Thursday, May 10, 2007

Yet another question on baby food...

Alright, I consider this post a great way to gather advice from all you women who have been there and done that. I know we have had quite a few posts on this topic, but I have a 6 month old that dislikes anything besides breast milk. Sunday, I pumped out and tried to get him to take a bottle and he refused all day long and finally i gave in after it have been almost the entire day that he wouldn't touch the bottle. She would scream, arch his back and freak. So....any of you have or had this problem?? Do I just play tough love and decide that he will eat from the bottle when he is hungry enough? This little one is nearly 20 lbs and isn't hurting for food.
Also, he hates any kind of baby food. He gaggs and will spit is all out. We try every night at the same time to give him rice cereal and some kind of fruit or veggie. So far, he will tolerate Pears, but everything else he gaggs and keeps his little mouth as tightly closed as he can. What do I do?? I have been trying for 2 months to get this little guy to eat or drink from anywhere but from me, but he just won't.
I want to go out of town with some girl friends in a couple of weeks and so I gotta get this little guy to be able to take a bottle or something! Any suggestions??

10 comments:

Natalie said...

i said she, but he is a he :) oops

Linz said...

Natalie...first, is the bottle you're trying to give him filled with breastmilk or formula?

My 8 month old will eat any baby food we give her now, but a couple of months ago, when we were introducing 1st foods, she gagged many times each time we introduced a new food. It would happen for a couple of days with the same food until she ended up just loving basically everything. My suggestion is to keep trying and try more than once a day with the food. Maybe even 3 times a day until he gets used to it. I'm always surprised at how babies can pick things up when you persevere a bit in the beginning.

Also, in a previous post about bottle feeding, some people made suggestions about having someone else give the bottle besides you. Have you tried that?

JR Van said...

My daughter wouldn't ever take a bottle from me, or anywhere near me. You should try getting a friend or relative that they know give them a bottle of your milk while you go out for a couple of hours. (make sure that he knows you are not there) It should be some one that doesn't live with you as they might smell like your milk. If the bottle is the only thing that smells like milk he is more likely to take it.

Stephanie said...

I second, and third the previous comments! I have definitely found that to be true. I work part-time, and my daughter went through a stage where she wouldn't take a bottle for my husband while I was at work. I would stress and stress about it, to the point where I didn't know if I should call in to work or not, because my baby might STARVE. Well, long story short...she did not starve. Babies are just stubborn, they know what they want! She remains in the 75th percentile for weight, after a couple of weeks she just got over it. Now she takes a bottle just fine, with formula or breastmilk. If they're hungry enough, they will eat. Just keep practicing until your getaway, and then when the time comes, try to enjoy your getaway and not worry about it!

Liz said...

i can only echo the other comments on bottles-try having someone else give it to him, try a different bottle if he's not used to it (Avent and Playtex are most like the breast, for example)

As for foods, try try again! It can take many many times to get used to new flavors. Always have a preferred food (like the pears) at every meal so he has a positive experience and try not to let him see your frustration because he'll feed off of it.

Put food on his tray so he can play with it. Interact with it so he won't be sensitive (may be why he's gagging) You do it too so he sees it's okay. Take crackers or cereal puffs (like the gerber ones) and play in the food. Most likely, some of it will get in his mouth and he'll get more used to it.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help!

Joni said...

Starting out by mixing a generous amount of milk (breast milk, probably, in your case) in the baby food has always helped my kids. I started them out on milky rice, then gradually changed the proportions til it was all rice. I did the same thing with some of the blander baby foods too.

Tiffany said...

My daughter HATED bottles and my sister-in-law had the same problem and so she sent me this bottle that she had tried called the Nurser and its basically shaped like a breast. Anyway, she would drink out of that for my husband (but she still didn't love it), but it was nice because that opened the way for her to understand that Dad could feed her too and now she uses this Dr. Brown's bottle and LOVES it (and by that I mean...she guzzles it down with no problem..she would still rather nurse). Anyway, I don't know if that helps..but that's what we did.

Natalie said...

tiffany-can you send me a link of what that bottle looks like? I am pretty desprate to get my little man to take a bottle from anyone. I have tried my own milk in different kinds of bottles and have others give it to him and I leave the house--and we went almost 8 hrs and he still would scream every time we tried it. So I would love to know how to get my hands on "the nurser"

Tiffany said...

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/adi/adi42443.html

That's the link. It's about $15...sorry. I stole it from my sister-in-law so I don't know if there's anywhere cheaper to get it...but if it means he'll take a bottle--it will probably be worth it. But if it doesn't work for you..sorry.

Tiffany said...

Oh the link got cut off. Just google "nurser bottle" and its the first link made my adiri.