Author Topic: Tricks for introducing solids to a stubborn baby (Read 5076 times)

shmokes · « **on:** February 17, 2007, 07:55:49 pm »

My little girl (6 mo. old) LOVES to put everything in her mouth. That is, everything but food. No matter what we try, carrots, bananas, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, cheerios, she just will not have any of it. She clamps her mouth shut and just won't cooperate. At first I was able to trick her by giving her a toy, which she'd try to put in her mouth and I'd slip the food in, but she got savvy to that real quick. She's so smart that she won't even cry. She'll just whimper, but keep her mouth firmly clamped shut. Any ideas? I'm sure lots of you have been through this before, and I think it's getting to the point where she won't get enough if all she gets is breast milk.

FrizzleFried · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2007, 08:01:49 pm »

Can you tickle her and get her to laugh? Try the choo-choo-train or airplane techniques?

somunny · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2007, 08:35:39 pm »

How about if she sees you eat some while making yummy noises.

shardian · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2007, 09:39:33 pm »

Are you trying to feed her, or are you just giving things to her to figure out for herself. You said so already that SHE'LL put anything in her mouth. Just hand her a carrot and see what she does - don't say "eat this", or anything.

My sister-in-law is not exactly a poster child for mom-of-the-year, but one thing she has done right for her two children is to get them to eat pretty much anything without argument. She just hands them things to eat and they do it. At first, most of the stuff would end up on the floor somewhere, but eventually, they knew what to do and will try-and finish- about anything now.

shmokes · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2007, 09:44:23 pm »

Thanks, but neither work. She's not ticklish yet, and it's not so much that she doesn't enjoy the choo choo train/airplane/bee thing, but she just obviously knows what we're doing. Won't open her mouth. It's funny, too, cos it's obvious that she doesn't mind the taste of some of it (some of it she gags at the flavor

-- drama queen ). Anything else? I think we're going to have to get creative.

That's not a bad idea with giving her things. She would put a carrot in her mouth. But the problem is that she's only six months, so she can't eat anything like a solid carrot. She can only eat mush, and that's what she won't put in her mouth. We put cheerios in front of her and she will sometimes put them in her mouth, but she doesn't seem to like the flavor. At this point there aren't many things that are as solid as cheerios that we can safely give her.

shardian · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2007, 09:59:24 pm »

Well don't worry, because she definitely won't starve on breast milk. The stuff is like magic juice.
http://adam.about.com/encyclopedia/002455rec.htm
According to this site, soley breast milk is fine up to 8 months. After that, babies start to require additional sources of Iron.

Glaine · « **Reply #6 on:** February 17, 2007, 11:41:02 pm »

What about smearing some baby food on a toothing toy?

shardian · « **Reply #7 on:** February 18, 2007, 12:26:24 am »

Off topic, for schmokes:

Just curious, but to my great pleasure I have noticed that my breast-fed baby's poop has no odor whatsoever! Does it stay this way the whole time they are strictly breast milk babies? If so, then AWESOME!!!

Oh, and forgive me for talking about doodie.

SirPeale · « **Reply #8 on:** February 18, 2007, 07:48:35 am »

Things to feed her:

Small pieces of bananna. Ripe, but not overripe.
Cooked carrots. Don't cook them so far they're mooshy.
Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. Honey-Nut *might* be okay as the honey has been dried, but consult a doctor on that one.
Mango.

Loki · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2007, 08:02:57 am »

Buddabing · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2007, 09:59:38 am »

IIRC we started off with applesauce, then baby food.

Maybe eat some yourself to show her how yummy it is.

shmokes · « **Reply #11 on:** February 18, 2007, 10:28:48 am »

No, it won't, unfortunately, remain oderless. right now she is likely getting a good deal of collostrum (sp.), rather than strictly breast milk. It will start to stink, though not as bad as when she starts eating other stuff. By the way, I commend your wifeon the decision to breastfeed exclusively.

But, yeah, get a diaper genie. They are awesome. And only use it for poopy diapers or you'll be emptying the thing out every couple days, which is a pain. They hold about 25 diapers, I think, and at a 8 diaper or so clip per day your little one will fill the thing up in no time if you put all the diapers in it.

