Baby food and bottle 8 months adjusted

Rdonald02 · March 2013

Hi all!

I have a few feeding/eating questions about my dd. She was born at 30 weeks due to preeclampsia, weighing 2 lbs 11 oz. We spent 1 month in the NICU but she did amazing and came home at 35 weeks. Since she learned how to bottle feed in the NICU I ended up EPing for her for 5 months, then we switched to formula and she's been on that ever since.

Anyway. She's now 10 1/2 month old, 8 months adjusted, and she still refuses baby food. She will eat maybe the first 3 bites, but after that closes her mouth and will not open for it. She hits the spoon away or grabs it and flings the food all over the place. We started baby food when she was about 6 months adjusted and she just doesn't have any interest in it. We've tried all kinds of different types and flavors. I can tell she likes banana, but still loses all interest after a few bites. I've even mashed up a real banana and its still no different.

Our ped said he's not worried about it right now, she's currently 16 lbs so he says as long as she's a healthy weight then we know she's getting the nutrition she needs. But I feel like we are super behind in this area. She's about to have her first birthday and still only formula fed!

Also, she doesn't hold her bottle yet. Is this normal for her age? I try to get her to hold it and she will put her hands up on it but doesn't understand that it has to be held up for the milk to come out. I bought her a sippy cup just to get her practice and try something new but its really more of a toy for her right now.

Any advice from anyone that has experienced the same thing? How can I help her want to eat baby food? Or will it just click one day?

TIA!

Missa_g · March 2013

My 29w boys are 11m actual and nearly 9m adjusted. They currently eat 32oz formula and small bits of solids. We're doing baby led weaning so we let them play with chunks of bananas, scrambled eggs, pasta, etc. They flat out refuse to eat solids unless they can feed themselves. I'm not worried because I'm not expecting them to be ready to wean until mid June, their adjusted first birthday. If they're not ready then I don't feel it needs to be cold turkey anyways. They also don't hold their own bottle, but we haven't worked on encouraging that. Does your kid hold toys and move them about like an 8m old? If so don't worry about bottle holding. If you're really concerned about solids talk to your pedi.

PhillyGal34 · March 2013

My son just turned 9 months, he was born at 31w5d and was in NICU for 26 days... so all very similar to your DD. We started him on solids at 6 months actual and he had no interest. We would try them about once a week and still nothing. I started to get worried. A week or two ago I tried baby yogurt. HE LOVED IT! Now as long as we mix his fruits and veggies with a little yogurt... I even add some baby cereal because he is EBF and his iron has been low... he eats it right up. I'm not saying yogurt is the answer by any means but for us it must have just triggered something for him. He also likes everything cold, which is odd because he insists on his milk being warm.

So I don't have any real suggestions other than to try some YoBaby??? and she will eventually eat when she's ready, it is just for fun until one anyway but I was worried just like you are. Good luck and let us know how it goes!!

PhillyGal34 · March 2013

Oh I just thought of something else. DS loved food in a mesh feeder long before he would eat pures. Maybe she'd like that!

DrRx · March 2013

We just did a combination of a bunch of different things. We would try different brands of the pureed and different veggies. We found the ones that she liked and the ones that she didn't. We would re-offer ones she didn't like before to see if she changed her mind. She was getting almost all of her calories from formula/bm, so the food was just for practice. We started at 4 months actual/1.5 months adjusted, but she didn't really take to it until she was about 5.5 months. We would just try every few days.

She hated rice cereal and oatmeal, and enjoyed veggies but not so much fruits. We started letting her pick up cheerios and puffs when she was about 9 months old (6.5 adjusted), and she's picked up steam since them. About 2 months ago (11 months, 8.5 adjusted) she pretty much went on a pureed food strike. She only wants to feed herself, and will pick up cheese, cheerios, pasta, chicken, turkey, eggs, and veggies. We buy the steamfresh veggies (because it's so easy) and just go through a bag about every 1 to 2 days. She will pick up green peas, green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and whatever other veggies.

She doesn't hold her bottle, but will hold her sippy cup. However, she only uses the straw sippy cup. She is still taking formula, about 24 ounces a day. At her last pedi appt she went off her growth curve a little bit, so we had to keep her on the higher calorie formula that we do.

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