In an effort to be a mainstream, follow-doctor's-orders, Round Rock Republican, conformist sort of mom (what was I thinking!?) I started Oliver on solids at the prescribed 6 months. It started well enough, he seemed to like avocado as well as banana when we gave it to him in his teether - so he could do it himself. Then, at our 6 month appointment, the doctor stressed that we needed to start him on rice cereal ASAP because his little body was depleted of iron and that is the only way to get it back...news to me by the way.So we tried it. He. Hates. It. No, despise is a better word. As in, he gets lock jaw as soon as he sees the box of cereal and only opens his mouth in order to scream his protest. It isn't just cereal he hates, he hates fruit, veggies, all of it. I don't get it! All these women I hear about, saying how their kids LOVE solids, gobble everything right up! Mine is like, this is gross, give me a boob. He had a serious meltdown today when I tried to give him some, because I just keep trying.
Well, I am done trying. I refuse to force my child to eat something that is supposed to be FUN just because some person with a degree tells me to. From my research, children who refuse solids may be prone to food allergies, so in this line of thought, I am not forcing the issue any longer. It is a stress to me, him and a waste of money because everything I make goes down the drain. We will try again in a couple of weeks, but even then, the issue won't be forced.
It really is too bad cause he is SUPER cute with food all over his face.
Thank you for all of your concerns! I wanted to add the sources of my research to show I wasn't going to starve my baby just for my ideals. Also, just a reminder, you can lead a baby to a spoon but you can't make him swallow.
6 comments:
Just add some white sugar...they'll eat anything if it is sweet enough. Just kidding!
Good job, Ollie...looks like you were able to get the avocado worked into your hair!
Love you all bunches!
I know you won't publish this, but I really don't mean this in a disrespectful way. All of the reserach points to the fact that babies use up their iron reserves in the first 6 months and after that there is not enough iron in bm to meet there needs. If you don't want to do cereal, how about dark leafy greens or red meat protiens, they are a good source of natural iron. And if that doesn't work, how about iron supplementation. Please, don't let your baby get anemic just to support your ideals.
And all babies aren't great with solids at first, it takes practice, just like learning to latch and breastfeed so don't give up just keep trying.
Ramona hates rice cereal too. HATES IT! She wont even eat it from a bottle. I have heard that oatmeal cereal and barley baby cereal tastes better, but I havent tried it. She's still too young to push the solids. I was just hoping it would help her sleep through the night again. Good Luck!
Response to Hmmm. Not ALL research points to babies losing their iron at exactly 6 months. See sources in blog. Also, a 6 month old is NO WHERE near ready for leafy greens OR red meat. I am in no way going to let my child suffer for my ideals. I will keep trying (also stated in blog) but I will no longer be stressing every single day about it.
In response to hmmmmm... The statistics about iron levels dropping are more for formula fed babies than BF ones. Formula (and any solids fed too early) leads to microscopic red blood cell loss due to damage in the intestines. Breastmilk doesn't cause that damage. My daughter is now 19 months old, and had maybe one or two bites of solids at a time, spaced 2 or 3 weeks apart until she was 11.5 months, and has never been anemic. And yes, she's had her levels checked several times due to other blood tests we were doing to find out why she couldn't keep solids down.
Brooke didn't eat any solids (I tried every few weeks but she would gag and even throw up) untill she was 8 months old. Then one day she wanted what my older daughter was eating. She went stright to table foods!
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