Resisting to try solids at 8 months :(

musicsnob1

My son is going to be 8 months in just over a week, and he is still refusing to try solids. I have tried everything I can find others have tried and I am at a loss as to what to try next. We have tried foods hot, room-temp, and cold; we have tried multiple kinds of fruits, veggies, and grains; we have tried eating foods mixed with formula, through a mesh bag, and soft finger foods that he can feed himself. I can seem to trick him into eating about 1 bite each time but after that, he clamps his mouth shut and won't let anything in that tastes like food (unlike every other inanimate object he puts in his mouth, including a bare spoon, lol). I have tried forcing it in a time or two, but it doesn't seem to give better results and I really don't like pushing him. He is the type of personality that has a hard time to changes in his routine (he cried the first time he took a bath in the big tub instead of the sink), so I am trying to be patient with him, but I'll admit, I'm getting tired of trying to give him solids everyday for over 2 months with no progress. Does anyone else have a difficult 8 month old who is or has refused to eat solids? Any ideas for things I haven't tried yet?

SunAndRain

How hungry is he when you offer solids? 

EMOmamma

No ideas but one of the boys my older son's age had to do food therapy.  Talk to your pedi - I think it may be part of the EI system so it wouldn't be a cost to you (especially for an evaluation).  

DiveFrog

Ditto PP on how hungry is he? when are you trying to feed him?

Also, how interested does he seem about food in general? I knew DD would take to food when we started, because she had been noticeably interested in our food/meals for 2 months, and grabbing for our food for about a month.

Natali25

I'm also having the same issue, but mine is more with our son gagging and then throwing up because he gagged. He gags easily on solid finger foods we've tried. Just a day ago he started being able to eat the puffs snacks. Then I started banana and he started to gag again. Maybe it's a texture thing with mine. Like above PP said, I'd make sure LO is actually hungry and start with small amounts and then offer milk after (BM or formula).

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henrytviii

Kemare20:

Have you tried just letting him feed himself? Put some foods on his tray and just let him play with it. It's going to make his way into his mouth eventually! Maybe he just needs to touch it and explore it a little.

Maybe if you took the pressure away and put some stuff on his tray to "play" with but don't worry if he eats any at all.  Perhaps this won't help if its a texture issue of something that needs more intervention but its worth a try,

How  about letting him play with food that he can't eat.  Hy DH used to let my son play in his high chair with a whole sweet potato and an avocado before we started solids.  I thought it was strange but boy was he excited when we finally cut up an avocado and gave him a slice to try eating.

cmurphy09

This is just a shot in the dark. But I'd almost introduce food in a 'fun' way - then reintroduce in new habits. Humans naturally want to eat with their hands, society teaches us otherwise, due to what's considered 'socially acceptable'.

Maybe put lo in their highchair, letting them play with their food, get a taste for eating per se, as every kid in the known universe likes getting messy & putting their hands in their mouth. Make it a game, since he's only 8 mns you have time to curb 'unacceptable habits'.

I did this with DD around 5 mns & over time she picked up good eating habits. Parenting is trial & error. ;-)

GL!

Suzanne68

My daughter just started to be a bit more interested this week. She will be 8 months next week. Nothing can get past her lips. She also won't put any toys etc in her mouth. Just bottle and paci. This week she took some bites of my banana and accepted some purees. Still a fight. Everyone kept telling me she will do it when she is ready. It seems she really hates the spoon and will eat it off my fingers. I was obsessed with her not eating. I was going to go to a feeding specialist by 10 months if she did not start. So I know how stressed you are. I started feeding her at 5 months. That's 3 months of refusal!  I would keep trying as annoying and frustrating it is, and if no luck ask the Dr what steps to take eventually if things don't improve. I have no advice since I am sure you have tried it all. It seems with my DD that seeing me eat something by butting it (like a banana) helped. But literally just this week. I know your pain. I could probably buy a car with all the food I wasted over the past few months. Good luck, it's nice to know I am not alone. I see that every baby at this age eats everything, while I can't get a spoon of purees in her mouth!

musicsnob1

Yes ladies, I have tried feeding him at different stages of hunger as well (before his bottle, half-way through, and after his bottle). I should also say that my son, despite his husky nature, doesn't eat very much at all. He only gets down around 28oz of milk a day. We tried beefing the ounces up around 5 months, and he just spit it right back out. So since he appears healthy on the growth chart, we have stopped worrying about how many ounces he gets in (I guess he is just more efficient at sucking the nutrients out of the formula than most babies, lol). So while he does seem quite interested in watching me and his father eat (DS and I "eat" bananas together every morning), he doesn't seem incredibly interested in repeating the action himself. I have let him try different ways of feeding himself as well. So I guess the next thing I could try to letting him play with his food more to see if that will help make him more interested in putting it in his mouth. This morning, he played with a hunk of banana and got it everywhere except for in his mouth, lol. Oh well, at least it makes for good pictures!