Why won't my 7 month old eat food, and what can I do about it?

You mentioned that you have a 7 month old baby girl who hasn't been taking well to solid foods, and you want to know what you can do to get her to eat solids. Most babies are ready between 4 and 6 months of life, and there are a few signs of readiness. One is that the baby needs to hold their head up, they need to have at least doubled their birth weight or weigh 13 pounds, and get excited about food when it's brought their way. Then when something is put in their mouth, they need to swallow it, and not gag on it or just spit it back out. So I'm assuming at 7 months, she's able to hold her head up, and she's at least doubled her birth weight, and is at least 13 pounds. So then that leaves the issue of spitting it out or swallowing it when something goes in her mouth, and being excited about it. Now, if she's acting like she can't swallow food, then that's a whole separate issue entirely, and I do recommend talking with your pediatrician about it. And based on their ability to ask you more specific questions, they'll be able to decide if further investigation or treatment is necessary for that issue.

Now, as long as the issue of swallowing is ruled out, she can swallow well, she's just not wanting what you put in her mouth, then there are a few things you can do. It may just come down to the fact that she's picky. And that's okay, a lot of kids are. So maybe she doesn't like the taste, the temperature, or the texture of what she's getting. When you introduce solids to a baby, you don't just need to give single grain first, and you can give fruits, you don't need to give veggies first. It doesn't mean that they'll hate veggies forever if they eat fruits first because they're sweet and develop a taste for that. You can give anything. You can give a variety of foods to see what she ends up liking. Just make sure that you wait 2 to 5 days between each introduction of new food to make sure she doesn't develop an allergy. Then say you introduced bananas for the first time today, and she started to have a rash or act funny tomorrow. As long as you haven't given her any other new foods, it would be pretty easy to peg down what the problem was. So again, that's why you should wait a little bit of time, but you can give her new things.

I know that my kids didn't really take well to green beans and peas. The peas, especially, have a funny texture to it. Sometimes they want it a little bit thinner, or green beans are really runny, maybe they want it a little bit thicker. So you did mention that you tried adding a little bit of mixed cereal in with it to change the texture. Keep experimenting with textures. Maybe you could even try heating it up a little bit, but there's a word of caution with that too. When you microwave it, you need to make sure that it's cooled down entirely before you feed it to your baby. It should be stirred and cooled thoroughly before you actually give it to your baby. Perhaps you could try mixing in some warm formula or expressed breast milk to help reduce the chance of your baby getting burned. And especially if you're nursing and you add a little bit of breast milk to it, that's a familiar taste to your baby, so maybe she'd like that a little bit better.

[DorothyCrawford]

I am in this exact situation right now with my 7mo. I watched your videos from trying to conceive, all through pregnancy and still finding helpful videos. I love these videos! Great source of information.

[wokwithjosh]

Picky eater. What revelation!! Tried steamed zucchini and it worked!

[madison]

Just adding if ur Cautious about heat they make baby spoons that turn white if the food is to hot I 100% recommend them

[shobujakon]

My baby is eight month old still not eating solids and get nervous when she sees the spoon sometimes she eats fruit puree but nothing else

[Ruthinhaloca]

I have a 7 month baby boy, he hates the vitamins, it's really necessary to give baby vitamins?

[meklee]

my baby is holding her head up, 6.5 month, doubled her birth weight, but only 12lbs, is that why she might not very interested in solid right now?

[madison]

I’ve gave my baby food since 4 months and she did amazing swallowed no problem but she’s 7 months and she’s not into it she don’t want non of it

[ekeomaprecious]

My twins are 7months and has been eating but suddenly stopped what could be the cause