One refuses solids?

AlishaMay

So, Maggie is an eating champ!  She gobbles down cereal, pears, sweet potatoes, and has all of the appropriate cues (leans toward the spoon, and turns away when full).

Nanette on the other hand, refuses to eat from a spoon!  I've tried all the same foods as Maggie, and have played with different consistencies.  I've tried feeding her earlier than her regular meal time, right before her bottle, in the middle of her bottle, after her bottle, an hour after her bottle.  I've tried different spoons, feeding her in a high chair, a bouncy, and on my lap.  But every time, she scrunches up her face like I've stuck a lemon in it once the food hits her tongue.  She doesn't seem to know what to do with it in her mouth.  She cries and cries and cries.  I've had a little bit of luck smearing some food on the tray and letting her eat it with her fingers and she seems to like it.  I hoped that once she got a taste of it, she'd be motivated to take it off of a spoon, but no luck. 

I feel like I've tried everything, and I don't want to push her if she's crying because I don't want her to get a negative association with it.  I obviously want her to be able to eat off a spoon, rather than off of the tray with her fingers, so I don't want to make that a habit.  Is there anything that any of you can think of to try?  We go in for their 6 month check up on the 23rd, so I'll talk to their pedi then, but I'm just curious to see if there's something else to try in the mean time. 

dulcinea03

Give her time. Going by their adjusted ages, I'd say that Maggie is ahead of the game for what she's taking, and Nanette is pretty typical. My girls were the same way at 5-6 months- J loved anything that I'd stick in her mouth on a spoon, while K hated (and still hates) anything to do with the spoon.  So I'd feed J, offer to K, and per our ped, not stress about it.

Shortly after they hit 6 months actual, I started giving them finger foods, and K suddenly became interested. She's now the better/more consistent eater of my girls. She's just VERY independent, and wants to do it all herself. We started her on mum-mums, graham crackers, and chunks of fruit veggies. She will now take some food off a spoon if she has finger foods to go along with it, and I think she'll be fine once she figures out how to manipulate the spoon herself.

Hibiscus2007

One of mine is the same way...I just feed the two that eat and keep offering to the third and sometimes he will taste and other times he purses lips and swats at the spoon...My pedi just said to keep offering when I feed the others and not to stress, their bottle is their main source of nutrition and baby food is just for practice anyway.  GL

AlishaMay

Thanks ladies.  That is a good point that baby food is just practice anyway.  It's so hard not to compare them and expect them to do the same things at the same time.  Just one more reminder that they are individuals and I need to treat them like just that!

farmwife

You're right to not push her.  She'll get it when she's ready.  When I started solids with DS he wasn't ready either, so I'd try...give it a few days or a week and try again.  What he really wanted though, was to feed himself.  He's just very very independent and never liked being spoon-fed.  Feeding baby food was extremely stressful and seemed like a battle everytime until he was able to do more finger foods.  I used to have to sneak spoonfuls of food in when he would open his mouth to put a finger food in himself.  But once he could feed himself and we didn't have to do babyfood anymore, meals finally became more fun and not something I dreaded.  To this day (he's 20 months now) DS absolutely refuses to be fed by anyone.  He won't let you feed him anything on a spoon or put anything in his mouth, he has to do it himself.  I swore that if I had another baby who seemed as opposed to the spoon as he did, I'd look into baby-led weaning, so if she continues to hate the spoon, you might check that out.  But for now, since you've just started I'd just try not to stress about it and keep trying every week or so.  Good luck, I know how stressful it can be!!

AlishaMay

Thanks!  I'll have to check out the baby led weaning.  To make matters worse, she's allergic to milk and soy - and so many finger foods have one or both in them.  I was actually looking forward to her eating baby food because I knew we'd be able to safely give her a wide variety of things with the hopes that she'd outgrow it before finger foods, or shortly after.

macchiatto

They're still young, especially going by adjusted age. My boys were 38-weekers and we didn't start solids till 6.5m, and even then it took Will a full month before he liked them at all. I think it's important to relax and take it slow and not pressure them. www.wholesomebabyfood.com is a great resource and wealth of information on how to approach introducing solids, etc.

jcthomas1281

me ped told me to go ahead with my boys and I have one who hates the spoon stuff as well. I mean, he just doesn't spit it out...he SCREAMS! His PT told me to do some exercises rubbing the inside of his  mouth (both my boys have issues with sensory integration) so that he won't be so disturbed by solid things in his mouth. he doesn't mind the additional PT but its too early to see if its working or not. GL!