7 Month Old Won't Eat Solids

If he doesn't want the baby food, don't force him to eat it. What did you do for the other two kids?

Give him solids...he's 7 months. Give him things like mashed potatoes w/gravy, or green beans (mash up real good). Does he have any teeth? For some kids, though, the solids could be a little heavy for them so you're gonna have to be real careful of the types of solids you give him.

Just start off slow and give him plenty of water. Also, give him some dialuted apple juice or prune juice to keep him from getting constipated with the solids.

The "experts" always say it takes 10 tries to get a baby to eat a certain food. However, I have an almost-4-year-old and a 10-month-old, and my youngest only ate baby food for about a month. They see what everyone else is eating and want that, too. My doctor says a lot of babies are off baby food and on to table food by this age... especially if they have older siblings. I would start them off with canned veggies and/or fruit and maybe those little "meat sticks" gerber makes. As long as it's healty food, it's not a problem.

I am assuming that you are feeding him the older baby foods that he is spitting out. I don't blame him, they taste disgusting....LOL

My grand daughter is 9 months old and is on table food. She doesn't want baby food any more. She does still like the baby fruits and desserts though. We started her on mashed potatoes and gravy. Then we went to very small bites of soft stuff like green beans, soft french fries, hamburger, cheerios, the little cookies that look like chocolate chips, etc. Now we get the little Chefboyardee dinners, like chicken veggies and rice dinner, spaghettios, etc. She loves all this stuff and eats good. We feed most of her stuff to her with a spoon but at this age, they like to "do it myself" LOL The things we can, we put on her tray and she feeds herself.

I am proud Mommy to 3 adult married children, & Granny to 8 grandchildren (9 mos to 18 years), and 1 great grandbaby. They all live very near and are here all the time PTL....I tell everyone I am a Professional Granny. (I babysit all the time... lol)

Emma, 9 mos, also likes sippy cups..designed with 2 handles and soft top. She's even pretty good at drinking out of water bottles and drinking out of a straw. From my experience, 7 mos on, they are wanting to become more independant and the first way to show it is choosing food that they like.....LOL Just watch to make sure the food isn't too spicy and that you start with small bites of soft food.

Hope this helps some. Of course, you might want to check with your doctor and watch to make sure he doesn't have allergies to any of the foods.

Hugs, Granny D

Hi. I work in an infant room at a learning center. We certainly on occasion have this happen. Some infants decide that they're done with the mushy stuff. If he's fine with cheerios then he's ready to roll. Start with some well cooked and diced carrots or green beans .Mashed potatoes are great fun. Very soft small noodles they love also. Sometimes it's texture and sometimes it's independence. Put the veggies on the tray of his highchair and see what happens. Encouragement can make all the difference also."What a big boy you are! You're eating those so well! Oh, those are so good!" Whatever does happen, it will help him develope his pincer grasp which is all part of his developement. I've had a couple of children who's parents missed the the transitional window from bottle to food or from food to solids. It's very important listen to a child's clues. It's not them being defiant, it's them letting you know the only way they can that they're ready for the next step. It's holding them back if you don't take the next step. Then when it's obvious they should be independent, they'll refuse to self feed or let go of the bottle. If it's a feeding type food or they've had "enough" self feeding, give them a hand. Give them their own spoon while you have one so you can both help. Or help them monuver the one they have to their mouth. Don't make eating time a war. It sets a terrible cycle in motion. We've had a couple of children who started in our care at nine months or older who would only take bottles. Their "window" was past and baby or solid food was not a consideration in their minds. The same can happen with bottle holding. Six months is the time area to have them develope that skill. Propping doesn't count and NEVER have them lying down drinking one. Can you say ear infections? [Sorry about my soap box] Anyway. ... I sure hope this helped. I have developed a technique for the missed transitions but that's another novel. Good luck! It'll be fine. I'm so glad you asked.

About the cutest thing I ever saw our grandson do when he was seven months old was feed himself. We were at a restaurant and his mom took out the food she had brought for him. It was a peeled Roma tomato. She put it in his hand and he looked like a little food processing machine. He put it to his mouth and as he ate it he kept pushing the next bite in, never moving it from his mouth until it was all gone. I don't remember him making a mess and almost wonder now if it wasn't peeled. I saw him eat broccoli the same way. He has been one of the healthiest, sturdiest kids I have ever seen. He's good looking, too! Gr'ma

Hi K.,

I am a SAHM of 1 son, almost 5 and two grandchildren (1 girl,almost 6 and one boy, 14 months.
In responding to your question, I had that trouble with my son and grandson and before I went to table food, I tried seasoning the baby food just a litte. Maybe a tiny bit of salt or garlic powder. It worked. Then I transitioned him to the toddler foods before table food. The Gerber graduates have some little dinners that both of mine liked. You might have to mash things up a little if he doesn't have his teeth yet. Try this, I think it will work for you.

Dear K.,

I used very little baby food, but took what ever we ate and put it in the blender. It had a small cup-sized attachment which was more convenient. The food was seasoned nicely, (lightly because we don't go for really spicy foods), and it was more appealing than what came out of the baby food selections. You can follow the general introduction of food groups, but simply let your little one try the family's meals and he may surprise you.