ChadTower · « **Reply #12 on:** February 18, 2007, 11:01:03 am »

The baby will take solids when the baby is ready. Kids do things on their schedules, not yours, and every baby has his/her own schedule. Just keep trying and eventually the baby will make the move. Don't get stressed until she starts to exceed the high end of the age ranges recommended by doctors.

I never used the diaper genie... helps with smell a bit but the environmental consequences were too much for me. A disposable diaper already lasts way too long and is one of the biggest landfill chunkers... then you wrap them over and over in plastic, they'll be in that landfill for thousands of years.

Not to say I went so far as cloth diapers, we tried that and it just didn't fly. Maybe we just got lucky in that our kids' poopy diapers weren't as smelly as some others, we never really had much of an issue with a regular diaper pail. If you empty it out every 48 hours or so into the main (outdoor cans) trash, it never builds up.

shardian · « **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2007, 11:53:54 am »

Quote from: shmokes on February 18, 2007, 10:28:48 am

No, it won't, unfortunately, remain oderless. right now she is likely getting a good deal of collostrum (sp.), rather than strictly breast milk. It will start to stink, though not as bad as when she starts eating other stuff. By the way, I commend your wifeon the decision to breastfeed exclusively.

But, yeah, get a diaper genie. They are awesome. And only use it for poopy diapers or you'll be emptying the thing out every couple days, which is a pain. They hold about 25 diapers, I think, and at a 8 diaper or so clip per day your little one will fill the thing up in no time if you put all the diapers in it.

Oh well.

Instead of a diaper genie, I got a diaper champ from toys-r-us that takes normal bags. Grocery bags work, but the larger bags you can get from wal-mart and such hold more.

saint · « **Reply #14 on:** February 18, 2007, 02:18:48 pm »

Low sugar froot loops. As choke safe as cheerios, with some different flavors. just a few to prime the pump. get her accustomed to the concept. downside: possible addiction to sugary foods...

ChadTower · « **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2007, 04:31:27 pm »

Yeah... you definitely can't expect her to eat it straight off. Give her finger foods to play with and eventually she'll put one in her mouth and decide it's good to eat. She'll do other things, too, like put them in her nose, drop them on the floor, throw them at the dog. The key is to let her figure it out on her own. It's the healthy way.

shmokes · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2007, 04:34:45 pm »

My wife got some off-brand organic Cheerios the other day after looking at the ingredient list on Cheerios and seeing that sugar was the third ingredient listed. After telling me that I looked at the ingredient list on the organic ones and said, "The third ingredient in these is sugar, too." And she looked and said, "No it's not, it says 'evaperated cane juice'."

ChadTower · « **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2007, 04:38:57 pm »

...from a bong.

SirPeale · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2007, 06:56:43 pm »

There's nothing wrong with sugar. I don't know why people think that there is. *Moderation* is the key here.

Straight sugar (sugared drinks and the like) - not so good.

Sugar as part of something (Cheerios) not a big deal.

Just make sure it's sucrose (which your body can break down easily) as opposed to fructose (which your liver has to break down).

And...not sucrALose...an artifical sweetner, which is really nasty stuff.

saint · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2007, 11:20:34 pm »

The problem with sugar with infants is setting their eating habits, not the effect of the sugar per se. Get a baby used to eating fruits and veggies and healthy food, they'll eat it. Get them hooked on junkier food, they don't like the healthy food so much anymore if at all.

shmokes · « **Reply #20 on:** February 19, 2007, 01:58:10 am »

I hate to get argumentative in a thread where people are giving me free advice, but I think sugar is by far the worst thing we eat. Sugar as part of something is just as bad as straight sugar. Cheerios don't grow on trees with sugar built in to them. Sugar is added to them to make them tasty. Whether you add the sugar to your food personally or have someone else add it for you, it's still being ingested. For one thing, sugar is a straight carb that lasts about 2 seconds in your system, so it doesn't stave off hunger. Secondly it causes your body to overproduce insulin, which in turn causes your body to start storing fat. I think it's hilarious that everyone avoids eating fats because they don't want to get fat, as though cow fat is just transfered, in tact, to your thighs. Everything we eat is broken down and any fat on our bodies is created by our bodies. Americans are getting so fat because everything we eat is loaded with sugar (it is the third ingredient in Cheerios, for example).

