Ladies- my 5 month old has been having solids (first foods and cereals for about a month and a half now). He's gotten used to the routine, and opens wide, swallows, grabs for and tries to make use of the spoon, grabs hold of us and tries to lean forward toward the food. He is a hearty eater. He'll plough through about 4 teaspoons of cereal and 1 to 1.5 jars of fruit or veg for lunch and dinner respectively.
He's on the smaller side 5 percentile weight and 50th for height.
My mother, though is concerned that he might be a bit too hearty. He's voracious and shrieks loud protest if the spoon doesn't come fast enough.
The pediatrician says to let him eat to his hearts content. I agree.
Mom is worried though that there might be something wrong with his wolfish ways. She'd like to slow down the feeding, but he gets worked up into a frenzy between spoonfuls.
Could it be that he's confusing eating and drinking. Do you think he expects food to be there at the ready the way it would be at the bottle, where he just sucks and gets a mouthful?
Did any of you experience this? will he grow out of it? can you make any suggestions or recommendations?
He's fine. Babies know how much they need to eat instinctively. He'll stop
eating when he is full. Mom must have forgotten what it was like to feed a baby.
Be well. D.
He is a perfectly normal baby who has begun solids. Let him be. He is
enjoying it. You say he is on the small side, so let him eat to his hearts
content!
Are you giving him the Stage 1 foods? Try bumping up to Stage 2. Give him some puffs or cheerios or even an empty spoon to play with while you're feeding him. It might occupy him enough that you can at least reload the spoon with out him shrieking. You can try to thicken the veggie and fruits with some cereal as well. This will give him something to roll around in his mouth.
The only other suggestion would be to feed him half of a bottle before he gets his solids. At 5 months most of his food and nutrition needs to be coming from formula or breast milk, not over processed baby foods.
As long as he's not over eating, there's probably no real cause for concern.
He is fine. I wouldn't put any "confusion" labels on him. He is just hungry. My son was the same way.. he would fuss very angrily if I wasn't fast enough with the spoon, lol.
Start teaching him sign language. It will cut down on his frustration (and the noise level, lol). That's how I dealt with it. He will be able to communicate with you if he is hungry or thirsty, and if he wants "more", etc. You will be amazed at how much he can communicate if he has the right tools (baby sign language). Babies cannot form verbal words that early to communicate, but it doesn't mean they don't know what they want. They CAN learn the physical gestures and use them appropriately much earlier than verbal words.
Good luck, and stick to what you're doing. Mom should relax and you should listen to your doctor. He said keep feeding...
Enjoy the fact that you have a good eater and don't let your mom or anyone else convince you there's something wrong.
He's normal. I always felt like I couldn't shovel fast enough when I fed my kids or grandkids.
he's completely normal--maybe just have something on the tray to keep his hands busy. I always hand my 6 month old her own spoon to chew on and play with or those little "puffs" things to put in her own mouth. This helps her to stay distracted long enough for me to get more food on the spoon
as long as the solids don't start to take the place of breastmilk/formula, then I don't see the problem. He likes to eat! :) So did my little guy, resulting in some pretty round, pinchable cheeks!
Please don't stress over this. Go with the pediatrician's advice. The only thing to be sure of is that he doesn't wolf down the solids so fast he gags on them, but really, he'll be fine! He's so enthusiastic because it's new to him and he'll keep drinking -- that's his primary source of calories and nutrition.
