What Are My Choices? Seeking Advice...

My daughter never liked the rice cereal, baby oatmeal, or bananas. We talked it over with the pediatrician and ended up starting her with carrots, sweet potatoes, & peas. Gave her puffs & eventually cheerios to make up for the lack of other "grains" in her diet.

Didnt even give it to my daughter just went straight to jarred baby food. No reason if she doesnt like it.

No, she does not need to eat the cereal.
I did not feed cereal to 5 of my 6 children.
Does she have any teeth?
If so she could eat a few Cheerios that she can pick up herself.
Also, any soft cooked fruit or vegetable pieces.
I honestly think it is the cereal makers who recommend it.
Also mashed banana is good or small pieces of it should be ok.
If you get a hand-held baby food grinder it is so easy to grind up almost anything for a baby her age.
That is what I did,,,pasta, cooked veggies, fruit, and tender meats etc.
Most everything we ate at the table.
Mix it with a little gravy or vegetable broth if you need to.

Don't put it in the bottle - cereal is not so important that a baby has to eat it. Cereal is more for 'practicing' how to eat off of a spoon and to push the food with the tongue for swallowing. Also, skip the butter, sugar, and salt - why build a taste and dependence on additives that we know aren't good for healthy living? If she doesn't like the cereal I'd just skip it entirely. Make a bowl of the cereal and taste it for yourself - it's nasty! I have no idea how my kid loved it because to me it tasted like mushy cardboard bits!

If your girl is eating the green beans, peas, and carrot then by all means continue offering those! The veggie food choices offer more valuable nutrition than cereal, and if she is enjoying them then continue to encourage her consumption. She might surprise you and chow down on broccoli one day...willingly!

She really does not need the cereal. Just move on to other better tasting foods. If you have tried the cereal yourself then you understand why she would rather eat something else.

My doctor never recommended rice cereal. We mixed it with food and they had it to supplement but it's not required. I used Avocado as our first food for the babies. It's got good fat and vitamins not found in lots of the baby food jars. My sister-in-law who is a doctor, thinks that cereals as a first food is the reason all of us (as a nation) are obese. You switch them from formula or breast milk, which is mostly carbs to a cereal that is totally carbs (and white, bad carbs at that). She says wait till 6 (to 9 months if you are breast feeding) and introduce avocados first. It's worked for our kids. And now they don't crave carbs like my other friends toddlers (who don't touch veggies or fruit or proteins). Do misunderstand me my kids eat carbs just not TONS of them.

Have you tried mixing it with the foods she likes? G.B.s or Peas? Also, try a different consistancy. Some babies like their's thicker than others. Also, she may just like green foods. My cousin's little girl only ate orange foods for the first 6 months. Good luck!

FEED ME I'M YOURS by Lansky

Your daughter may have a texture problem some kids just don't like textured food at all.Maybe you should back off of it and try it again as her appitite increases.She does need cereal for added iron and other nutrients but if she's healthy I wouldn't worry right now.

Once Nick learned that there are better tasting food out there (i.e. green beans, his first non-cereal food), he wouldn't touch it unless I warmed it up. Now he's used to the cold stuff.

Maybe adjusting the temperature of the cereal might make a difference.

Forget the baby cereal if she just won't comply. I would suggest making regular 1 minute oatmeal but not thick, put a little sugar on it and a little milk and you might see a difference. Otherwise just let her have dry cherrios followed with juice or milk. At 7 months my boy was eating anything and everything off the table plus his baby food, etc. Good Luck

My daughter couldn't eat any kind of cereal so we skipped right to baby food. She loved it and we never had any problems. Your daughter is old enough now that she will be able to eat 1st foods with no problem. Just make sure you only do 1 type of food for a few days to make sure she is not allergic or has digestive issues with it. This stage is so fun. Don't worry and just go with your daughter's cues. Good luck and God bless.

I don't think the cereal is as important as the regular food. With the things that she seems to dislike though, the best thing to do is to keep offering it to her.

None of my kids liked the baby cereals or cream of wheat (same texture). They all prefered lumpy oatmeal - starting at around 6 months. I just made normal oatmeal (from the big canister). They all ate it plain for a month or so but by 7-8 months I was adding a small bit of milk or brown sugar or cinnamon or cut-up apple or whatever to make it different and offer a variety. By 7-8 months kids can eat pretty much whatever the rest of the family is eating so there's no need for special 'baby' foods or cereals... jsut fork-smash what you're eating. It has more flavor and texture than baby stuff and she'll probably enjoy it more.

Babies don't need cereal (especially breastfed ones). Skip it and move on. You can try real plain oatmeal instead of baby oatmeal and see if she likes that, but it really isn't necessary.

Some babies are not ready for solids at 6 months. My son (who is now 2 1/2 and a great eater) didn't start solids until 9 1/2 months. He would turn his nose up at anything I offered and if I did get any in his mouth he would gag and throw it up. Just know that not every baby takes to solids so easily, some take more time. Just take a break or try other foods, maybe avocado or sweet potato. And try feeding it to her with your finger instead of a spoon (clean finger of course). Hope this helps to know that there are other children out there who did the same thing and turned out to be a great eater!

Go back to the store and find another brand. Look at the boxes, see what is different. Try to get small sample sizes until you find out what she likes. Don't mix it with anything. You can't mask the taste of yukky. My son still to this day won't eat broccoli, or any food with red (spaghetti) sauce in it. Anyhow back to the cereal I think all three of mine ate gerber cereal, and it does taste sweet. Are you mixing it with her formula? My first child had mashed eggs when she was in the high chair and chicken noodle soup was a big favorite, and I put alot of dinner food in the blender. The doctor never said your baby needs cereal. Sometimes when I made it too thick they would gag on it and I would thin in up and just thicken it as they got bigger. I never put any cereal in the bottle, but my girlfriend did. Good luck.

my daughter was the same way...i mixed in a little bit of cinnamon and splenda to sweeten it up and she loved it. its worth a shot.