Some sugars are, of course, worse than others, but just because your body can break the sugar down easily, doesn't mean it's okay. In fact, that's part of the problem.

And I agree with Saint. Sugar is damned tasty and would really like to avoid a situation where my kid refuses to eat something unless it's sweet - largely cos I consider obesity to be a character flaw and am disgusted by parents with obese kids. They're cruel, IMO.

patrickl · « **Reply #21 on:** February 19, 2007, 06:24:58 am »

Quote from: shmokes on February 19, 2007, 01:58:10 am

Cheerios don't grow on trees with sugar built in to them.

Do Cheerios grow on trees at all?

I agree with you on keeping the sugar in foods down, but regular Cheerios are actually pretty good there. The Cheerios box claims it only contains one gram of sugar per serving. When something basically only contains grains, corn starch and sugar then sure it's the third ingredient, but one gram of sugar per serving isn't a lot is it? Not counting the carbohydrates in the starch of course.

Actually even natural products aren't always good for babies. They told us not to give the kid (too much) apple juice because it would spoil it's appetite and it contains so much fructose that it would be bad for the digestive system of the baby. For instance, a small glass of apple juice can contain up to 20 grams of "natural" sugar.

ChadTower · « **Reply #22 on:** February 19, 2007, 08:38:06 am »

You have to have some reason built into the "avoid sugars" effort. Froot Loops, yeah, too sweet. Cheerios?! They taste like recycled paper! How could a baby get hooked on sugary foods (and I do agree to keep the overly sweet foods in low moderation until much later) with Cheerios?

shmokes · « **Reply #23 on:** February 19, 2007, 11:09:57 am »

I wasn't clear. We have Cheerios and give them to the baby. Peal just used that as an example of a product that naturally had sugar in it, so I was responding to that. For that matter, she'll get candy and ice cream, etc. I don't want to be the nutty parent who doesn't let their kid go trick-or-treating or ever have any sugary treats. I just want to keep an eye on it. And while I don't plan to vigilantly guard her at all times from sugar, I certainly don't plan to introduce candy and ice cream to her before I have to.

ChadTower · « **Reply #24 on:** February 19, 2007, 11:12:12 am »

Exactly. Moderation. Most of life's "problems" can be easily solved with moderation. My kids both did well with Cheerios.

Mr. Greenjeans · « **Reply #25 on:** February 19, 2007, 01:34:24 pm »

Have you tried the gerber star shaped things that disolve? They turn to mush when they get wet, and they have a few diffrent flavors.

ChadTower · « **Reply #26 on:** February 19, 2007, 01:38:56 pm »

Friskies!

KenToad · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2007, 02:17:30 pm »

I just had a baby girl last week and have been reading "The Baby Book" by William and Martha Sears ... Highly recommended and yeah I wouldn't worry until she's 8-9 months, at least according to the book. Until then, just mash stuff up and she'll get curious sooner or later. Maybe try using a fancy spoon.

Peale is correct about avoiding fructose as an ingredient. In its purified state, it is sent to the liver rather than the stomach and IMO is the reason why Americans are so obese and Europeans really aren't (they use Glucose syrup from vegetables rather than fructose from corn).

Congrats to all the BYOAC parents. You managed to do it despite wanting to build your own arcade controls and for that I salute you.

ChadTower · « **Reply #28 on:** February 19, 2007, 02:21:56 pm »

Eh, my kids came chronologically first.

saint · « **Reply #29 on:** February 19, 2007, 08:10:32 pm »

By the way, I assume all the new parents here know to never give their babies honey, yes? It carries botulism spores. Older kids and adults aren't affected, but babies can get sick (http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=1037).

patrickl · « **Reply #30 on:** February 19, 2007, 09:00:31 pm »

I didn't know about Honey being bad. Scary. I did hear about peanuts being bad for small children, but then I wonder who gives their baby or toddler peanuts.

Talking about food and their effects on kids. I recently saw a documentary about how food can bring out ADD in kids. In a large percentage of cases they could trace back the ADD to certain foods. They put a group of (ADD) kids on a special diet where they rotate the ingredients for the menu every week. That way they can figure out which foods cause the ADD. For instance, they showed a kid who would go wild and violent after eating grapes (IIRC even after one grape).

