back to work

utnurse07 · December 2012

Hi, my daughter is 8 mos. I breastfeed her. She has not taken well to food yet. She loves rice cereal, but I struggle to get her to eat anything else. I've tried making my own baby food and some different readymade foods. I get the same reaction with either; a bite or two then she refuses.
I'm nervous about going back to work in a month or so because she refuses a bottle and only drinks a little bit of milk from a cup. I'm worried she will be hungry all day, waiting for me to breastfeed her.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences to share similar to mine?

Thanks!

kellydw · December 2012

Try a sippy cup instead of a bottle, dd was the same way but I had success with the tommee tippee sippy cup for 4mths age, she may not like baby food, dd hated the consistency. Try mixing in some fruits/veggies with her cereal to introduce her to new flavors.

gy86 · December 2012

By 8 months, she has the physical dexterity needed to grasp objects and feed herself. Just offer her some portions of whatever you?re eating and let her explore their tastes, textures, etc at her own pace. The more exposure you can give her prior to starting daycare the better. Don?t force her and offer lots of positive praise when she does try something new. Kids often make weird faces when trying new things just from surprise rather than aversion, so continue to reoffer foods even if she initially rejects then.

Also, what is her milk intake like? It may be that if she is consuming most of her calories from BM, she?s too full to show interest in other ?real? foods. So maybe offer less of the breast prior to mealtimes.

Can you mix things into the rice cereal, like berries or peas? That might help her adjust to new foods if they?re mixed in with what she likes, and will also help transition from smooth-textured foods to whole foods. Or, give her finger-sized chunks of fruit, meat, veggies etc and show her how to use the rice cereal as a dipping sauce! If she hasn?t shown symptoms of dairy intolerance it?s probably safe to introduce yogurt or cheese.

Best of luck to you!

melissa0726 · December 2012

Agree with PPs, by 8 months, DD was using a sippy (she never took a bottle) for water and primarily eating finger foods, with occasional purees. Once we started finger foods, she lost all interest in letting us spoon feed her. Early finger foods that were a big hit for us were peas, corn, cheerios, and all types of diced fruit. I would definitely try to move on to self-feeding and see how she does with that. Good luck!

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