I know it's early to worry about this...

But my little formula-fed dear isn't into solids....She'd rather play in them than to actually EAT them. She wants my food, until she gets ahold of it, and then it's just to play with it.

I know I'm supposed to stop formula at one year, but if she's still not into food, what do I do? I don't want to give her milk. I wanted to stop the milk ASAP and start giving her healthy Calcium/VitD, not moo juice. PLus, pastuerized moo-juice doesn't contain NEAR the vit/mineral/protein structure her little body is going to need daily....

I'm not freaking out. I'm just trying to prepare for possibilities. I want to know what my game plan should be in case Plan A doesn't happen.

If she's not an eater, what do I do?

 

This might not help but I've had the same problem. I've tried blending some foods like cereal, stuff like that into something like a shake. It didn't happen the first time so I guess just give it some time.

 

At her age, she's going to be more interested in playing than anything. Leane didn't start to actually want to eat until she was about 8-9 months old. The rest of the time it was a bite or two and then play time. She's just figuring out what this stuff is that you're giving her and wants to check it out.
As for one of the easiest things to get babies to eat first is Rice cerial. I still feed Leane that stuff some mornings for breakfast cuz she loves it so much along with some fruits and milk. But yeah, I wouldn't stress too much. I remember freaking out when Leane was younger that she wasn't going to eat enough or that she would always be on formula because she would never learn to eat. Sounds a little absurd, but I really felt that way. Now, when she wants to eat, she'll eat. When she wants to play, she plays. Your girl's nurtition is going to be from the formula anyway, as you already know. Solid foods are just for experimenting with right now.

 

you aren't supposed to stop formula at one year. It's just that one year is when it's okay to introduce straight cow milk. Some babies' bodies just aren't ready for solids at six months, or even at one year of age. What you do is watch your baby and follow her lead rather than what some book or some expert or some doctor says to do. When she's ready, she'll let you know. And those signs are unmistakable! Neither of my girls did more than taste their food and spit it out until nine months, and even then they only took one or two bites a day until they were fourteen months old. And, I knew their bodies weren't ready for solids anyway because everything they did eat came out the other end practically unchanged. I realize that solid guidelines are different for formula fed babies, but the general rule of trusting your mama instinct and watching baby for readiness signs still applies.


Dr Sears' website has great info on why it's okay, sometimes even better, to wait to introduce solids, and also a great list of signs that baby is ready for them. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032000.asp

Here's my general rule of thumb: If baby is happy banging a spoon on the highchair at mealtimes, she isn't ready for solids. If she grabs the spoon, puts it in her mouth, throws it across the room and screams at you, try mushing up some of your food off your plate and putting it on the spoon for her and see what she does with it.



edit to add: rice cereal can be very constipating, even moreso for bottlefed babies because they are already getting tons of iron in the formula. Be very very careful about that stuff. It's basically nutritionally void except for the vitamins that have been sprayed on it, and it tastes just like the box it comes out of.

 

yeah, I don't feed her cereals. My thought being that every little bit she eats is going to equal some formula nutrients she's not getting, and if she's going to eat, I want it to be as packed with vitamins and minerals as it possibly can be so she's not losing out.

 

Very cute baby.

Does she have any teeth yet?

Is there a connection between teeth and readiness for solids?

 

How old is your baby? Babies don't really NEED solids until they are over a year (more like 18 months). Solids are for practice and for fun. I would recoomend holding back on solids, and even when you DO start them, only a tablespoon a day. My son is almost 8 months and hasn't started solids yet and is 100% healthy. My older son, who is now 2.5, didn't start solids until he was 12 or 13 months, and even then, he still had 95% of his food/nutrients from breastmilk. He weaned himself when I got pregnant, when he was about 19 months, and started eating solids a lot then. But then when his brother was born, and my milk came back, he cut back on solids and was about 50/50 breastmilk/soilds. And he was 2! He has since weaned himself again (I think this time for good) and is back to only solids.

 

She's 6 months, just cut her first tooth.

My big worry is that...I don't want to put her on whole milk at one year. I want to wean her off of milk because I don't want to just live with symptoms of an allergy, you know? I want to know how she is without any major allergens in her system so I can tell what's a reaction and what is just emotion.

And I can't afford formula on my own. At one year, WIC stops providing formula and starts providing whole milk.

 

well, we have had good luck with rice cerial anyway. Dr sears even recomends it on his website. And I think that it tastes really good, personally. we used it as a base to intorduce her to other foods that she wasn't really sure about.
My ped told me that after one year, baby isn't going to get any more benifits out of formula than with whole milk. I personally switched her at one year and the transition went perfectly and she's as healthy as could be, no allergies, nada.

 

We started Skye off with sweet potatoes, at about 6 months. We didn;t want to start that early with the solids, but having mama going to work, and having to pump, he had to have something. I basically just baked the sweet potato in the oven until it was soft, and then mushed it up. He gobbled it right up. He still loves sweet potatoes.

 

Have you ever tried to make formula?

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/recipes.html

There are some good recipes on here. Do you have access to good, organic, grass-fed cattle, raw milk? Often it is much cheaper than regular milk, if you can find a local farm you trust. We get raw milk here for a just under $3 a gallon, straight from the farm. Organic (but pasteurized ) milk at the grocery store around here is like $3 or $4 for a HALF GALLON!

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/feeding.html

This is a good article about feeding babies/toddlers. Egg yolks are an AWESOME food for babies.

 

Ok, I'm dumb, I just re-read your second post, and you said you didn't want to put her on milk because you wanted to see if she's allergic to milk? Is that right? What kind of formula does she drink? What makes you think she's allergic to milk? My older son was allergic to dairy, VERY allergic, I couldn't have any dairy while nursing, but he has recently been able to eat dairy with NO ISSUES! YAY! If you have any questions about airy allergies, feel free to ask. We tend to eat a lot of raw dairy, so it was super hard for me to stay away from it. Especially since we don't eat soy.

 

Well, in my family, I am starting to see how alot of allergies are manifesting themselves not gut-wise but behavior-wise. So I don't know if maybe Moire's digestive difficulties are truly due to being on formula period or if it's dairy allergy. And I don't know her personality well enough to know if something manifests itself behaviourally. The formula she's on has both dairy AND corn products in it.

 

If she isn't eating solids at a year, (and a lot of babies are eating few solids at a year) then continuing the formula is a good idea. Cow's milk is not only not neccesary, but an icky thing to put into an infant, even a year old infant. I'm NOT a big fan of raw milk formulea, there can be dangerous bacteria in raw milk and it has no less Bovine IGA proteins, no less Casien, no less Whey and no less lactose than store bought milk (although without the Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone.)

The only reason WIC supplies cow milk is the influence of the Dairy Industry. You can maybe talk to your WIC counselor, because in some states you can get Soy Milk instead of Cow's. Telll her the Cow Milk will not be used, as there are allergies in your family. If she tries to talk you into the Cow milk or says "Specific allergies are not passed through families." Then you know the Dairy Counsel has already gotten to her.


but, if she isn't eating at least some solids at a year, plain cow OR soy milk cannot supply enough nutrients.(does WIC do "Toddler Forumlas"? I am not a big fan of these as people think ALL kids need them, but in some cases, for babies who couldn't be breast fed, and don't want solids yet, they can be helpful, they USED TO be prescription only, but the drug companies and the Dairy Counsel ended that in the 1980s.) Perhaps you can talk to your doctor. BUT, you still have 6 months. Two of my four kids weren't on solids at six months and all of them happily ate solids, and plenty of them at a year.