Picky 7 Month Old

Try some soft table food, and letting her feed her self. Give her mashed potatoes,pudding,jello squares,cookies or crackers(baby type.

Try some of Anabel Karmel's recipes, she has a couple of cookbooks out for babies and kids. She was a Cordon bleu chef so her recipes are very tasty and even adults will enjoy them.

J. H.
Try and put the baby cereal rice or oats in the baby formula
and use the right kind of nipple on the bottle, so that the cereal or oats will go through. I started my children on this when I breast fed and gave them formula with cereal to hold them over in the night. This should pick the baby's weight up a lot. Only try one new food a week to see if it will agree with baby.
J. B. Beaumont, Texas

Formula has far more calories than cereal or solids. I would stick with that and offer solids as play. I would also choose solids that are rich in healthy fat, like avocado.

You can give babies rice cereal in their milk bottles but not in a laying down position like at night due to choking hazards. Also, do not put too much in the bottle for the same reason. My son also did not like eating solids but after about a month of it, he finally got the idea. We also mix rice cereal in the baby food. Don't worry about being under the weight charts because those charts are in comparison with other babies nowadays not actual ideal weights. If your child is thriving, then just relax and enjoy his feedings. I think overreacting to these minor things might be worse to her eating habits in the long run.

I have a 7 month old babe.. whos breastfed but he is also underweight 10th percentile. But he loves food! i would see if he can make the jaw movements to mush food try the bigger foods rather than babyfood. i still give mine homeade babyfood but he would much rather have hard breads, baby crackers, bananas (things that he can get down but he can pick up with his hands) ive been a little more adventures with finger foods since reading about the baby led weaning craze. my babe will spit out little pieces of green beans but ive learned if i put pears or mango pieces and put smooshed green beans mixed withit he ate a whole serving of green beans with the mango. ( i have read your not supposed to serve acid related foods under 1 yr old. but mine does fine with it, he doesnt get diaper rash from it)
also i give mine breastmilk a 1/2 -1 hr before i feed him so hes not extremely hungry when i give him finger foods.

If you have a picky eater, don't be afraid to try different food combinations. I have read you shouldn't try to force a baby to eat something they don't like, so try to come up with combinations that fool your picky eater into eating her vegetables. Try meat mixed with sweet potatoes or squash, or add fruit to this combination. It adds a little natural sweetness, and I know mine loved it. Yogurt was another favorite. They have the Yo Baby mixed with cereal and fruit. Good Luck......keep the formula going too!

Do you mix her formula with the cereral. Thats what we do. Also if I wait too long to feed him he wants nothing to do with his food. We were told not to use a infa feeder due to the fact it fattens a baby super fast ( our baby is a chubby one already) and it doesnt help with learning to eat from a spoon. Ask your doctor if its ok to feed her cereal with a bottle to help put on some bulk. Hope this helps.

Same thing happened with my baby 2 months ago. Today he went in for his 6 month check up and gained 6 lbs. His doctor was amazed. This is what his doctor and I discussed his last visit. Every feeding add cereal to his bottle. Of course you need to make the nipple bigger. Youn should start seeing results in a week because the ceral sticks to them and it helps coat their stomachs, and it also helps with spitting up. I was worried at first because with my other 3 children I never wanted to do that cause I heard it causes gas. It never did with my son. He finally started eating food. I tried everynight when we got home and I new it would be a long process, but finally one night he ate all his food. Good Luck, because i feel your pain on trying to fatten up your baby.

My little ones did not even start any solids until they were 7+ months (they're also breastfed), but they NEVER liked baby food nor rice cereal (in fact, I didn't even bother with cereal with my second). Both of mine always preferred "real" food that was soft and diced, and they could pick up and feed themselves. I think 7 months is a little too young for yogurt (I don't remember right now!) but when it's ok, definitely try. Mine love yogurt.

***ETA I have heard that it is a very bad idea to have them "eat" cereal from a bottle.

I think it's best not to make any issues around food/eating -- even at this early age. If she's healthy, she's probably fine -- what about you and your partner? Are you both thin folks? Is that the genetic norm in your family? I like what Marci B's pedi said -- let her eat what she wants to eat, give her good, healthy, fun options (let her sit inthe high chair and play w/ pureed peach, for example, and don't force the issue. I also agree w/ the comments that showed concern about mixing solid-type foods w/ the formula and feeding it by boottle -- could be a choking hazard.

Desperate measures make desperate ways. Put a small amount of thinned cereal and fruit in with the milk. This worked for my son I did manage to get the extra food in him. Good luck.

Add some rice cereal to the formula to add calories :)

I have three children and my two oldest(girls) were labled as "failure to thrive". This does not mean much except that they were under the charts by at least 5%. They are healthy and active and still a little small for their age. I would not stress over the weight issue as long as she has a healthy apetite for what she does like and her consumpion has not lessened and she is not losing weight. If none of these things are happening then I am sure she is just fine. I personally, think that if they are not ready for the "table food" and all they want is the formula or breast then let 'em have it. She is not going to be 10yrs. and still be drinking formula, but different babies do things at different times and she just is not ready.
When she is ready for table food, my pediatrician recommended putting butter and sour cream in their baby food or what ever they would eat, to increas calories and fat content because they need lots of fat for their brains to develope properly. But do not over do it because you do not want to start a whole new problem and that is having an over weight child.
Look at the bright side while she at an age where you are carrying her around alot, at least she is not too heavy!-Good luck!-L. W.

