What To Do When Baby Won’t Eat Solids? – 7 Effective and Encouraging Strategies

With babies, nothing is predictable. Your baby in his first weeks after birth can eat so much and anything put into his mouth is consumed happily, but surprisingly, that baby won’t eat solids later in a few months especially when you start introducing solids.

It could be the other way around where he refuses to do anything at the beginning of life and in some months times, he is munching whatever that is offered to him.

With this level of inconsistency in babies, it can be frustrating for you as his caregiver. 

Read on for some tricks to help when a baby won’t eat solids when introduced to solids. In this article are some things that can make your baby eat solids also so you will get to know some of the reasons why your baby won’t eat solids.

Baby Won’t Eat Solids, Why?

From about four months and above, your baby should be ready to eat solids if you didn’t exclusively breastfeed and if you exclusively breastfed then from 6 months your baby should be ready for solids.

At this early stage, your baby is still new to these types of food and will likely not accept it immediately because might be finding it hard to chew or doesn’t know just how to chew and swallow yet. 

At four to six months your baby should indeed be set for solids. But sometimes even at six months, your baby might not even be ready. It could be that your baby is slower at learning how to move his tongue. 

No two babies are the same and yours may need a little more time to develop his chewing skills.

And because your baby needs to learn the act of chewing and swallowing, he might likely not accept solid foods yet. 

One of the reasons why your baby won’t eat solids might be because he just doesn’t like the one you are offering. And might react with a gag when you put such food in his mouth. Or you will see the disgust on his face.,

The baby might not like how the food feels in his mouth. Remember he is getting used to everything and will need some time to get used to what you are offering. He’s used to breastmilk already and will need time to familiarize himself with what you’re giving him.

Additionally on Baby Won’t Eat Solids

If your baby won’t eat solids and is above seven months, the major reason could be that he or she doesn’t like the food or how the food feels in his or her mouth. This is because at this point your baby should be developed enough to chew and swallow. 

It’s a lot of process to eat. Opening the mouth taking in the food, and closing it back to swallow is a whole lot for a baby and if your baby is struggling to do all of this, he might resist the food when it comes next. There are times that if he tries to swallow, he will attempt to vomit. 

If your baby isn’t feeling too well, he might not want to eat. Baby fever can make them lose their appetite sometimes. Be patient with your baby and try to treat the source of his refusal instead of getting annoyed with your baby for not eating what you prepared. 

Teething is another reason your baby could be refusing to eat especially if your baby already was eating well. The discomfort that comes with teething can get challenging for a baby.

Your baby might be refusing solids because he is tired of baby food or feels he no longer wants to eat baby food. So always try different foods.

12 Simple Ways To Handle If Baby Won’t Eat Solids

If your baby won’t eat solids no matter how well it’s prepared. Well, there is no magic you can perform, especially as forcing your baby to eat is a very bad idea.

Don’t make mealtime a scary time for your baby. Just as his sleep time should be peaceful and of good memories, his mealtime should not terrify him.  Here are helpful things you can do when a baby won’t eat solids.

1. Introduce iron-rich foods for Baby won’t eat solids

You can start with soft, easy-to-swallow foods like eggs, cereals rich in iron, ripe bananas, cooked soft vegetables,  and fish. This will be a supplement to your breast milk. 

After 6 months, your breastmilk will not be as effective as it was earlier on. As your baby is growing, his nutritional demands are increasing too.

2. According to experts, introduce one food at a time

This is to help you easily spot why your baby is not eating that food or know if your baby is allergic to the food or not. 

But this  I will say is good to use only when you feed your baby with a couple of solids and he reacts to it negatively and you are on a mission to spot the food that caused the allergy. 

If not, it will take you a longer time to get your baby to eat all the solids you have to serve him when the baby won’t eat solids.

3. Be consistent and don’t give up if Baby Won’t Eat Solids

Trying for a week and your baby doesn’t eat a particular food, doesn’t mean you should stop trying. 

Continue giving it to your baby till you are very sure that it’s that particular food that he doesn’t like. 

Then you can switch to another or if you were giving more than one type of solid at once you can continue with another

4. Maintain eye contact

Instead of trying to force it down your baby’s throat, say encouraging things to your baby. You can try singing some rhymes while you feed him.  Feed your baby at a place where he will not get distracted. There shouldn’t be loud TV sounds that each time they shoot a gun or shout he will have to leave his food and turn to see what’s going on. 

