Any tips? my baby can't eat solids...

amother

Wheat

Mon, Oct 31 2016, 9:14 pm

my DD is 7 months old and still cant eat any foods at all-baby cereal, applesauce, snackers etc.
my doctor says babies are not born with natural tendency to swallow and it will just take time. but DD is always hungry and wakes up about 3 times a night!
I've tried a cereal bottle but she isn't interested. tried putting food on her paci but its just comes right out.
the food goes into her mouth and she x know what to do with. either she gags or spits it out.
please help! and I don't wanna start with therapy...

amother

Mustard

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 4:05 pm

Some babies just don't want solid food and you may have to wait. Here's how we coaxed my daughter though (won't work for everyone) - I pumped milk and mixed it with the most minuscule amount of some food (like a few drops of mashed banana or sweet potato or baby cereal). So it still had the same texture and consistency of my breastmilk, and just a hint of extra taste. We fed it to her by spoon only (not in a bottle - that didn't work). She lapped it up pretty nicely, with the usual sputtering along the way (gagging and spitting out is actually normal when starting first foods, because the baby has to learn what to do with their tongue. But if it continues after a few days of trying, the food is too thick). We would give her the same type of mixture (same exact food, consistency, etc) for a week. Then, we would add an extra drop so it was ever so slightly more dense. Each week we increased it, or tried a different food instead at the same 'dilution'. After several weeks, she was able to eat things with some texture. I know it's a long process, but it worked amazingly well.

animeme

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 4:51 pm

Good advice above. Also, does your baby drink formula at all? That can be more filling than nursing, and a different taste.

I'm curious why you wouldn't want to do a feeding eval. What do you have to lose? Either you get told to just be patient, or you get tips like amother gave, or you get therapy that works. In fact, you might even just have a conversation with a feeding therapist and tell what you wrote, and get an opinion.

amother

Peach

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 5:01 pm

Would you consider baby-led weaning? Linking my thread from almost a year ago: http://www.imamother.com/forum.....87729

I read the book and it's worked really well for us. We just skipped baby food entirely- I finally got dd to eat some things from a spoon recently when she saw I was eating them (oatmeal, pureed soup) and wanted to imitate me. I'm recommending the book because reading the full theory helped me, but that may be my personal learning style.

mha3484

Tue, Nov 01 2016, 5:54 pm

My toddler was really not interested in food until closer to 9 months. He gained weight consistently from nursing and the Dr was not too worried. One shabbos I came into the living room to see he took his brothers donut. Most babies will come to it at their own time.