Just to be clear, this wasn't the Southpark episode about ADD

shmokes · « **Reply #31 on:** February 19, 2007, 10:13:46 pm »

Quote from: patrickl on February 19, 2007, 09:00:31 pm

but then I wonder who gives their baby or toddler peanuts.

Off the top of my head, Honey Nut Cheerios comes to mind, though those are almonds, not peanuts. Anyway, probably very few parents would be stupid enough to give their infant a peanut that they could easily choke on, if not develop a serious allergy to, but there are a lot of products with peanuts in them that aren't so obvious, especially ones that just contain peanut oil!

Really any nuts given before the 1st birthday dramatically increases the kid's chances of developing a serious nut allergy, but I think peanuts allergies have a tendency to be more severe and maybe more common than many of the others. For example, I've met quite a few people who have a walnut allergy, but it hasn't been a huge issue for any of them. My two friends with a peanut allergy, however, are afraid that they will simply die if they eat anything with peanuts in them.

shardian · « **Reply #32 on:** February 20, 2007, 08:32:20 am »

Quote from: shmokes on February 19, 2007, 10:13:46 pm

My two friends with a peanut allergy, however, are afraid that they will simply die if they eat anything with peanuts in them.

For some people, it is that serious. In school systems it has gotten to the point where children are banned from bringing pb&j sandwiches for lunch for fear of a peanut allergy kid swapping them or something.

I would be interested to see if the growing number of peanut allergies is related to babies fed formula.

ChadTower · « **Reply #33 on:** February 20, 2007, 08:34:39 am »

My brother used to occasionally go absolutely freakin ballistically uncontrollable at school when he was really small. They had no idea what it was, he was a good kid, then some days he'd be a major problem. We eventually discovered that he was allergic to the dye in Kool-Aid. It would make him go nuts almost immediately. Stopped the Kool-Aid, he was fine, give him Kool-Aid, boom you're in for a long day.

There are some kids with peanut allergies that will simply die. Those kids are rare, though. The problem is you don't want to find out the hard way which kids those happen to be. Most child care facilities have banned peanuts and schools have designated "peanut free" classes and sections of the cafeteria. Most kids will never have a problem but it's just too easy for a kid with an bad allergy to pick up a brownie with subtle hidden nuts in it and wind up in a coma.

DrewKaree · « **Reply #34 on:** February 20, 2007, 01:08:08 pm »

Shmokes, you DID try violently shaking her to straighten her out, right?

Mebbe a swat on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper?

nostrebor · « **Reply #35 on:** February 20, 2007, 04:42:07 pm »

I can vouch for the newspaper trick!

Seriously, our daughter was (is) a terrible eater. It just was not important to her to eat. Because she was our firstborn, we were extremely alarmed by this and tried all the tricks. Finally the doctor just looked me in the eye and said "Her body will not let itself starve to death. When she gets hungry enough, she'll eat." He was right.

I agree with the other suggestions (with the exceptions of the friskies) to just keep offering her the foods. Don't force them on her. She will come around.

ChadTower · « **Reply #36 on:** February 20, 2007, 04:50:14 pm »

Friskies probably have too much Fructose anyway.

shmokes · « **Reply #37 on:** February 20, 2007, 05:02:54 pm »

Quote from: DrewKaree on February 20, 2007, 01:08:08 pm

Shmokes, you DID try violently shaking her to straighten her out, right?

Mebbe a swat on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper?

Ugh . . . I wish, for once, you could be helpful. I'm not retarded. Those were the methods of first resort. The choo choo train wasn't even attempted until the shaking and smacking proved ineffective.

To stick with the peanut bit, I rememember a news story about a year ago regarding a teenage girl who killed her boyfriend by making out with him shortly after eating a PB&J sandwich. How bad would that suck?

ChadTower · « **Reply #38 on:** February 20, 2007, 05:54:08 pm »

That was right before she joined the X-Men, right?

Maybe Carlos can get the baby to eat solids.

SirPeale · « **Reply #39 on:** February 20, 2007, 07:33:52 pm »

Quote from: shmokes on February 20, 2007, 05:02:54 pm

To stick with the peanut bit, I rememember a news story about a year ago regarding a teenage girl who killed her boyfriend by making out with him shortly after eating a PB&J sandwich. How bad would that suck?

I heard about that one. Then I heard it was just an urban legend.


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