Feeding woes

[marshmallows]

Hi mummies,

I started my boy on semi solids since he was 5.5 months and he's currently 7 months 1 week old. I've tried offering a variety of cereals, fruits/vege puree to him following the 4-day rule but so far the only food that he 'doesn't mind eating' is HT brown rice cereal BUT he's not always keen to eat it also. On RARE good days, he can eat up to 4 tablespoonfuls (in terms of the dry cereal flakes) with much coaxing. Most days he just take a few mouthfuls and refuse to open his mouth thereafter.

He hates sweet food (sigh, thought babies love sweet food??). The sweeter the food is, the more he pushes it out with his tongue and sometimes even gags! Below is a list of food we've tried:

Cereals:
HT brown rice cereal - the only cereal he 'doesn't mind eating'.
HT oatmeal cereal - reject with disgusted look on face.
Bellamy rice cereal - reject flatly.
Frisocrem rice cereal - reject with gagging.
Nestle rice cereal - reject with disgusted look on face.
Eu Yang Sang sisen brown rice - able to eat like 2 tablespoonfuls (after cooking) on good days but gets constipated.
Moon Rabbit sisen brown rice with ikan bilis - reject with digusted look on face.
Plain white rice or brown rice porridge (blended) - reject flatly.

Veges/Fruits puree:
Avocado - reject with disgusted look on face.
Pumpkin - reject with gagging.
Sweet potato - reject flatly.
Carrot - reject flatly.
Pea - took a few small mouthfuls initially but now also reject flatly.
Potato - reject with disgusted look on face.
Broccoli - reject with disgusted look on face.
Applesauce - reject flatly.
Apple juice - reject flatly.
Pear - reject flatly.
Banana - reject with disgusted look on face.

Biscuits:
Baby Bites, Pigeon biscuits - once his tongue tasted the biscuit, he gives me a disgusted face n starts to gag even though I can see that the biscuit in his mouth had already soften. He then threw the biscuit aside, seemingly uninterested in it.

I've tried different textures with his cereals and purees, smooth/watery/thick, with or without adding milk, jar or homemade purees etc, still the same reaction. Sigh...

The food he loves is egg yolk. He can finish his HT brown rice cereal very fast if mixed with egg yolk. But if other cereal mixed with egg yolk, he also reject! Argh! I cant be feeding him egg yolk everyday right? I only feed him half an egg yolk each time and only for 2 or 3 days per week.

His milk intake is good so far and he prefers milk over semisolids (but hates milk in his cereal??!). I know milk is still the main source of nutrition until 1 year old but I can't help but wonder why he seems to hate almost all types of food :-( He has to eat some fruits/veges somehow right??

Read about and seen how babies lean forward enthusiastically with mouth opened wide during meal times but my baby had never once done that. Not even with the egg yolk lor. He just willingly open his mouth when the spoon touches his lips that's all. I know every baby is different and I should just be patient and keep trying/offering him the food... But sigh... sometimes it can get so frustrating when he just doesn't eat at all. Sometimes I even wonder if he is ready for semisolids or not.... He doesn't show any interest in food at all and no desire to eat.

Sorry for the looooong rant.... Would appreciate to hear from mummies with similar experience with their babies!

 

[marshmallows]

Sigh today he refused to open his mouth after eating only 1 mouthful of his HT brown rice cereal. He rather drink his 150 -180ml milk :-(. Got no choice but to mix a bit of the remaining cereal into his milk bottle so that he could at least get some iron out of it. I know it's not advisable to do that due to choking hazard but luckily HT brown rice cereal can dissolve in milk very well.

Sigh................... I'm so trying to follow his cue as I do not wish to make meal times unpleasant for him.. But it's getting so frustrating :-(

Please tell me this will get better.... :-(

 

[megtan]

Try to let him hold the spoon and play around with the food? Probably can generate some interest?

At some point during weaning, such things happen. There was a period when my son also kept rejecting food, but it got better. I know it's super frustrating, I flared up many times too!

 

[aahdorr]

Hi , How heavy is your baby ??? my baby only eat cereal with milk half bowl 2 meal a day .. she hate porridage ..

 

[marshmallows]

He is about 8.1kg now.

 

[aahdorr]

Ok.. my babygal is only 7kg lol

 

[shircsl]

8kg at 7mths is a good weight. dont worry if he doesnt get enough from porridge or cereal as long as your baby still drink milk.

Can try to mix the food together ? like formula milk wit avocado or formula wit chicken porridge ... i did that n my son likes it, now he prefer porridge than milk at 13mths.

My son reject alot of food n even vomit out the rest wit milk when he was 7-9mths, after fail trial dont give up , try again a month later , mayb he wasnt ready. He doesnt like avocado, apple and even banana (i tot he doesnt like fruit at all ) when he was 7mths, now avocado and banana milk is his fav! the fruit alone mayb abit acidic, too strong in certain taste tat he cannot accept, try add to milk and slowly increase the amount of fruits to a thicker texture.

 

[marshmallows]

Thanks mummies for the advise

I guess he isn't all that ready for solids after all. He's never interested seeing us eat either sigh. I read from some Internet sources that some babies are only interested in food at 9 months. Well I guess no point forcing him to eat also, making both me and him upset. I'm sticking to feeding milk for a week or two for now and try again slowly.

