6 Month Old Will Not Eat Baby Food.

Hello M.,

I would just give her a couple of weeks to get used to it. My 7-month-old son did the EXACT same thing. It took him exactly 2 weeks to FINALLY open his month, and one day he just did and it was like night and day. You could play a fun little game with her and try to make her laugh to open her mouth and then just stick the spoon in--with just a little bit on the spoon for her to try. It's such a new thing for her and she's just testing it out. Maybe add a little of the fruit to the cereal for a more appealing taste. Hopefully this helps--or some of the other moms' great advice!!

Liz W.

I usually mixed the fruit or veggies into the baby oatmeal and that seemed to work really well for us.

IMO she's telling you she's not ready for solids yet. I'd try again in 2-4 weeks. :)

The baby food will come. I also had the same problem, except my daughter would not eat any food or cereal. If she eats the cereal try oatmeal. It will not constipate her as much. Mix in a very small amount in her cereal. If she eats it, keep mixing in a bit more. I used this trick when introducing new foods and different textures. If that doesn't work, put the food away for a few days or a week and try again.
Don't worry, she will eat. I worked myself up so much I think my daughter sensed the tention.
M. B

i'm not sure about the baby food, it took my son quite a while to get used to it. ( almost 3 mos ) however my doctor suggested that we give my son a teaspoon of karo syrup in his bottles or mixed with the cereal to help constipation. this has helped wonderfully and we still do it. it even makes him eat more of his foods. good luck

Hi M.,

We had to add rice ceral to our 6-month old son's bottles for the last two months, because he has acid reflux. He got constipated, and the doc said that was normal with rice cereal. He had us add Kyro syrup to a couple of bottles each day. By trial and error, we have figured out that 1Tsp in two of his bottles each day is the magic equation for keeping him regular.

We started him on solid foods about 5-6 weeks ago, and I tried to reduce the Kyro syrup to just 1Tsp in one bottle, and he immediately got constipated again. So I returned to our original regimine.

I don't have a problem with him eating his solid foods (except when it is green beans). From what I've read though, if they aren't ready to eat something, they will let you know by not opening their mouths. Have you tried the other cereals yet? We went through Rice, Oatmeal and Barley cereals for a few weeks before we started the veggies and fruits. Mine LOVES peaches, squash and carrots.

I recommend that you try the Kyro in her bottles for the constipation....cleared my boy up in a couple of days. As for the food, I would try the other cereals and retry fruits and veggies in a couple of weeks. Good luck!!!

I had a hard time getting my oldest off of baby food and I couldn't get my youngest to eat baby food, so who knows what makes some like it and others to not like it. With my youngest, I just let him eat little bits of what we were having. One thing that I often did was sort of chew tough food (with my front teeth) and then give it to him. It worked; as gross as it my sound to some people. Good luck.

We had feeders that were like bottles with bigger holes. I think I found them at Baby's R Us. I used them to get the boys used to the tastes and to feed them in a hurry when the spoon was just taking too long.

Just keep trying. If you had started with the cereal 2 months ago like I did then she would be used to the spoon by now and fruits and veggies would be a new experience she was ready for.

She's not ready, all in good time. I agree with the note on demonstrating how to eat etc., but just give her a week or two and try again. Solids can be introduced at you and your childs ideal time as long as she takes her formula/BRF well. Try an ounce of prune juice in a bottle of formula, the iron in the formula is constipating her. I used one ounce daily mixed with her fromula, sometimtes less until my babe was able to stool easier. 6 months is also a good time to introduce a cup/bottle with about 4 ounces of water daily if you haven't already (don't give them an unlimited amount, just a few ounces/day) this will often help, too! Good luck

My niece did the same thing.I take care of her during the day and it can be very frustrating.Some of the things I did was I would try to give her a drink of her bottle and then when she would open her mouth I would put a bite in.Also make sure she is not hungry when you try it.She doesn't yet realize that it is food and she will be more frustrated if she's hungry.I continued to try it every day until she got the hang of it.I thought she was never going to eat it because I couldn't even get it in her mouth most of the time for her to taste.Also if she will eat the cereal I would mix a little in with it.

Sometimes I've seen kids that really just didn't like baby food and needed something a little chunkier and maybe even with a small amount of flavor added, salt, butter etc. As a society we didn't always have baby food. The most natural thing in the world is to smash up real food and feed it to them.

My youngest daughter cut her teeth on soup and salads. When she was young I loved going to those soup and salad shops. I'd get a lot of different foods and smash it with my spoon and feed her a little bit of everything I could. She liked some things, didn't like some and within just a few weeks she was already grabbing stuff with her hands and putting it in her own mouth. I'd strain off the broth and give her the vegetables from the soups.

Today my daughter eats way more foods than any other child I know. She even eats foods I wouldn't dream of touching. She will try anything and never turns her nose up at something because of how it looks.

Suzi

sorry, it's 100 Top Baby Purees, and the author is Annabel Karmel

My oldest daughter wouldn't eat the rice cereal unless it had bananas...and then hardly even then. I would put a tablespoon in her bottles just to get rid of it. However, she seemed ready to eat anything else I would put in front of her.

