Seeking Solid Food Stories

My son HATED cereal - I had the same fears you do! In desperation I decided to forgo cereal and it was one of the best decsions I made! Once we started the stage 1 solid foods everything changed and he loved the food! Best of luck to you!!
K.

My daughter never did eat any cereal or baby food. I breastfeed and at around 7 months I started to introduce these foods. She might have eaten a bite or to every few days but I was throwing away jar after jar. Because I knew that my breatsmilk was all the nutrition she needed for the first year, I didn't push it. I was also told that many breastfed babies prefer to self feed so the spoon feeding may be ineffective with these babies. I started offering her "real" food in small pieces and she would basically just play with it, maybe taking a few bites here and there. She basically did not start eating solids until she was 11 1/2 months old. She now, at 22 months, is a great eater, and an avid breastfeeder. I wouldn't worry too much about it until after the first year. I am sure your daughter will eventually embrace the idea of solids. I strongly believe in following their cues, although it's difficult with all of the info out there telling us when and how things should occur. Trust yourself and your baby I always say:)

My doctor recommended mixing the cereal with one of the orange foods-my daughter loved squash and sweet potatoes. You could also try mixing it with a juice instead of breastmilk/water. Good Luck!

hi S.,

we never started with cereal, but with avocado. our son loved it and still does. we also didn't follow a lot of the 'musts' people say with feeding children, but went with the 'newer' reasoning that kids can eat almost anything (within reason and with care).

after avocado (mixed with breastmilk), we moved to sweet potatoes with avocado, then sw. potatoes with brocoli, etc.

the avocado was a great start, because of the fats and vitamins in it that are so good for babies especially.

we didn't need to use fruit as a sweetener to get him interested. but, of course, i didn't experience much need to restrict my diet while pregnant ('the spicier the better' was my motto), and we didn't struggle with colic. i am sure these things would affect your baby's taste buds alot.

we also didn't start solids until he was 8m old and he was *ready* by then.

i am sure she will learn to love foods. it might take some experimenting to find something she loves.

best luck

R.

I thought I did breastfeed forever ;) My daughter self weaned at about 2.5 years.

But... she did start grabbing at solids at about 7 or 8 months. We never really did baby food.... or the cereals (as I've heard horror stories of constipation, etc.) but we did do mashed up whatever I was eating.... her favorites were avacado, bananas, applesauce, etc. It never really was a struggle.

How old is your baby? Because regardless of their solid food intake, they still need the benefits of breastmilk (or formula for that matter) until they are at least a year. One organization promotes breastfeeding till 2, because of the added benefits.

yes, read the book, My Child Won't Eat by Gonzalez

Hi S.~
My baby is almost 6 months and he isn't liking the rice cereal either. I will keep trying I think, but in the mean time I decided to try a vegetable (carrots), which he seems to like. I thought I would try carrots only for a few days (to make sure there are no allergies) then maybe mix in a little cereal with the carrots? Not sure either, but that's what I will try.

~L. :O)

The transistion to solids is a hard one! It may take up to five days before your child will eat the cereal! Just keep on trying! Also, have someone other than yourself try to feed it to her! She knows you as the milk machine and to her that's the best stuff! Don't give up...repetition is the best solution.

Hi S.! My daughter hated rice cereal, oatmeal and basically anything in a jar. I continued to try for several months without much success. She would only eat 3 or 4 bites out of a jar. When she turned 9 months, I just started feeding her whatever I was eating (always soft food and small bites) and she has been an amazing eater ever since. She is now 16 months and eats whatever I give her without ever fussing. I recommend givivg your baby all of the cereals and jar foods to practice using her mouth and tongue and also you want to make sure she doesn't have any food allergies before you give her table food. My pediatrician told me to give my daughter her food one kind at a time for 5 days to be sure she wasn't allergic. He also recommended that I give her vegetables before fruit otherwise they refuse to eat vegetables. I might just be lucky, but my child LOVES anything green! I kept her on only veggies for 2 months before I introduced fruits. Just be patient with your daughter and hopefully in a few months the transition will be a bit smoother.

I think I mentioned that I was a failure at breastfeeding ,so I have a high regard for anyone who can do it longer than 2 weeks.

While I will always advise anyone to check with their pediatricians, I am among those that had put some baby cereal in two out of three children's formula. After about three weeks to a month, coupled with some serious evidence of gnawing on teething toys or veggies (next paragraph), I decided to transition them to cereals-which led to the "leaning-over-the-chair-to-get-mom's-food" stage.

All three of mine were varied. The two voracious eaters teethed early, and were hungry often. People thought I was nuts when I "wasted" those big carrots or huge cucmber slices on my little ones as they teethed. But it worked as a gauge for me-the deeper and bigger chunks they attempted to gouge out of it, the closer they were to savoring solids. The one that ate lightly drank milk like crazy, but would not take to the cereal in the milk. I had to spoonfeed her early, when she kept getting hungry every 2 hours after oodles of milk.

