My son started rice cereal at 3 months...LOVED IT, then deceided at 5 months to hate it, so I mixed it with veggies, good for a while, then spponful of cereal with a light coating of veggies did it, then HATED THAT so i switched him to Oat wich he liked for a while., then did the same thing so i would sneak it in inbetween veggie spoonfuls, and he would scream and gag himself. At 5.5 months we started fruit, he liked it for a little bit then wouldnt eat it, made a face like you gave him a whole lemon then would not open his mouth for anything(still wokring on that). So for a while now its only been veggies, now hes starting to get finicky with that still eats it and loves it but only wants mixed veggies not plain-not complaining about this one at least hes eating it)
Any suggestions to get him to eat cereal/fruit?
Well, he still refuses to eat cereal..giving up on that one. And he refuses to eat baby food veggies. He will, when convient for him, gnawl on frozen peaches or strawberries, and eat yogurt mixed with veggies and drink juice. The veggies are still the same, hell chow them down and love them. Guess my boy doesn't have a sweet tooth. Thank you everyone for your advice!
He doesn't need cereal or any food before 1 especially if he ison formula still! Don't worry about him eating it, he doesn't need it!
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Rice cereal doesn't really have any nutritional value, so there's no real reason to try to make him eat it. Oatmeal has fiber but that's about it. Babies get most of their nutrition from formula or breastmilk so eating foods at this age is really just getting them accustomed to textures and the process of eating.
I found that my kids went through stages of changing what they liked to eat and just went with it. You could actually try just giving him regular table food (mashed of course, as needed). There's really no reason to feed baby food at all, other than convenience.
Personally, I would hate to eat the same thing day in and day out. I used to change the foods around for my kids to keep them interested - like what you do by mixing this with that. Or one week feed them carrots and green beans then next week switch to another set of veggies and so on with the fruit and other foods.
If he insists on hating the fruit and you're worried about him getting enough fruit, give him baby juice and water it down a bit.
Good Luck,
M.
Hi M. - our little man also was very opinionated about his food (and milk for that matter). We went through tons of phases (and he is only 1 year old) where he would go on strikes. He seemed to pick and choose what he would eat, and the more stressed I got about it the worse he got. So, on the advice of our ped. and our nutritionist (he was preemie and has low weight gain) we are making things a non-struggle. That has helped soooo much. If he takes it great, if not, okay...and we try again a couple days later. We got him so worked up by trying to force him to take a bottle or eat his cereal (we tried tons of kids too) it would turn into a power struggle. It does take time to reshape their behavior too once they have started fighting you on something (his not wanting to open up for a spoon now). So I would stick with what you have that he likes, try new things not at every meal, but maybe every couple days so eating becomes a happy thing again for him. We switched cereals a lot, because he would get tired of them. Have you tried Barley? It is safe to introduce early on too. You can also try things like adding yogurt to the cereal. Food at your stage is just a learning and experience thing, so don't stress about it. From what our medical professionals advised us, they are still getting their nutrition mainly from milk at that point, so just make eating a happy experience. He might be ready too for finger foods. Our son wanted to be independent and feed himself quickly into the food stage. So you could start giving easy to gum things and see if he likes that. Early on, we are able to get the pureed food in better when he is busy with finger foods than when we were trying to just spoon feed him. Fruits are a good first finger food, just by really soft ones. We did soft pears early on, bananas of course, things that are easy to gum. A great soft food that is so wonderful for them is avacado. Most babies love it after tasting it a couple times.
Good luck.
I was just having difficulty getting my 17 month old to eat foods I know he used to like, and realized yesterday that he would eat them if I let him use my coffee spoon - he's been using baby utensils, but apparently he needed a change. Maybe try giving your son his own spoon or fork to hold so he could "practice"? I think sometimes it's the weirdest things that we can change for babies in order for them to feel like they have "control" of a situation. It's worth a try. If you need a recommendation, the Take N Toss silverware from The First Years is great - cheap, durable and easy for babies to hold. Good luck!
He really doesn't NEED cereal or fruit so I guess if he likes veggies better right now then that's GREAT! Those are usually the hardest to get them to eat. Encourage this love of veggies. :)
You can wait and try the cereals and fruits later if you want. Any solid food before a year is really just for practice and fun, anyway. He is getting all he needs from your breast or the bottle. I would just wait and offer new things every couple of weeks or so. It's great that he likes veggies. Good job!
Walmart sells a stick blender for $10 and it was the only thing that worked for my son./ I would feed him what ever it was we were eating just by useing it. I stopped buying baby food at about 5 months and just made it. The stuff in the jars suck.
When my 4 kids did that, I simply switched them to regular adult food. Oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc. Or toast and applesauce. My youngest actually never ate baby food, she would gag no matter what it was so from 5 months on all she had was adult food.
Have you tried letting him feed himself? With my son, I would put the food on the spoon and then give him the spoon. He would feed himself. (Wish I could get him to use a spoon now - nearly 3).