Now my youngest, she did the same thing as your daughter and not opened her mouth all the way. I didn't start her out on cereal...just started out of veggies. I think she was used to the softer nipple and could suck it in where she could get something out of it, the spoon was a different texture to her. She ended up sucking her food off the spoon for awhile. She would get little tastes of food in, but she had to learn to work her tongue around so that it moved the food back and not forward (a sucking motion moves it forward). She got used to it with a little patience and more practice. I also played with her and every time I gave her a bite I would say AHHh (open my mouth) and she learned to mimic and then say YUM when it got in.

As for the constipation, both my girls were a little constipated when starting solid foods since their tummys weren't used to solid foods (and their butts later with diaper rash). When feeding her solids, offer her water in a sippy cup (good time to introduce the sippy cups also). She may spit it out at first, but some will get in and help her out and it will help her to like water later. I started my 3 year old on a sippy cup of water before she was 6 months old.

Hi-
We had the same problem. Gerber makes an oatmeal and also a barley cereal, which don't comstipate. They are a little harder to find, but worth it. (We always got the barley at Babies R Us). My pediatrician assured me that until they were off of the bottle/nursing at 12 months, eating solids is more behavioral, and it wouldn't hurt them if they didn't do it. So don't panic too much.

Good luck.

Hi M.,
Well I'm gonna be the opposite all the advice I give you because this is what worked with my now 6 month old daughter and she has been on cereal since 3 1/2 months (Dr's approval) and fruits and vegetables shortly after that. She now eats 5 2nd foods jars a day and between 20 and 25 ounces of formula a week.

So I highly advise adainest putting her cereal in her bottle it will stretch her stomach out and then take a lot more to fill it up. I watch a little boy right now that is 8 months old and he won't stop eating because of it.

I would mix her cereal like you normally do but start with 1st foods fruits at the same time. cereal and fruit for breakfast and a vegetable and cereal for bed this way she is getting both and not getting used to one.

By the way what she is telling you is my taste buds are developed and that tastes funny to me, I ddon't know if I'm gonna eat that or not. In my opinion anyway.

My daughter wouldn't eat the cereal for anything but when I put fruit in it she gobbled it up non problems so at the sametime I started vegetables. None of my kids have had allergies so I have never been concerned and this idea of keeping kids on baby food till they are one, thats for the birds. My has tried toast, she like ritz crackers and animal cookies. she has figured out how to get cheerios in her mouth and those fruit puff things gerber makes oh and popsicles, a mcdonalds french fry. She will be 7 months on the 14th of june and 1 month after that we will go to 3rd foods and be on table food by 1 yr. I have 4 children I have done it this way with all of them and it didn't hurt one of them.
And we have started juice/water with the sippy cup once a day.

Also have you only started the food at your house or what about your daycare or who watches your baby. In my opinion whatever way you get her to eat as long as she eats, My first son ate anything and everything didn't matter, my 2nd son wouldn't eat baby cereal for nothing unless fruit and yummy things were in it, and then he wouldn't eat the baby food unless I mixed them together the fruit and the vgetable, my 3rd didn't care, wanted food no matter what.
And the 4th she now eats all her cereal and fruit, 2 jars at lunch and 2 jars at dinner. We worked up to this also, slowly took 2 months. She just recently went to 2nd foods.
Goodluck W..

I started my six month old on rice cereal recently too, and he did the exact same thing! He would barely open his mouth and as soon as he felt the spoon he'd clamp down before it was all the way in his mouth. What I did was to get a bowl of food and show him how I would eat it. I would show him the spoon with food in it, open my mouth as wide as I could, stick the spoon all the way in and just hold it there, then close down, and show him the empty spoon. I would then give him a bite of his food, then I'd eat a bite of mine, then switch back. I would usually nurse him a little right before I fed him so he wasn't so hungry and could focus on trying to eat. He got a lot better in just a few days. You might also try Lil' Dippers by Gerber. http://www.gerber.com/prodcat?catid=572 They are plastic sticks, for lack of a better term, that they can hold on to and dip the other end in the food. That might help her get used to the rice cereal, but be prepared to do a lot of cleaning up afterwards. If you do that, I would suggest having her in a diaper only for the first few times. Hope some of this helps and good luck!

My daughter hated baby food too! I bought a food holder/strainer. I found it at babies r us and I think they may have it at walmart or target too. It is a mesh net sack that has a top to screw off. I put frozen fruit in it. It only allows strained pieces, so it's not a chocking hazard. It was great for teething too! That was the only way I could get my daughter to eat fruit and now she's 2 and loves all fruits. Hope it helps

what i did with my son for the consitpation was karo syrup , just add a glob to a couple of bottles a day. i am also doing it for my baby girl.i can say it works.they also have feeder bottles at wal-mart and it has a bigger hole at the top, you just put the food or cereal in and squezze.

Rice cereal is disgusting. My baby won't eat it either. Oatmeal is better. We mix it with juice or watered down baby fruits.