Ladies, please remind me-- how long does it take a baby....

[Virginia Heather]

to learn to eat rice cereal from a spoon? I introduced my 6 month old to cereal last Wednesday and she still tries to push it out of her mouth with her tongue. I remember it taking at least a few days for my other littles to "get it," but a week?? Any suggestions?

[KAR120C]

Her suggestion was if DS was pushing it out of his mouth, to drop it altogether for a week or two and try again.

[abbeyej]

Well, she may just not be ready for it. I know it has become standard for babies to begin eating rice cereal at that age, but there's nothing magical or necessary about it -- and it's a huge mess too. ;) Neither of my kids ate solid foods that young, and I must admit it ended up be easier for me too, since they pretty much started eating when they could feed themselves finger foods.

 

(BTW, I also agree with others that rice cereal is both yucky and nutritionally bereft.)

[Ashleen]

My suggestion is to hold off on solid foods until baby is reaching for them.

[Niffercoo]

Have you ever tasted baby rice cereal? Heck, I'd spit it back out, too!

 

I would skip the entire runny baby food on a spoon stage, and wait a couple of months until she can start picking up mushy veggies and fruits with the pincer grasp.

 

If you really want to do the baby food thing, mashed avocado thinned down with breastmilk is a healthy food for babies! We also started with sweet potato and pears that way.

 

Skip the rice cereal... it's just fillers and fluff. It doesn't sound like she's ready for food, yet. So I'd recommend waiting a few more months.

[Ellie]

rice cereal is nasty. And it isn't necessary, even. If you think your baby is ready for solids, try some veggies first, or some fruit.

 

I have come to believe that if a baby isn't old enough to get her food to her mouth all by herself, she isn't ready for solids anyway:D

[plansrme]

My oldest would never eat rice cereal--I finally tasted it and saw why. I switched her straight to regular mushy baby food--sweet potatoes, baby oatmeal, carrots, that sort of thing, and she had no problems. You may just have a strong-willed eater.

A caution, though--a friend of mine did this on my advice, and her baby was briefly borderline-anemic because she wasn't getting the iron in the rice cereal. She worked in some spinach or mushed meats and caught her up.

Another caution: don't wait too long to introduce food. Babies can develop something called "oral defensiveness," and many will need o.t. to get over it. I'm sure the window for introducing solid foods isn't about to snap shut on you in the next week, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

Terri

[Virginia Heather]

Thanks so much, ladies.... I never considered just skipping the rice cereal altogether! It is rather blah, at best, so it certainly makes sense that she just might not like it. And I never even thought to wait a bit longer until she can self-feed w/ veggies and fruit-- that's a great idea! The docs always stress that rice cereal so I never even considered thinking out side the box and skipping it altogether-- I love it!

 

Your help is *so* appreciated! Blessings to you all!

[LizzyBee]

My kids wouldn't eat any baby cereal until we started mixing a little fruit baby food with it.

[lori in tx]

My kids wouldn't eat any baby cereal until we started mixing a little fruit baby food with it.

 

This is what we did with all 3 of our kids, we used applesauce or a little juice. It doesn't take much. We also used carrot and squash baby food and they loved it. I would wait a week and try again with a little juice instead of water

hth

lori

[Storm Bay]

None of my children liked me feeding them when they were babies. They didn't eat until they could pick it up for themselves. I think I did feed them later at time, particularly ds, but not everything.

 

It was very frustrating, though, with my first (new mom, etc.) I finally figured out that she wanted to feed herself when she tried to eat the lint off my sweater after refusing food from a spoon a number of times.

[FO4UR]

Rice is a decent first food afa allergies go, but make your own BROWN rice. White rice is basically empty carbs:confused:, and the baby cereal is empty carbs with iron added (YUCK).

 

Boil brown rice until it is very soft and mushy, and viola! It's your homemade baby food LOL!:tongue_smilie: Mine liked banana, sw. potatoe, avacado......I like feeding things that I can just spoon out as is (or as cooked);) - I'm just lazy!

[milovany]

One of our littles ate just avocado and/or banana from 6-12 months ... he loved it and he's a super healthy little 8yo now. I loved it when I was set free from the rice cereal thing.

[Chris in VA]

Mine preferred oatmeal--and I mixed it with breast milk for more "taste."

 

But I agree with so many here--just wait a week.

[lighthouseacademy]

Another caution: don't wait too long to introduce food. Babies can develop something called "oral defensiveness," and many will need o.t. to get over it. I'm sure the window for introducing solid foods isn't about to snap shut on you in the next week, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

Terri

 

I always hear that, but so far I have yet to see that hold true. My oldest would not allow ANYTHING in his mouth until 8.5 months old. He would literally gag. Then, when he was sitting without help, had teeth and the pincher grasp (standards for food readiness), GRABBING for the food with purpose, AND crawling with his belly off the floor (even gerber says that this is a readiness sign), he was ready. Then he would only accept tastes of things but not much more until 11.5 months when he wanted 3 meals per day. I have NEVER fed babyfood only what was on my plate-literally- nothing specially prepared (other than to mash or grind) but I never reserve some for baby without spice etc. He eats everything and many things most kids won't touch. Next came number 2. She would spit anything out until 11 months and at 14 months wanted everything she could get a hold of. She too eats things most kids won't touch and has not had oral problems. Number 3 was completely uninterested until about a year and still ate no more than a bite or two until 15.5 months and she too eats anything and everything at age 2. I don't do pacifiers or bottles though, so my kids put all kinds of toys in their mouths and experience oral touch without food.

 

To the OP, I say wait. There is no nutritional benefit to rice cereal especially if you are breastfeeding. You may wish to increase your DIETARY iron intake (no pills) to up your milk iron levels if you are really concerned, but breastmilk is the perfect food for babies, especially those under 1. Also, I have read that babies don't have the digestive enzymes for grains until they get their eyeteeth. That makes sense to me, because by the time the baby gets his eye teeth, he is usually proficient at chewing food. Grains are digested in the mouth so they must be chewed thoroughly (even oatmeal or rice cereal).

[Storm Bay]

Grains are digested in the mouth so they must be chewed thoroughly (even oatmeal or rice cereal).

 

The first step in complex carbohydrate digestions occurs in the mouth by amylase, found in the saliva. The remainder, including any protein & fats, occurs in the digestive tract. So, yes, thorough chewing. The old fashioned alternative is to prechew the grains before serving them to your baby. Sound icky? That's how my sister, a physician, served meat to her littles, and so did I. Gross, aren't we? But it worked very well. Didn't think of it for grains, but mine weren't really eating any that young.