Help!! Introducing baby food

[Mea426]

Ok ladies. It's been a very long time since I've been on here and I need a little help! My son is 6 months old on the 8th of this month and we are trying baby food and rice cereal. To me he doesn't seem ready at all. He doesn't want to open his mouth when I put the spoon up there and when I finally get the food inside he spits it out a little. I've read that they have to have that reflex where they no longer push the food out but pull it in and maybe it's me but he doesn't pull the food in at all. Am I trying this too early? What should I do? Should I wait till he's 7 months instead of trying to force him to eat this now? I want this to be a good experience for him. I don't want to fight him every time I try feeding him. He can hold his head up and practically sitting up on his own so that's why I thought I wold try the baby food/rice cereal. HELP!!!

[Mea426]

Thank you ladies! Luka is doing great! Found out he likes to take his sweet time swallowing his food. He likes to roll it around in his mouth and then swallow it. Crazy baby. He love carrots and sweet potatoes as well.

Thank you for all your great ideas and comments.

[jenkaye21]

I agree, rice cereal doesn't have to be first.  I tried it with Cooper 2 or 3 times around 4.5 months, and he wouldn't take it.  A waited a few days between attempts.  Then, I tried sweet potatoes, and he took those a lot better.  (Sweet potatoes have been all four of my kids favorite baby food.)  By the second time, he was a pro.  

Then, I went back to the rice cereal but added just a little bit of pears.  He loved it.  This week we are trying carrots.

I would say Cooper got the hang of eating right around 5.5 months.  You may be right, he's just not ready, but I bet he will be soon!  

[kaprovea]

I think that 6 months is a perfect time to start your little on on rice cereal/baby food if they are breast fed.  My little guy started rice cereal at 4 months (he wasn't being breastfed) and now just loves to eat.  It is normal for them to spit out a little of the food.  They are just learning what to do with this new thing that you are introducing to them.  The most important thing is that when you stick something in their mouth they don't automatically push it out with their tongue.  They are still going to spit out some of it though.  My little guy can take the food and push it to the back of his mouth and swallow it. It may take him a few tries to get the hang of it.

When I was introducing the rice cereal to Joel the doctor told me that you should just try once a day around when you would eat either breakfast, lunch or dinner.  You should start with just 1 Tbs.  and just a few bites.  Put the cereal up to their lips and put a little on his  lips to let him understand what you are doing.  After a few days he should get the hang that he needs to open his mouth.  As you are able to feed him more and more you can add Tablespoons up to 4 tablespoons at a time.  Then aftera  little while of rice cereal you can start vegetable.

It is totally normal for them to be constipated when starting food.  I give my guy 1 ounce of gerber apple prune juice and that helps a lot.

[Dani711]

Does your son stare at you when you eat and look like a puppy waiting for a scrap?  We started Colter at 4 1/2 months because we felt so bad eating in front of him.
First we started with the cereal.  It was a disaster and a mess!  We did it everyday for two weeks and then started him on the "yellow" veggies and oatmeal.  Only introduce a new one every three days so you can see how he reacts to it.  Now we feed him oatmeal in the morning, a veggie for lunch and a different veggie for dinner.  It gets easier and so much more fun.  I was actually about to post a question about feeding as well!  Good luck :)

[zazou]

I also started a little before 6 months but not with rice cereal. It is not essential that rice cereal is the first 'food' for babies, but it is preferred because you can make the texture of it runny. Do you still breastfeed? If you do, mix the rice cereal with some expressed breast milk. That usually works with most breastfed babies.

I tried Medina with pureed carrot and now she is eating carrot, white potato, zucchini (courgette), pumpkin, banana and apple. He is old enough to try veggies and he may take to it better. Veggies are better to introduce first than fruits if you want to avoid the sweet stuff first. Carrots are a little sweet as a veggie and are also an ideal first fiood.

I started Medina on rice cereal recently and at first didn't noticed any allergies (always try new foods around Midday) but after I gave her rice cereal mixed with fruit in the evening, she was constipated for 3 days and was gassy and when I stopped, she could do her normal business. So I am contemplating that she doesn't have any rice cereal at all.

Good luck :-)