My almost 9 mo. Old son doesn’t like eating solids. I started him with cereal and some fruits and veggies when he was 5 months and he used to eat fine, mainly he’s orange colored veggies, but in the past 1-2 months he mostly refuses to eat any baby food. When I put him in his chair and start feeding him, he’ll start fussing and grabbing any spoon we try to use. I may be able to insert a couple full spoons, but then he’ll close his mouth and refuse the rest. He will have a cracker or two. He’s fine drinking his breast milk, he drinks four to five 5 oz bottles a day.
Has anyone else experience something like this? How did you get your baby to eat? I’m just a little concerned he may not be getting all the nutrients he needs.
Thank you!
Thank you all for your advise! I got peace of mind knowing my breast milk is enough in terms of nutrients. I will start with pieces of veggies and fruits, instead of baby food. Yesterday I gave him banana and he ate some and played some; will try other stuff now. The other night I gave him tiny pieces of rotisserie chicken and he ate it all, so he must've liked it.
Thanks again!!!
Neither of my kids ate baby food at this age. They liked regular food cut up small. You said he likes crackers. Maybe you just need to broaden his table foods.
Don't worry, my son went through the same thing. He's just showing preference right now to your breastmilk- which is good!
Until he's a year old, solid foods aren't eaten for nutrients- they're eaten for practice. His main source of nutrients should still come from your breastmilk, the perfect food for his little tummy. :)
just keep offering the solids, but if he refuses then back off and offer again the next time. The key here is to just OFFER them. Eventually he'll decide to start eating them, and then before you know it he'll be a teenager eating you out of house and home! :)
Good luck, and good job breastfeeding! :)
Eating is more for practice at this age than nutrients, which should mainly be coming from breastmilk or formula until age 1.
My DD HATED baby food! I had to start her on table food at 7 months (with still breastfeeding of course), and she did great! I gave her yogurt, cut-up bananas, avacado, crackers, toast, etc.
Don't worry. Maybe his digestion is not ready for solids yet. Here's my experiences:
#1: got teeth at 8 months, started solids at 8.5 months
#2: got teeth at 4 months, started solids at 4.5 months - NO BABY FOOD. Literally, he would refuse it and his first bite of solid food was my Chile Relleno burrito that grabbed and stuffed in his face.
#3: got teeth at 10 months and REFUSED anything but breastmilk until I finally stopped breastfeeding her abruptly one weekend at 18 months. She was 100% breastfed until 18 months.
I would never give them cereal, as it screws with their blood sugar, so we started with veggies - and fruits later, so they would eat something besdies sweet things and carbs.
First, don't worry about nutrients. Babies get EVERYTHING they needs from breastmilk until they are more than a year old. So as long as he's taking that much breast milk, he's totally fine. Solids are totally unnecessary and only introduced to teach a baby how to eat and help them learn about tastes and textures so they are ready at 12 months to start getting more and more nutrients from the food. But, 15oz of breastmilk per day in the second year provides:
o 29% of energy requirements
o 43% of protein requirements
o 36% of calcium requirements
o 75% of vitamin A requirements
o 76% of folate requirements
o 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
o 60% of vitamin C requirements
-- Dewey 2001
Breastmilk should still be at least 75% of the diet at 12 months. So don't worry about weaning or anything at this point. Just know he gets everything he needs from you!!
Second, maybe he wants to feed himself? Or he doesn't want that bland jarred food? Babies only need purees when you start solids too early and they don't now how to eat yet. If you wait until after 6 months, and certainly by 9 months, he is able to eat small bits of whatever you're having for dinner. Mash small pieces of soft food, use your fork to shred bits of meat, put globs of potatoes on his try and let him play in it and try to feed himself, give him steamed vegetables, small peas, pieces of carrots, corn, whatever. He's probably just bored:)
Fruits are fine. Breastmilk is sweet. You shouldn't start with fruits when you formula feed because formula is disgusting and babies will prefer the sweet fruits. But that's not the case with sweet breasmilk that they get so much more than just food from:)
32oz is the recommendation is for FORMULA. Since you breastfeed, you don't need to worry about more than 20-25oz. It's plenty:)
Have fun with teaching him about food. Don't worry about nutrition, you're giving him the very best there is when you breastfeed:)
At 5 months he was interested in things that tasted good - now he's exploring textures and consistencies. My little girl LOVED oatmeal until she hit this phase and hated it for several months then loved it again. Things he never liked before he may like now simply because of the texture of it. Just try some new things. If he's not eating, don't make him - he'll open up when he's good and hungry :)
Good luck!
Try not to worry because he is getting all the nurtrient from your BM/ Formula. I will say that when my daughter was 8 months old, I started her on table food. Maybe he doesnt want a spoon anymore. He might be trying to be more independant. Try cutting up a banana really small and put it on his tray.
My daughter LOVES refried beans from the can(its messy but good protein)
when I started to feed her solids, I would cut everythign up into small enough peices that she could just swallow them without chewing.
I would try banana, cheese slices, beans, soft carrots, cherrios. Once he gets the hang of that you can introduce the meats like chicken and hotdogs.
Well both my babies never and I mean never liked baby food. I just breast feed until they were old enough for table food. Their doc said as long as they are happy, healthy and gaining weight then there is no need to force any baby food on them. My babies were very healthy and sooo chubby! So i didn't worry about it. Around 10 or 11 months I just introduced a sippy with a little cows milk like once a day and would give them little foods they could eat on their own like crackers, puffs, the soft veggies and noodles from soups etc. By the time my first was a year and my second was 13 months I had then weaned and on all table food and cows milk in a sippy. So don't stress too much, give him a few more months and he will be fine.
Try giving him his own spoon and letting him put it in the bowl and to his mouth whilst slipping in your spoon when you can it worked for us. Also very soft veggies cut into small pieces as finger food may work its the novelty of feeding them self or "attempting" and once again try slipping in the odd spoonful when he is distracted. It is usual at 8-10 months they show signs of wanting finger food and not being spoon fed.A little toy to fiddle with also helps gets a few more spoonfuls in.Are you using home made or pre-made food? Try switching the taste change and texture change may help.If he loses weight see the doctor but its amazing how they manage to thrive on very little and the breast milk will be giving him lots of goodness 16-24 oz's of milk a day is normal for 9-12 months.
Stop feeding him! Seriously. By 9 months he can be almost 100% self-feeding. Take whatever the rest of the family is having for meals, cut it into pea-size bits (so he doesn't have to bite off with front teeth - if he even has front teeth) and put a little at a time onto his tray or plate or table in front of him. By 9 months, none of my kids wanted anything to do with a spoon -- they were feeding themselves. Almost anything can be 'finger food' - even lumpy oatmeal. And babies don't use teeth for chewing (front teeth are for taking bites) - they gum everything. None of my kids had a tooth until after their 1st birthday.
Try mashed avocados. They are great for all kinds of things. I mixed it with breastmilk when my babe was little, then eventually alone. She loved it!
If he's grabbing at what your eating he may be telling you that he wants table food and not the mushy baby food. If your eating something soft it may be time to offer some to him and see if he likes it. Also if he is only drinking he should be taking in 32 oz or more per day.