Hope it gets better gradually!

 

[ast0212]

Maybe giving him food to play might help. Food is not too important before 1 years old so it's ok if they don't really like it at the moment, as long as they are still drinking milk

Have you tried baby-led weaning? It's a fantastic way to introduce food to babies as it encourages them to learn about food and helps with their skills like coordination and pincer-picking.

Give him time. Hope it does get better

 

[marshmallows]

Thanks ast0212 Yeah I came across the baby-led weaning method. Sounds interesting but my only concern is that I'm taking care of him alone during the day and the cleaning up part could get really overwhelming at times lol. There was once I let him play with his spoon thinking of let him have some fun self-feeding and I ended up with a cereal-coated baby n even my hair got cereal too haha! It was hellish cleaning him up as he got tired playing n demanded his nap.

Nevertheless I may try out letting him play with fingerfoods cos it's not as messy as cereals (I hope).

 

[ast0212]

No worries

hahahah. Yep Baby led weaning is definitely messy! Best to avoid wet food like cereal as you've mentioned. You can try steamed sticks of carrot or soft pear. Or food that sticks to the spoon like mashed sweet potato.

It may help to put newspaper on the floor so you can just gather and throw away at the end of the food fight. Those plastic bibs with a scoop at the end of it really help to catch falling food from bub's mouth. I used to strip my baby down to his nappy which made cleaning up easier too

 

[megtan]

Babies and toddlers alike are messy eaters! Even though my son can self-feed quite well now, he's still very very messy! There'll be food on his face, hair, clothes and floor. I put a plastic floor mat below his highchair, just need to wipe/wash the mat. Usually have to take off his clothes after a meal, then bath him about 30-45 mins later.

 

[yumitan]

my 3.5yo girl only started to get interested in solids like these few months.. seriously she drank 5 - 7 bottles of milk each day 250mls each bottle. recently she gets very interested in solids like chicken wing, bread, fish etc.. before that she only loves milk, white rice (she will reject rice with gravy zzz) and cheese. well, start slowly.. but dont be like me.. i didnt force my girl because she will vomit everything out if i force..

 

[makarios]

My baby seemed ready at first when I tried introducing solids at 7 months. Vomit, gag, spit out, cry...So I waited and tried again after a month (just to let her forget the "trauma" of feeding she had). Still rejects but not so vehemently. So I tried again after 2 weeks...(at 9 months) and she was taking the cereal and avocado in. And been well ever since.

Press on...try and try again. Seems like each child is different... esp when it comes to adjusting to new things. I realise that my dd adjust to things more slowly. Thus the food adjustment took a long time as well. So don't worry...it'll all be well.

 

[marshmallows]

Definitely feeling more relieved now hearing similar experiences and advise from you wonderful mummies

Today I tested him by making a bowl of his cereal and eating it in front of him in the most exagerrated manner... Talking loudly to him how yummy it was and smacking my lips after each mouthful of cereal. He stared at me intently at first then started laughing. I offered him a small dab of cereal but he closed his mouth straight away upon seeing the spoon coming. He then continued to giggle with his mouth shut. Tried again using my (cleaned) finger dabbed with cereal but same thing, mouth shut with more giggling (dont know what's so funny that tickled him that much).

I was a bit disappointed but well he had a good time watching me eat his cereal, definitely beats having an upset baby!

He sure is one hard nut to crack. Drink milk or water also need it to be considerably warm else he'll push his bottle away. Drink halfway milk/water become abit cooler only he also refuse to continue drinking. I always have to take a warmer cup whenever we go out so that I can warm up his milk/water when needed sigh.

I'll go slow. Hopefully I can update this thread again with "HE IS FINALLY EATING!"

 

[ast0212]

heheh babies are so cute and funny!

It's great he watches you eat, he learns more about food that way :001_302: But don't worry too much, he will eat.

 

[megtan]

Keep it up marshmallows :001_302:

Soon, he may be even snatching the food you are eating. Kids are always curious about what others eat, esp their parents. They think that our food taste better than theirs! My son certainly thinks so and insists on eating ours, even though they may be the same (his is cut into smaller pieces). Sometimes I have to pretend to scoop from my bowl or simply share the same bowl with him. LOL :001_302:

 

[ast0212]

Keep it up marshmallows :001_302:

Soon, he may be even snatching the food you are eating. Kids are always curious about what others eat, esp their parents. They think that our food taste better than theirs! My son certainly thinks so and insists on eating ours, even though they may be the same (his is cut into smaller pieces). Sometimes I have to pretend to scoop from my bowl or simply share the same bowl with him. LOL :001_302:

Hahah Megtan we do the exact same thing! Somehow mummy and daddy's food always tastes better.

 

[marshmallows]

Thank you to all you wonderful mummies Raising a child is never easy especially for first-time mummies and I'm so glad we get to share invaluable experiences through forums like this This forum keeps me sane man! Lol!

 

[marshmallows]

Hi mummies!

An update:

HE IS EATING!! He is now accepting new foods other than his HT brown rice cereal YAY! He eats potato, carrot and threadfin fish puree and can take 6-8 heaping tablespoons of it. And he eats Baby Bites and Gerber star puffs without gagging! I'm so happy hehe! At least I'm not so worried now! He's still fussy at days cos I think he's 5th tooth is sprouting hehe!

ancing_wub: