Feeding problems in babies are common. Severity of the issue can be as simple as a spit-up or getting dirty with the food they are supposed to eat. Despite these feeding issues, these problems have their respective solutions, whether they are caused by the baby being fussy or allergies. A vital reminder for parents dealing with feeding issues is to stay calm despite the frustration. Feeding problems usually do not have serious health issues as long as your baby develops properly. One common feeding issue is when you baby won’t eat solid foods.
Baby Won’t Eat Solids—What Should I Do?
Babies refuse to eat due to several reasons. They probably feel discomfort or simply full. In some cases, infants’ feeding schedules are not the same as parents’ schedule. The good thing about infants is they will eat whenever they are hungry. Therefore, turning away or being a handful while feeding means your baby is full.
At this point, you need to trust your baby about the amount of food that he wants or needs. Do not force him to eat more if he does not want to as this will certainly lead to disagreements and fighting. However, call your baby’s pediatrician if this refusal to eat becomes more problematic than the usual.
For your baby who is refusing to eat solid foods, you can follow these tips to start incorporating solid food to his daily diet without problems.
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Treatment Strategies |
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Avoid stressing |
Even if he is just an infant, he knows if you are upset or stressed, which will cause him to refuse his food. Stop feeding if the baby becomes upset. This results to negative association between forceful feeding and high chair or feeding time. |
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Avoid force feeding |
Do not be forceful in feeding your baby because it will only cause aversive reaction upon seeing his spoon or other feeding ware. In spoon feeding, bring the spoon in front of your baby’s mouth and wait for him to eat its contents on his own. Do not force the spoon in his mouth unless he opens it. |
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Set enough feeding time |
Feeding can be time-consuming depending on your baby’s mood. Be sure to set sufficient duration to keep you from stress in case your baby is taking some time to finish his meal. |
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Join him while eating |
Prepare your meal as well and eat with your baby. Seeing you eat will encourage your baby to eat his food as well. Show your baby how to eat his food and let him see that you are enjoying your food as well. |
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Incorporate games |
Make feeding time more enjoyable by making faces or incorporating games during feeding time. |
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Serve smaller meals |
Large servings placed in front of your baby can overwhelm him, resulting to lack of appetite. Serve smaller meals and then refill in case he still wants more. |
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Try again |
Prepare yourself for trying several times just to make your baby eat solid foods. Your baby may not like to eat carrots for the first few times; that does not mean he will not like it the next time you introduce it. |
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Let your baby learn to self-feed |
No matter how messy it is, let your baby feed himself. This aids in experimenting on food according to their pace. |
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Presentation counts |
Introduce solid foods through different presentations for variety. Mash food ingredients together or mix two food groups in one. Introduce one solid food meal at a time to observe allergic reactions. |
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Vary the options |
Variety is important in introducing solid foods. Once your baby is used to eating solid meals, give him other meal types soon. Look for ways in preparing baby food to make it more appealing like using colorful ingredients. |
The situation that baby won't eat solids is widely observed. Watch the following videos on how to be successful in introducing solid meals through different healthy recipes. The following videos provide healthy recipes for making baby foods:
More Things You Should Know About Introducing Solids to Babies
If you baby won't eat solids, you may seek and try a general process when introducing solids to infants. Usually, the first step is introducing pureed food. Good foods to start with include squash, pureed sweet potatoes, applesauce, peaches, bananas, and pears.
1. Best Ways to Start Introducing Solids
- An important tip is to start by nursing or bottle-feeding your child then following it with a teaspoon or two of the pureed food. In feeding him with cereal, be sure to use good amount of milk formula or breast milk to promote watery consistency. This makes the transition easier.
- The spoon to use for spoon-feeding should be a plastic spoon with soft-tipped to keep your baby from hurting his gums. Scoop a small amount of food, just enough to fill its tip area for feeding your baby.
- It is common for babies to not embrace the idea of solid food at the first time. Let him smell the food until he gets used to it before feeding. Avoid adding cereals to his feeding bottle as it will confuse him on the right way of eating solids.
2. How Much to Feed
Experts recommend feeding solids once a day, but you have to make sure the schedule is suitable for you and your baby is in good mood. Let him eat as much solids as he wants as first as his taste bud is getting used to the flavor and texture.
Once your baby is used to swallowing solids, incorporate more teaspoons a day while making the meals less watery.
3. Signs that Your Baby Is Full
Observing whether your baby is already full or not is also crucial. His appetite will vary depending on the number of times you introduced solids. A common sign of being full is if he turns away from food or becomes focused on playing with the spoon.
4. Do Not Stop Breast Milk or Formula Feeding too Early
As for breast milk or milk formula, you still need to nurse or bottle-feed your baby until he turns one. Milk formula and breast milk are great sources of easy-to-digest nutrients, which cannot immediately replaced by solid food at this age.