Don't worry!! Cereal is not an absolute. My daughter never really liked the baby cereal. Some kids will just be more picky. Just feed her what she does like and keep trying to introduce new foods. (My daughter didn't really eat much variety until she was 15-16 mos old.) It will get better! As long as she's getting enough nutrients to keep her thriving, I wouldn't worry. Good luck!

Neither of my boys liked the cereal (have you ever tried it - it IS disgusting.) I don't think it is really necessary. She's eating other foods so she is just fine.

Have you tried a different cereal? They make oatmeal, rice, and I think 1 more. (It's been a while!) I'm sure I will get some frowns on this one, but I used to put a little cinnamon and sugar in my daughter's cereal when she was that age. I usually fed her the baby oatmeal mixed w/ a little cinn. and sugar and fruit in the am. She started teething at 3mo and was a big baby, so I started the food a little earlier than I did with my oldest. Good luck w/ your baby girl!

Have you tried baby oatmeal or barley? Some babies are adventerous and loke strong flavors. My kids both loved baby oatmeal and my second liked the instant kind mixed with his formula or breastmilk. If you try instant oatmeal, just try a bit at a time so they don't gag or choke until they get used to the thicker texture. Its the iron, not the cereal that the babies need.

About the only thing you can do is to keep trying to offer it. She is getting iron from the bottle so don't stress about the importance of her eating cereal. She will get iron from Cheerios soon too....assuming she isn't getting these already. Just offer it every few days, you don't have to make a huge amount of it. She may not like the texture of it so you might want to make sure it's very "runny". Also most babies won't take cereal well once they are on different foods, and who can blame them it's nasty stuff! We always mixed it in with our sons favorite food (in his case spinich and oatmeal! nasty I know!). All you can do is offer it. Don't stress as long as she is growing then she's fine!

Doctors started with cereal because it was easy. Sounds like you are doing fine. I would not add salt or splenda to the baby's diet. Early formula recipes (before Similac, Enfamil, etc. used to have Karo syrup in them...so sugar in small quantity is safe. Honey is not.)

Both of my girls hated the ceral no matter how I fixed it!!! I finally gave up and started feeding her the Yo Baby yogart and cherrios for breakfast. They both really enjoyed that!!!

Hope this helps
A.

with the bananas and peaches, just keep trying them once in a while. My 2 yr. old hated some of that when she started on regular food but now will eat it.

My opinion, your baby is old enough that it won't hurt to put just a little sugar in the cereal to try to get her to eat it. Brown sugar usually works better. It wouldn't even have to be but maybe 1/2t. of sugar. Just enough to sweeten it.
She is plenty old enough to grind or smash up regular adult food to feed her. Once my 2 yr. old was on regular adult food (rather than baby food) she ate much better for me.

Try the already made kind by gerber. My daughter would not eat the dry kind you mix but would eat the already made kind thats in the baby jars.

It can take 10 tries before a baby will eat a new food, so just keep trying new foods, introducing just one new food each week, to be sure your baby isn't allergic. Keep going back to foods you have tried before and try them again. Make your own baby food, which is going to be far tastier (and less expensive and easier on the environment) than food in jars. Try a different cereal. There is no reason why you would have to stick with that one in particular. Don't stress, especially if you are breastfeeding. Your baby is getting plenty of nutrition in that case!

My daughter did the same thing. I ended up trying "big people" oatmeal with her and she loved it. I have only tried the instant Quaker Oats. I would make one pack in the microwave. Then separate a porion for her and a portion for me. I would "doctor" mine up with brown sugar and butter and sometimes/sometimes not put fruit in my daughters. It has been a hit for 6 months now. I think it is more important to get them to eat something than the children not eat anything. I would however keep a close eye on your child's bowel moments for constipation and disgestion issues.

Cereals are *not* so critical - in fact, they're mostly just filler. If you're worried about iron, you could give vitamin drops (most of the infant cereals are iron fortified because back in the day, when formula was new, it was inadequate in iron so docs supplemented the formula w/ iron-fortified cereal -- NOW, of course, the formulas themselves are iron-fortified AND as always breastmilk has wonderful amounts of very bio-available/highly absorbable iron).

Also, a lot of times babies object to the texture of infant cereals - perhaps if you offered baby something with more texture (ie., regular oatmeal or a small piece of 100% whole wheat toast)?

If my child hated it that much I would drop it. It's usually recommended as a first food because of the rarity of sensitivities and allergies. Since she has started on other foods I wouldn't worry about the cereal too much. It is important to keep exposing them to new tastes and textures and it often takes a long time for some foods to be accepted, but if you keep at it you'll find that you will have a much less picky toddler - but I don't think the cereal is that vitally important.

Ah the joys of having a picky eater. My youngest one was like this. This situation will last forever!! She still is a picky eater and she is 23 and expecting. The best advice I can give you is go with the flow. Don't try to force her to eat what she doesn't like. Start out with what she likes and introduce new foods slowly. If there is something that she doesn't like, put that one on the back burner for at least a year before trying it again. Always try very small amounts to judge how well it goes. I know you want the best for your baby, so try to keep the sugars down and the veggies up. I only gave my kids fruits for dessert. The youngest one learned how to eat properly and she only eats certain foods. Good Luck!