Try adding some to her formula .

Try finger foods. They are much more fun and interesting. Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, anything that gets soggy(that's what my doctor suggested). I used to make oatmeal and rice cereal with less liquid than it called for. Then I would give it to them in little chunks so they could pick them up. Also try waffles. I give mine the Central Market brand whole grain flax waffles. They love them...

I had the same problem when my daughter was about 8 months old. She was well underweight. She wasn't interested much in eating food as much as she was breast milk/formula. My doctor told me something that I will take with me FOREVER. He said, "No kid will intentionally starve themselves. If they're hungry enough, they'll eat whatever's put in front of them." So I took that quote and ran with it.

My daughter was not too fond of the baby cereal either. It took a while to get her trying things, but I would just continue to offer them to her when I knew she was hungry. I left formula for the "between meals drink." So, we'd wake up and I'd open a jar of baby food. If she refused, I set it down and waited about 15 min and tried again. She refused again, and I'd wait another 15 min. If you give in immediately to giving her formula, she'll know it's not that important to try and learn to eat baby food cuz she's comfortable with just drinking her meals. After my daughter would eat a few bites even, I'd praise her and then give her formula. If you make it a "you only get formula AFTER you eat" rule, she'll quickly get it.

Now my daughter is 3 1/2 and just last night I was dicing up green peppers and onions and she was eating them off the cutting board raw. I don't have any eating probs with her at all and it's great.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

My oldest child weighed 13 pounds at 7 months and 13 lb. 1oz. at 8 months. She really only wanted to nurse as well. The doctor had us feed her ONLY high calorie foods. She just ate when she wanted to. She ate raw onions, cauliflower, etc. as a toddler and has never really liked super heavy high calorie foods. She's always been a grazer. She is 22yrs old now, 5ft. and 90lbs. She's always been below the 5th percentile (off the charts). She is, however, one of the healthiest people that I know. She is just a petite person. My second child, 19yrs, was and is a big muscular boy with lots of ear infections as a child, a bout of pneumonia and allergies to boot. Size doesn't necessarily predict health. As long as she is not diagnosed as "failure to thrive" I think she will be just fine. Good luck to you!

When my daughter was that old I just cut a larger hole in the nipple of the bottle and added cereal and fruit to her bottle. She loved it and it might help with the weight issue.

This sounds crazy but it worked for us, feed your child the highest caloric baby foods so that way you are insuring whatever they do eat has the calories, My kids still eat healthy to this day but my son was not on the chart and remained at 5-15% for weight and the doctor told me to pump it up with the calories.

Yes the highest calorie stuff isn't the best stuff out there but I would mix in the good veg or fruit with the high calorie ones.
Good luck

The formula will have more fat than the baby food or cereal. I would suggest letting her drink her bottle first then eat a little of the other if she's still hungry. At this point formula should be her primary source of nutrition. Cereal will make her feel full for longer there fore preventing her from eating more frequently. Hope this helps. Good luck!
A.

This might have already been suggested, but have you tried mixing a little cereal in her formula? I know it works with babys that don't feel that they get enough to eat and cry cause they are hungry. My mother in law did that with my husband and he gained so much weight poor thing couldn't even crawl his tummy was too big. I would suggest just mixing a little cereal in her bottle and see if that will help with the weight gain. Hope that helps.

You could try just the fruit and yogurts.I did this with my son who was just picky. It helped..

Hi J.,

This is C. D. Proud mother of a newly turned 1 yr old baby girl. Listen, my pediatrician recommended putting the cereal in the formula. I had to use up to 2 tablespoonfuls and it works beautifully. Just make sure you upgrade the bottle nipples for nipples that are made for thicker liquids. Otherwise, it would become a challenge for your little one to suck anything out of the bottle if you don't change the nipples.

I know just how you feel! My little girl is teeny tiny, and she much prefers to nurse than eat her solids. I have pretty much obsessed about putting weight on her until I realized that she will eat when she is hungry and my job is to offer her healthy choices often. If she refuses, I just wait an hour or so and try again. Usually, that makes a difference.

So, when she DOES eat, I try to feed her healthy, yummy foods higher in calories and fat like avocado, bananas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with a little margarine, beans, butternut squash and corn (Gerber mix), and cheese. Another healthy source of calories, fat, and calcium is the Yo-baby yogurt. To add even more calories, I mix the vanilla flavor with a Gerber fruit mix and sometimes even some cereal. All of these foods are very tasty, so she might like them a little more than just cereal. I still give her lower fat veggies and fruits as well, but I try to mix them with cereal or yogurt to add some calories.

Good luck and try not to worry. It sounds like you are doing the best for your baby!

Hi, I have an 8 month old boy and when I took him to his 6 month check up him his doctor told me that our son was underwight as well. He sleeps all through the night, has 3 8oz bottles a day and I was feeding him Gerber food as well with each bottle. The doctor suggested I wake him up in the night to feed him. I refused to do that... lets be honest here we all want our child to sleep through the night. So I started putting a tablespoon of cereal in each bottle, mixing one scoop formula and one tablespoon cereal in a bowl along with a few spoonfuls of gerber food for flavoring...i did that three times a day. Also the beechnut foods are alot higher in carlories as well instead of using the gerber brand. Good luck to you!

Hi J.,

Have you tried mixing the cereal/baby food with her formula. Sometimes that will work.