6 Month Old Doesn't like Cereal

Hi M., I always mixed fruit with the baby cereal for my kids & my grandkids. You should start with applesauce & pears.

Good luck
L.

I assume you're talking about rice cereal... have YOU tasted it? It tastes like cardboard. Yuck! None of my kids would touch it. Just use oatmeal... it's not overpriced like the baby cereals and actually healthier in many regards. The rice cereal has almost zero nutrional value. The 1 minute kind is just as fast as baby cereal to make, too. Make a batch, put into small bowls and put in fridge. All it takes is a few seconds to warm up or serve cold. Mixing fruit or veggies with oatmeal/baby cereal is a good idea.

You can introduce fruits now but just handle it like a new food, wait a few days in between. There are different philosohpies as to what to try first, green vegetables, orange vegetables, fruit, etc. However, if you use the fruit to only mix with the cereal it won't be as strong of a sweeter taste as straight fruit. Once you introduce one or two fruits to mix with cereal then you can continue to introduce the vegetables.

My son was not a fan of rice cereal as well. He seemed to do better with oatmeal and I initially mixed vegetables in with it until I got around to introducing fruits. After he had fruits, I always mixed the fruit with his cereal.

My son never liked it on it's own either. We ended up mixing rice in with his veggies and oatmeal in with fruits. He ate almost everything like that, and it made the purees go further.

adding fruit to your childs cereal should make it taste better to the child.After all cereal alone is pretty bland. I used sweet potatoe as well and had success.Apple worked the best, blueberry worked well also.

You could mix the cereal with the vegetables too. I used to mix cereal in with the sweet potates and squash for my son when he was that age just to thicken it up a bit and make it easier for him to eat.

Skip the cereal. It's pointless at this age. If you want the ease of cereal for breakfast, get quick oats in the canister and use that, but baby cereal is disgusting :( It's bland, and they strip all nutrients from it and just add back in a few things they think babies need. Babies never need to eat cereal.

My son did not like the rice cereal either. He did like the oatmeal better, but I mixed it with apple juice instead of water or formula. My doctor recommended going through all the veggies before the fruits, but it can't be that big of a deal to introduce a fruit and mix that with cereal or oatmeal.

I agree with Sarah D. Cereal isn't a necessary part of the diet for any of us. It's (as Sarah said) stripped of nutrients, and basically just a filler. Maybe your daughter's body is telling her something good by rejecting it. The best grain for any of us is oats. The gluten in wheat, barley, and rye are basically just a source of sugar.

I see an Integrative M.D. who began her practice years ago as a traditional pediatrician. She later began researching treatment through more natural means first, and medication later if it's called for. Her little patients flourished so well on her diet plan that their parents began making appointments with her to solve their own problems. She now has a family practice and many dedicated patients. Her big rule of thumb is: Avoid dairy, wheat (barley & rye too) and sugar. Oats are good. The high glycemic index foods (potatoes, rice, other grains) are unnecessary in terms of our nutritional well-being.

Use honey (once the children are old enough for it to not be a danger), maple syrup (pure), or maple sugar instead of white sugar. Yogurt with active cultures is O.K.

You can add fruits now...but you want to be careful because if you add the fruit before you finish going through the veggies she might not like the veggies. The fruits are sweeter and are easier to like...the veggies are a bit harder to like...so it's usually best to get them on the veggies and then on the fruit. Now having said that...this is not absolute. Go with what you think is best. Just be sure that you are introducing 1 new food at a time in 4 day increments to watch for allergies :-)

Yes, if you add fruit to the cereal she will probably eat it better.

I mixed the cereal in my babies food when they were infants, mostly to thicken it up (they disliked the runny-ness of the foods) and they never know the difference. It couldn't hurt, anyway.

If she doesn't like cereal, don't give it to her. There's no reason why she has to have it. My daughter HATED the rice cereal, but really liked regular oatmeal. So, that's what we gave her. Personally, if she doesn't like it, I would skip it all together. Offer her another serving of veggies instead.

My son is the same way! Definitely mix the fruit in with the cereal...my son gobbles it up that way, but hates plain cereal! And I wouldn't worry about the order of introducing foods (personally)...just do the fruit mixture by itself so you can see if there are any reactions.

There is no real reason for your daughter to eat cereal at all. Doctors recommend it as a first food because it is easy to digest and there is a low risk for an allergic reaction. If she doesn't like it, skip it. This is a great website http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/index.htm
to give you some ideas on what your little one can be eating at this age.

You could try adding some fruit to it, making it more runny or try the oatmeal. She's going to get her nutrients from the formula so you could give her the oatmeal or the rice cereal with fruit added to it.

My son likes it a little runny with half a jar of bananas or applesauce in it.

Hi M.,
Yes you can add fruits at the same time as veggies. Just make sure you give a couple of days before introducing a new food in case of an allergic reaction. Actually, I always mixed fruit with the cereal for my kids...it made the cereal taste a lot better!! Hope this helps!

It is fine to give fruit with the cereal, it was the only way I could get my son to eat cereal. He also wouldn't eat veggies at first, so we started with fruit. He now eats veggies fine.

Try mixing the cereal in with her veggies. I don't think it matters and it really doesn't alter the taste of the food it's in. The most important thing is that she is getting the cereal. I would call your ped. about mixing fruits with veggies. I kinda gave my son whatever and it turned out fine. Alot of times I forgot to wait the "waiting period" to see if he was allergic. If there is no history of allergies in your family I would think it is ok but call the dr. just to be sure.

Adding fruit to cereal was the only way my son and daughter would eat it. I would try it. I think I remember the doctor telling me that it can take a child up to 30 times of being introduced a food before they decide if they like it or not. The eating schedule we had was a bottle first thing in the morning, then cereal with fruit, some more bottles and then a vegetable with dinner.

I have mixed veggies with the cereal before. It may be the consistency of the cereal that the baby does not like. Veggies and cereal may sound gross to an adult but babies are not yet into gross. If it tastes good the baby will usually eat it.

There is NO rule that infants must eat cereal.
The only rule is that when you introduce foods, do it one at a time to detect any allergic reactions, especially if there is any tendency to allergies in your family history.
Mashed banana is a good fruit to start with.
Be happy that your baby is enjoying his vegetables.
Of my 6 children, only one had much cereal at all.
Some had baby food in jars, but I mostly went with mashed banana first and then I used a baby food grinder on the vegetables and meat that we had for dinner or ate in a restaurant, and mixed the ground foods with gravy or vegetable water (that they were cooked in) to thin the consistency.
One time someone gave me a lot of ripe plums, and I put them (without the seeds) through a ricer, or a sieve and then I put the pulp in the compartments of ice cube trays and froze it.
I put all the cubes in a freezer bag and took them out one by one, defrosted, and fed them to my child, at room temperature.
So there are many options for your baby and you concerning food.

Hi M.
She can have fruits also. You can also use her juice to mix her cereal with instead of her formula or water. You could even add some of her favorite veggie in it. If none of that works, then she probably doesnt like the cereal.
Good luck and God Bless
R.