Starting on Baby Food

Renee - posted on 11/30/2008

My son loves peas! But he won't eat them straight, they have to be mixed with his rice cereal. He will not eat any of the veggies without being mixed with the cereal. The fruit he will eat straight from the jar, but still perfers them being mixed with his cereal. When he is not very interested in eating I will have to put the same spoon full of food in his mouth about 3 times as his little tongue pushes it out. Now he has learned that he can spit his food, and this has become a game. I have also learned that I have to keep his bottle out of sight when eating food, otherwise he keeps reaching for his bottle instead of eating.

Suzanne - posted on 11/25/2008

I tried cereal with my daughter at 4 and 5 months and she didn't take to it. Now she's 6 months old and is eating everything I put in her mouth! She has 3 meals a day of cereal/baby foods. I feed her after she nurses as is recommended practice but I'm finding that she hardly breastfeeds now but will chow down on the baby food afterward. I'm concerned since she's suppose to still be getting the majority of her nutrients from the breast milk and just topping up with the baby food. Has anyone else experienced that and how did you handle it? If she continues to gain weight, I guess I won't worry about it??



Also, the public health nurse info. now states to start them on the strained meats first, then veggies and then fruits. Since mine will eat anything now that's working fine for me.

Jennifer - posted on 11/24/2008

we started our daughter on food just before she turned 4 mos. She was so interested in what we were eating all the time, we thought we'd give food a shot with her. we didn't do the whole "veggies first", though. we just tried to mix it up, alternating a fruit with a vegetable, and she's loved everything -- especially sweet potatoes, squash and peaches.
we also started her on rice cereal, and have moved into oatmeal.
we started her with dinner first, and once she got the hang of eating off the spoon (she did well really quickly), we moved to breakfast, too. now we do fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, and veggies and rice for dinner.....

as far as the question regarding the tongue getting in the way -- i agree with the lady (i forget who, I'm sorry!) who suggested pushing their tongue down with the spoon as you put the spoon in the mouth. at least, that's what works for us when the tongue won't stop! ;)

Sarah - posted on 11/24/2008

Matthew started just after 5 months. For cereal he's done rice, oat & barley (haven't done wheat yet). We started veggies about a week shy of 6 months. Most of the time he was only getting 1 meal a day - after his morning nap. He was up to 4 tbsp of cereal and 2 tbsp veggies. Now we've moved that meal to the morning around 8am and he's been getting a second meal around 5pm. We've only tried a few fruits so far, but he doesn't seem to fond of them. I might just stick with the cereal and veggies for a bit and then try fruit again in a week or so, or start mixing it into his morning cereal. He doesn't get any solids at lunchtime yet.

Elizabeth - posted on 11/24/2008

How early did you start them on baby food? Aubrey is just getting the whole eating thing down and I have started putting applesauce in her cereal and he eats the whole bowl now. Dr. also said to only give her food at night (dinner) until we try all the veggies (the number 1's) then I can start giving her food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My first was just so different.

Sarah - posted on 11/21/2008

My son will eat pretty much anything you put in front of him (tonight he grabbed a handfull of pasta off my plate at dinner - my hubby had to pry it away from him!). Once in a while he will spit food out but he likes to chew on the spoon. I finally figured out it was his teeth coming in that was making him spit out the food!

Kerri - posted on 11/21/2008

Peas arent sweet - thats why the babies might not like them, whereas carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes are sweeter. Thomas isnt took keen on broccoli but will eat it

Sarah - posted on 11/21/2008

Matthew LOVES all the veggies - funny that so many are having issues with peas - they seem to be one of his favourties. But now that we've started trying fruit, he doesn't seem to fond of it. He definitely prefers fruits/veggies warmed slightly (about 10 sec in microwave, depending on the amount). For the fruit, I've started mixing it in with the last couple spoonfuls of cereal and he seems to take it. Not sure if he prefers the thicker consistency. As for the cereal, Matthew never was a huge fan of the rice cereal. We had much more luck once we switched to oatmeal and barley (actually both my boys were like that).



With my first, I had the same problem you are having. One day he'd open wide and the next he wanted nothing to do with it. I found it took a while to fine tune the timing of his solid feeding so that he was hungry enough but not too hungry. Once I had that figured out then he started taking it better.

Tammy - posted on 11/21/2008

Do you heat it up for like 6 seconds in the microwave? That is the only way my daughter will eat anything. Although she doesn't like peas,bananas or rice cereal. LOL

But she likes everything else. And if I don't heat it up enough she will spit it out and turn her head. =)

Elizabeth - posted on 11/20/2008

Thank ya'll so much for the help. I am going to try sweet potato tomorrow. She actually ate about half a jar of peas tonight, so maybe it was just getting use to it. Hopefully we will do better with a sweeter veggie. I am also going to buy some barley cereal. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Corinne - posted on 11/20/2008

I'm so lucky, Amélie loves anything you put in front of her ... even stuff you DON'T put in front of her. I had problems with the rice cereal as well (I didn't know it was binding) duh ... oh well. She now gets barley cereal and then whatever vegetable we're on. Haven't started on fruit yet. No hurry after all. :-)

Nicole - posted on 11/20/2008

my son had this issue with the veggies as well..... i put a tiny bit of the fruit in with the veggie just to give a little of a sweeter taste....... worked like a charm. but then again for both my kids i started with the fruits. i didnt want them to be traumatized by getting those icky veggies first, lol. they dont like the taste and i wanted to be sure they had a good attitude about eating. this has worked out great for both of them........

Tammara - posted on 11/20/2008

Hi. Apparently from what I've seen on here a lot of moms are having the same kind of problem with peas...I started my son on green beans, then sweet potato and we're now at squash. He has liked them all so far...thankfully...he also began pushing his tounge out too and my mom just told me stick the spoon in his mouth and push down on his tounge. The are more used to sucking, so that's a reflex they have. And for the cereal, I was advised to not use Rice Cereal because it's binding and could constipate them, soI did Barley...my little trick I put a very very small pinch of sugar...he now eats it.

Lori - posted on 11/19/2008

Hi, thats funny my son does the same BUT... i have bought him yogurt and mixed it with the stuff he hates, now i have slowly taken it out by adding less yogurt and he eats it my son hates the peas too...