My breastfed 7 month old son gags on baby cereal and the 1st foods. He ate the 1st foods a couple of times and then deciced he doesn't want anything but breastmilk. I think it might be a texture problem for him.I don't know if i should wait to fed him baby food or to push through the gaging.
Maybe they are too thick? I remember our pediatrician saying that the cereal should be almost water consistency until the baby learns to move the food from the front of the tongue to the back of the tongue/throat.
Good luck!
That's probably because he is not ready for them.
You must make sure to give him formula or breast milk first, baby food has very very little nutrition in it. Formula and breast milk have his entire nutrition needed in them.
Baby food is to only teach a baby to chew and swallow, not to feed them, they need you to feed them formula or breast milk for that.
Then he's not ready. Back off and try again in a couple of weeks. He doesn't NEED baby food; at this point in life it's just for the experience. If that experience isn't a positive one, stop for a while. (FTR my good friends daughter didn't eat until she was a year old. She has always been super healthy, smart, and active.)
You want him to develop healthy habits and a positive relationship with food. Choking down things he doesn't like is counter productive.
Good luck mama. He WILL eat eventually.
HTH
Thea
My son was the same way--he didn't start really eating until he was 9 or 10 months old and then suddenly decided to make up for lost time! I wouldn't worry about it, esp if you are breast feeding. One thing we did that seemed to help him get more into solid food, believe it or not, was to start giving him cereal in a bottle. I don't know if your son will take a bottle and I realize that the current 'wisdom' says to NEVER put cereal in a bottle but our parents and grandparents did it and though I never would have done it with my first, I was desperate with my son to get him to eat some additional nutrients for proper brain development. So, I put some cereal in a bottle with breast milk I pumped and made it SO thin and watery at first that it was hardly thicker than milk. I also made a small tear in the nipple with a scissor--not a hole, just a tear was perfect. I gave this to him every night before bed and he was just the happiest little guy. He got used to it and I put more cereal in over time to make it a little thicker--he got so excited when he saw that bottle coming!
Just an FYI--I didn't have tons of extra milk with #2 and pumping became stressful so I didn't do it with breastmilk for very long although that would have been ideal. Instead I used boiled and cooled water along with a dollop of applesauce to make up for the natural sweetness of my breastmilk. He thought he was in Heaven! ;D It seemed like a month later he was gobbling up more and more solids.
Good luck and don't fret. He'll eat when he needs to.
Babies take a little time to get used to different tastes and textures. This is WAY too early to worry about him having texture problems.
I don't think you should stop all together, but I don't think you should "push through it" either.
If he only takes one bite, makes a face, spits it out, kind of gags, whatever, it's just because it's foreign to him. He doesn't really need the baby food for nutrition just yet so don't worry about that. Even just having a spoon in his mouth is awkward to him.
Introduce things a little here and there and don't worry if he doesn't take to it right away.
It's all just practice for now.
Just my opinion.
Best wishes.
If he's gagging on the 1st foods then he's either getting too much in his mouth at a time or he's not developmentally ready yet for solids. He's ONLY 7 months old so there's no rush for him to have solids yet at all. They're only for practice anyway and not for nutrition.
Try a bottle feeder. Stage 3 wont work in it but 1 and 2 does. We had a little girl in my day care that was like that and it worked for her. We found it at Burlington Coat Factory.
Don't push it, there's no need. Baby food is just "practice" food and not at all necessary for growth or nutrition. All three of my kids went straight from breast to table, they ALL gagged on or spit out baby food, and I can't say I blamed them, have you ever tasted that stuff? Yuck, lol!
Listen to your baby, if he is gagging than he is not ready. Breastmilk is all he needs at this stage for nutrition. Try again in a couple weeks. He'll get it when he's ready, don't stress!
My daughter was the same way. She wasn't ready either. I did find that she would not eat store bought baby food so I ended up making my own when she was ready for food. I have some very simple recipes if you want them, lmk.