5. Space his mealtime

Since at this early stage, solids are only introductory foods and not your baby’s main meal so after giving your baby his formula or breastmilk, give him some time before giving him solid. He might eat better when hungry. 

You can try giving the milk after giving him solid instead. Since you are trying to get him to eat solids, it will be more profitable if he eats the solid in a larger quantity than the milk. 

6. Make mealtime playful and even messy

You can put some of the food on a tray close to him and allow him to pick the food into his mouth by himself. You will be doing lots of cleaning up after the meal time but it will be worth it seeing how your baby is responding to the food. 

Give your baby the feeling that he is in charge of his meal time. You can serve him soft foods that he can pick up and eat by himself like sliced banana, minced chicken, tiny pieces of bread, steamed veggies, and other easy-to-eat solids for your baby. 

If what you are offering is pureed, you can give him a spoon to scoop the pureed into his mouth by himself. Demonstrate to him how it should be done and let him do it himself. This way he gets to choose how much he eats and what he is eating. 

If he is unable to spoon-feed himself yet, You can try using a baby pouch for pureed food.

Please note that frequent use of baby pouches for feeding can cause tooth decay so it should not be used very often. 

7. Try different solids at a time

For instance, if your baby likes to eat bananas, you can mix mashed banana and pureed apples then with time as he begins to eat more, you can mix more things at once for him.

8. Trick Your Baby

You can also trick your baby by mixing cereal and breastmilk or his formula so he still gets that taste that he is used to. And then reduce the quantity gradually so he starts getting used to the original taste of the solid served.

9. No Snacks

You can choose not to give snacks rather you serve your baby just the main meals. This way, in a day he will have less time that he gets to struggle to eat what he doesn’t want to eat. You can also give less solids in a day. You are only reducing the number of times you are giving but not stopping to give. 

10. Try not using a high chair

Some babies might see this as fun while some babies can start crying before you even buckle them in. If you observe that your baby wants nothing to do with a high chair then leave the high chair out of it and keep him in a place he can be more comfortable and free to move about. 

Especially when you have a hyperactive baby. You can use the floor or you carry him or someone else carries him while you feed or you carry him and the other person feeds him, just try anything to get him to be comfortable enough to eat.

The focus should be on your baby eating and not where he is sitting.

11. Serve food at the right temperature

Some babies hate eating their food cold and there are times that your baby could be having teething discomfort and won’t want anything to do with hot food because of fear of getting his gum irritated. 

If you notice that your baby is not eating because of teething, you can refrigerate his fruit or veggies. It shouldn’t get frozen but cold enough for your baby’s consumption. You can leave out food that he will have to chew as this can be uncomfortable with the teething discomfort. 

12. Feed him whatever you eat

One of the ways to get your baby to eat solid food is to feed him whatever you are eating. A little bit of every time you eat can be a good way of introducing your baby to solid food.

Feeding him this way will save you from the stress of preparing a different meal for your baby that he will keep to waste or might not even eat at all. 

Last Words

If you have a routine for your baby, when it gets to his or her meal time both of you can hate that time of the day. 

You will be wishing he would just eat and save you the struggle while he will be wishing you just leave him alone. 

But he has to eat so if you don’t try to make his meal time fun enough, you will just end up making his feeding time a terrible one for both him and you. Remember it’s only a phase. With time your baby will eat well and all by himself or herself too. 

So try serving him different solids till you can tell the ones he likes and the ones he is allergic to or just doesn’t like. After feeding him a particular food for some time and he still won’t eat, try another. Don’t try to continuously force something he hates on him. 

Serve him food in a position he is comfortable in. Serve solids first before his formula or breastmilk so he eats while hungry not when he is already full

Try mixing food he likes with the new ones you want him to eat. Try cold food when he is having teething problems. Be perseverant and not give up after a few attempts that he won’t eat. 

Place the food close to him and direct him to feed himself. Putting him in charge of his feeding. 

Like it is also listed, try feeding him from your plate. Save yourself the stress of making different meals and still getting him to eat with you 

Sharing food from the same plate can also help create a bond between you and your child.