Melba Toast: Buy a mini vacuum with this... but I found this a great way to see how ready they are to take on solids too. When they go past just gnawing, drooling and moving to actually consuming the pieces, it's a great hint that they may want more...

The tough thing for some of my experience to "apply" here is that I had the younger ones in the UK, and their milk is much tastier. In the hands of their nanny, they had started regular milk at 5 months (a big no-no here in the US) and solids at 6-7 months. When I say solids, I mean cereals, mashed (fresh) veggies, and so forth.

The philosophy is pretty much letting the child explore foods. He/She will pick up what they like (even if it's not on their plate-a habit I had to break them of). As long as they don't get nasty diaper rash, colic, or vomiting, odds are, they might start latching on to the foods.

Try not to give them salted, spiced up stuff early on.

DON'T get them hooked on sweet stuff either.

Try to introduce water with the solids.

Do check with the pediatrician.

Hope that helps. :-)

i am a breastfeeding mama and our transition to solids went pretty well.

i started at 6 months with rice cereal and added in things like banana and then various veggies mashed up.

i also tried a few jars of gerber foods to see what he "liked" and found him to be pretty easy to please.

but i also discovered that once i started really making my own with fresh or frozen veggies, he likes them a lot more than the gerber. so keep in mind that just because baby doesn't like gerber peas doesn't mean he doesn't like peas.

just keep it simple and go with the flow. my son ate tiny amounts at the beginning and then just one day surprised us by eating a whole jar sized portion. but every day is different.

if you have the time to make your own, it is so much cheaper! i just freeze large batches in ice cube trays or other freezable small containers.

good luck!

Hi S.,

I have a 7 1/2 month old who has been on solid foods since she was about 6 months. She does not like the cereal either. But, I found if I mix it with some of her formula (or breastmilk in your case), and then add some applesauce or pears to make it taste a little better, she is fine with it. Have your tried other solid foods yet (sweet peas, green beans, squash, fruit)? Your pediatrician should hopefully recommend what to feed her at her age. Anyway, that's my experience with rice cereal. Hope it helps.

I made my own baby food. It is really easy too and does ot take that much time to do. At that point I was working a 50 to 60 hour a week job, housework, and taking care of my daughter and husband.
A food processor is a must. Frankly, baby food does taste yucky and is expensive. Whatever we were eating my daughter ate it too. I would take a litle of the food, put it in the food processor and grind it up. If you go out for dinner, take a food grinder and Voila instant baby food. I started her out a 6 months old on baby cereal sometimes mixed with pureed fruit and gradually introduced new foods.
I also would put the puree in a ice cube trays, freeze it, and then put it in freezer bags to heat a later time. It work great for the babysitter as well. Foods my daughter really liked: pot roast with carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. I would make this in a crockpot. After it was pureed it was not the best looking color, but tasted just like pot roat. To thicken it I would add baby cereal. Spaghetti was also popular. I personally do not cook with a lot of salt.
Baby cereal mixed with applesauce or mashed banana is also good.
Steam vegetables (frozen or fresh), puree in the food processor, freeze into cubes. Do the same with fruit. Being from Hawaii, my daughter had lots of different types of fruit.
Experiment and have fun and your baby will soon be chowing down.
BTW I breastfed my daughter for about a year and half. You do not have feed exclusively by breast feeding. Breast milk is great for baby. My daughter has rarely been sick (She is 3 now) and I believe it is due in fact to nursing for so long. She drank baby formula at the babysitter and started eating food about 6 months old.

I also breastfeed my baby as a primary source of nutrition...he's 8.5 months. I have not used formula and he won't even take breastmilk by the bottle. When we started him on cereal around 6 months that was okay...we had decided to make our own with the help of the "Super Baby Food" book. We did not follow it to a T, just took some suggestions from it (was a little too hippie-ish for us). For some reason my husband doesn't trust the jar food, don't know why.

Anyway! Our little guy doesn't like fruit at all. Not any kind that's all mushed up, nor will he use a mesh feeder. He LOVES avocado, and just likes green veggies. Orange veggies are hit and miss. He'll eat rice cereal all the time, oatmeal pretty consistently and barley not often at all. Sometimes he likes to eat the cereal seperately from the food, sometimes mixed in. He hasn't been a great eater for breakfast, but does better at lunch and/or dinner. Sometimes he'll only eat once a day, sometimes more.

My Dr. told me that babies won't get enough iron from their mom's breastmilk so the cereal is what is most important. I just make sure he gets atleast a few bites of cereal each day and try not to get too frustrated about the rest of the food.

As we make our food, we can make the portions as small as we need and not throw out as much. While visiting with Grandparents, they bought organic jar food. Little guy went through maybe 1 whole jar during the week we were there. I think 4 or 5 jars were thrown out not finished.

My husband reminds me...just be patient. Every baby has their own time schedule for everything.