out. She was much happier.

wholesomebabyfood.com can give you food ideas.

Don't force it. Every child is different and your son just isn't ready for solids yet. Not a big problem. He's still getting all the nutrition he needs from breastmilk or formula.

On the other hand, he may be one of those babies that will only feed himself. My youngest REFUSED to let me feed her baby food; she would clamp her mouth shut and turn away. But once I started letting HER feed herself, I couldn't keep up! It took her a few days to get that pincher grip going, but once she did there was no stopping her. It ended up that she was nearly 8 months when she actually started solids (because I kept trying to spoon feed her baby food up till then). I would just cut up soft fruits and veggies, shred chicken and cheese, and cut toast and pancakes into narrow strips; plunk 3 pieces at a time on her highchair tray and try to keep up :)

Give him time. He's still small and doesn't *need* the solids yet. And when he IS ready, if he still won't let you feed him, see if he'd prefer to feed himself.

My firstborn had little interests in solids until he was a little over a year old. He was never fond of baby foods.

My younger son went straight to table food (no baby food at all) by 6 months. His first meat was little slivers of steak, and he didn't even have teeth.

Follow your child's cues. If he seems to want table food, mush up some of yours and see if he will eat it. If not, wait and try again later.

Mine got rice cereal very young - my oldest was a pig and was up to 6 8oz bottles a day by 5 weeks. My youngest was younger, but she needed to be full and I needed to sleep. I moved to squash at 10 or 12 weeks with my son. He liked it, but I spent a lot of time wiping it off of his chin with the spoon. :) My youngest liked squash at 10 weeks, but again, I was scooping a lot of it off her face. :)
Their tongues push food out when they are little. I certainly didn't force feed either of them. But, I certainly found out what they didn't like - as it came back at me. Peas were not appreciated. Those came back in spray form from both of them. (I hate peas, so I wasn't surprised.) If something dribbled out, they didn't hate it. If it sprayed out, it was definite dislike.
Good luck.

At five months he doesn't need solids. If he wants to try some of your food, let him if it's soft enough.
And I don't blame him for not wanting the baby food in a jar. Have you tasted that stuff? It's VILE!