Baby Would Rather Eat Solids than Formula

I agree always give him a bottle before food. You could mix formula with cereal and some fruit and spoon feed him that too.

Maybe you could try giving him his formula in a sippy cup instead of a bottle. I breastfeed my son and he HATED using a bottle. He started using a sippy cup at 4 months. Maybe something new and fun like a cup would help your little one too.

Good Luck

He still needs the Formula.
He is only 6 months old.
"Solids".... is NOT as nutritionally dense, as breastmilk or Formula.

Try anything, to get your son to drink his formula.
Or try a sippy cup or straw cup. They sell straw cups for kids, that have a lid on it, in the baby aisle.

ALWAYS give the Formula, BEFORE solids.
Otherwise, he will be too full to have his formula if given it after, solids.

And yes, teething can temporarily make a baby not want to "drink." But it is only temporary.
YES, and try giving him his Formula... via spoon or medicine dropper.

Solids for the 1st year, is only an introduction to eating.
Not a baby's main course.
It does not even have to be given 3 times a day like an adult would eat.
At that age, my kids had solids only 1 time a day. This is also per our Pediatrician.

Yes you can use the formula to mix the cereal. You can also try putting it in a sippy cup to see if he will drink out of that. It is important to keep his formula intake close to what it is now. so if spooning cereal and formula from a bowl is his new thing, go with it.

He should still have at least 20 oz of formula each day until he turns one. Its great that he likes the cereal so much, but more important that he gets the formula. I dont think you could get him to take enough formula just in the cereal alone... still needs bottles for sure.

yes and may I add this doesn't last forever. My baby is 253 pounds now

N., one of the things that pediatric gastro docs do for babies with GERD is have the moms put cereal in their formula. It helps their tummies feel better. That's probably why he likes it so much, though I'm sure that the bowl and spoon are cool to him.

The thing is, the formula is what he needs. That is the MOST important thing for him this early in his life, and not just for the calcium. So you have to push the formula on him. I fed my kids AFTER their formula, not before. If he balks, put some cereal in the bottle. (I don't normally recommend that - some say that there is a possibility of choking.) However, it might interest him enough to want to drink the formula more, and that's what you need, is to get that formula in him so he has all the nutrients he needs for brain and body development.

Do you have a pediatric gastro doctor? You should - not just a ped.

Good luck!
Dawn

Since he is teething, try making him a teether lolly out of the formula.
http://www.mother-2-mother.com/momsicles.htm

Also, give the formula first, and the solids second with each feeding. Make the cereal out of the formula instead of water. He needs the milk more than he needs the food at this point. Think of the solids as a 'treat' for when his meal (the formula) is over.

I would say you'll be feeding him by spoon all day long. He needs the nutrition from that formula. Baby food has minimal nutrition in it.

It's like feeding a child watered down juice compared to a slice of fruit. The baby food is the watered down juice. It is flavored goo that has nothing really nutritious in it.

The formula has vitamins, minerals, it is complete nutrition. Even if he didn't eat a single bite of baby food until he was a year old he would have complete nutrition.

Baby food is a tool for teaching chewing and swallowing. Eating solids this young will also make his re-flux worse. I would make sure to not over do it at all. He has tasted sweets now and won't want anything else.

You asked if you could give him his formula via spoon and bowl. Yes, certainly, but it's going to take you forever!

My 6 mo old DD is the same way, not so interested in the bottle, but very interested in food. We battle it out a bit on the bottle since that's still the quickest way for her to get her formula. Then we do solids and in between, she gets a sippy cup with some cold water (because it's in the 100's where you and I live). And also I want her to practice so that she can start drinking her formula from a sippy rather than the bottle. I just think she's very independent (like her older sister) and wants to do it her-own-self!

Another thing that works for me is to bottle feed baby in the high chair, she just lifts her chin a bit and I hold the bottle up to her. It seems to help her to drink sitting up. Oh, and we also put just a bit of rice cereal in her bottle since it seems to help her belly.

My older daughter always hated breastfeeding and formula. The day she started solids was probably the happiest day of her life. Furthermore, she hated jar baby food and just wanted to eat what we were eating (who can blame her? Thai curry or spaghetti bolognese is WAY more interesting than baby peas). So we fed her what we were eating (ground/mashed up). She did fine! You will discover that as a parent, sometimes what's best for your kid falls outside the norm. As long as your child is thriving, it doesn't matter what everyone else does with their kids. :) Yes, by all means, give your baby his formula in cereal if he will take it that way. Experiment with other foods he may like. He may be a very adventurous eater who simply doesn't find anything interesting about formula!

Are you sure that the formula is the right one? Both of my kids had GERD and couldn't tolerate the formulas that weren't soy or Alimentum (hypoallergenic). Also, the bottle makes a big difference. I don't know what kind you are using, but the only one both of my kids would use is the playtex dropins with the LATEX nipple, not the silicone. Even now, at 14 months my little guy will not use a silicone bottle, but that's another picky eater discussion). Certainly make the formula however he will eat it, but he NEEDS it for development and solids are a good addition, but his main food source should be formula. The AR means rice added if I'm not mistaken, so if you are adding rice too, then he is gettting more rice than liquid, and that's not good. I personally would experiment with formulas and bottles. Actually, I would start with bottles myself. I went through a similar thing with my oldest and it was very trying. Good luck, and let us know what happens.

Give him formula in a sippy before any solids. My sister gave up bottles and went to a regular cup at 7 months due to her gums hurting so much, just picked up my cup of milk and drank it down, refused bottles after that and claimed my cup as hers ; )

Under a year, and especially in your son's case, formula is much more important to his development, don't shortchange him or waste your time spoon feeding him formula. He can learn to hold his sippy, and chew on it to his heart's content while getting the nutrition he needs.

there is not enough nutrition in baby food .. the formula has more calories and vitamins minerals per ounce.. so the baby food will fill him up.. but it will not be nutritious enough..

my dr always said nurse first.. then solid foods.. for the first year baby food is just practice for eating later.

so stick with the formula... maybe try it in a zippy cup..