Potentially finnicky eater? 7 mo old

barnkat85

I may be jumping the gun of the "finnicky eater" thing, so forgive me! My son will be seven months old in a week.  We've been giving him rice cereal on a somewhat consistent basis, or at least trying.  We have also introduced green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots.  We have had by far the most success with the rice cereal, he seems to not like the veggies so much.  He almost will keep his mouth shut like he is refusing to eat.  I just don't know if it's something I should be concerned about?  His weight is consistently in the 70th percentile, so it would seem that he's getting enough to eat.  I always try to feed him about an hour before he would take a bottle so he's somewhat hungry, and not to the point where he is screaming because he is so hungry.  Does anyone have any tips or things that may help for this stage?  Anything would be appreciated. 

Thanks in advance!

blu-eyedwife

We did BLW, so take my advice with a grain of salt - we never did rice cereal and at 7 months he ate the exact thing we did (so steak and potatoes, chili, pasta, etc.).  If it makes you feel a little less anxious, I really don't think that anything that is going on now will have any impact on your son's food choices later in life.  I also can tell you from someone further down the line that at some point, everyone has a finnicky eater!  (Just camp out on the 12-24 month board.  Toddlers LOVE to make their preferences known!)

At this age, food is really just learning about tastes and textures.  He should be getting very little nutrition from solids, most of it should be coming from formula or breast milk, both of which are much more nutrient dense.  Which means, you really shouldn't stress about how much he eats, whether that be rice cereal or veggies.  

I would also recommend not stressing too much about which purees he is interested in (I'm assuming purees given the rice cereal and the fact you feed him - we never fed my son, he fed himself).  One of the reasons we did BLW is because purees don't sound all that appealing to me.  I mean, which sounds better to you pureed carrots or a nice crunchy carrot stick?  Just because your son isn't interested in the pureed vegetables doesn't mean he won't love the un-pureed version when you introduce him!

And please don't force him to eat - if he closes his mouth, he's not interested, whether because he's full or because he doesn't like it.  Forcing him only makes mealtimes unpleasant for both of you and will lead him to be less willing to eat since he will associate mealtimes with stress.