Good luck, G.

I am also a stay at home mom of 3 kids ages, 8, 3 and 2. When I felt like my kids were ready for "solids" I started them out with a plain ol' can of Veg-all. Yep, veg-all. They LOVED it! It's colorful, sort of solid, but still mushes, easy to pick up, and fun for them. People always thought I was crazy for feeding it to them, but think about it. It is A LOT cheaper then buying Gerber vegetables. It has carrots, peas, green beans, celery and potatoes. This helped my children to learn to love vegetables, and they all got to pick and choose which one they wanted first. Just a thought, it worked for my kids! Good Luck K.! I am sure you will get tons of great advice!

I have 7 kids. The youngest are 1 and 2. I start them off at 4 mos eating vegetables from the table. I run the food thru the food processor before I season it. But first of all, NO cheerios until after a meal and then definately NO honey nut (sugar) cheerios. Of course he'd rather eat those, they are sweet and yummy compared to boring old veges.

I have NEVER fed my children processed store bought baby food. Have you tasted that stuff? It is nasty, my dogs won't even eat it. YUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I start them off on veges because they are not sweet. Try spinach, green beans, zuchini, squash, things like that. Stay away from sweet potatos and reg potatos. Just steam it in the microwave until fairly tender, maybe add a little tiny bit of sea salt and puree in the food processor. You can freeze it in ice cube trays and then empty into freezer zip lock bags. It is very healthy, very cheap and very fast.

I do NOT introduce fruits until they are eating their vegetables really really well. Sometimes I wait until 9 mos for fruit. That way they have cultivated a taste for veges and not sweets. Fruit is very sweet.

My kids will literally beg you for zuchinni and / or spinach until it is gone. Then they will eat their meat and have fruit for dessert. They think cookies and ice cream are nasty. I am sure that will change with the 1 and 2 yr old. It changed with the older ones around 5 yrs old but by then healthy eating habits are established.

If you offer a food that they do not like and refuse to eat, just keep offering it. If that is all that is offered, eventually they will eat it. A child will NOT starve themselves with food in front of them. You just have to be stronger than them. Good luck.

If your baby is loving the cheerios, and is picking them up on his own, I would try to go ahead and give him some super soft finger food- try canned pears cut up small or cooked carrots, peas, etc. Things that will mush or dissolve in his mouth easily. This may get him used to new flavors. I have a friend whose daughter never at baby food at all, just went straight to finger foods. There are alot of finger foods out there that are soft enough for your baby, it will just be a little messy! Hope this helps,

S.

i have 4 kids and all i know is no matter how many you have, they are all different. my youngest (now 13) ate very little baby food, i breastfed him forever, and he went almost to table food. by the time he was 12 months, he ate no baby food at all. there's nothing requiring a child to eat baby food. eating what you eat is easier and cheaper. just make sure that everything is soft enough for him to handle. no large chunks of meat or hotdog, no hard carrots or grapes. and go easy on the salt, if his food isn't heavily salted, he won't aquire a taste for everything to be so salty. also, the cheerios are great, a much better option (and much cheaper, and less messy) than gerber puffs.

My son hated baby food, too. I pretty much skipped that stuff and gave him straight table food. DON'T cut it up into small pieces, because he might swallow it before he's developmentally ready. Instead, I gave him large pieces of cooked vegetable or meat so that he could hold it, gnaw it, suck on it, and if he occasionally got a bite off of it and swallowed it, then it was a size he could handle. Suggestions: banana, cooked carrot and celery, tortillas, and slices of meat. when he was a little older, he was willing to eat plain yogurt and applesauce.

Here is more info on this practice, called "baby-led weaning": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

K.,

If your seven month old is able to sit while eating cherrios without difficulty, I think he has graduated to really soft (steamed vegetables,fruit) and other really soft foods! I would make my own frequnetly because my now 18 month old, decided earlier that the store bought stuff was way to pureed!

If you get any good tips, please pass them on to me. We have a baby who also dislikes solid food and it's affecting her weight gain. I would really appreciate it very much:
____@____.com

Have you tried mixing in the rice/oatmeal/mixed cereals into the baby food to make it a thicker consistency? Both of my children ate baby food much better when I mixed in cereal. Also, it helps them graduate to eating solids.

Babies have weird texture likes and dislikes. Just keep trying new foods. Try to introduce new babyfoods with textures like spaghetti and chicken and rice. This will enable him to start becoming used to the different textures adn then you can graduate slowly to other table foods. Try mac and cheese and also try letting him pick up the foods himself, that seems to be a draw for lots of babies.

My kids are a bit older now so the details are a bit foggy. My first child, I followed the rules the doc gave us as well as possible. I admit, it isn't always easy because you wonder why your child isn't on that schedule yet. But with my youngest, I relaxed a bit and introduced new food items as her diet tended to need it as long as it was safe...has teeth to eat certain foods, no honey, etc. If she grew hungrier, I gave her more "adult" foods to compliment her bottles. As she began grabbing for the "adult" food, I chopped it up very well and let her taste it. I took the clues from her instead of from a book. I never had a problem with the youngest meal times since.