What does your 6.5 month old like to eat?--Sorry, long post

[HIU8]

DS has been eating rice cereal both in and out of his bottle since he was 2 months old. He has pretty severe reflux and a milk protein sensitivity. at 4.5 months the pediatrician told me to start solids because DS was eating between 40 and 45 ounces of formula in a 24 hour period. We were told to start out feeding the same food for 5-7 days since DS was so young and already had feeding issues. Well, DS has his own ideas about what he will and won't eat. He will not eat the rice cereal anymore. He ate it for about 2 weeks. He won't touch the oatmeal. He likes fruits and that is pretty much it. He will eat a veggie on occasion. He refuses green veggies except aspargus and that gave him the runs. He absolutely won't eat chicken, veal or beef (I tried the Beechnut state 1 meats). He does love yogurt like it is going out of style with any type of fruit. It does not make him sick at all. He is at the point where he wants to get babyfood more than just at dinner, so we have been giving him a little bit at lunch as well. Meanwhile, I don't want to give him yogurt twice a day, because I am afraid he will get sick of it and then won't eat anything.

Also, he seems to want what we are eating, but I don't want to give him the spicing things etc... and when I do give him something after I have pureed it, he refuses it. DS actually gags and throws up when he doesn't want and/or doesnt' like what he is given. Is this normal? Any suggestions on what I should try other than fruit. Also, veggies made me sick while pregnant with him, and I wonder if this is why he won't eat them? As for not liking meat, I don't get it. I was a meat fiend while pregnant.

[californiagirl]

This is all perfectly normal. 6.5 months is still tiny. Mine would eat something one day and not the next, or eat it for me but not at daycare (or vice versa). Heck, at 15 months she still does that -- she suddenly decided not to like bananas, for goodness' sake.

Don't worry about it. It doesn't mean he'll never eat a green vegetable. It might mean he'd like to try some finger foods. It probably mostly means he's 6.5 months old. Offer him whatever you feel safe with (we were pretty loose about it, aside from only offering one new food a day). DD never paid much attention to what babies were supposed to like, and prefers her food seasoned. When she was littler, we worried about salt, but not about garlic/ginger/herbs/lemon juice. (And we worried about salt mostly because if left alone with baby food and pickles, she'd eat the pickles every time -- you should have seen her eyes the time she first realized that the grocery store has WHOLE JARS of pickles.)

Try mixing vegetables with plain yogurt, maybe with flavoring? DD would eat rice cereal in ginger-carrot soup. (Honestly, she probably would have eaten pureed cardboard in ginger-carrot soup.)

[kfk]

I would try avocado. It was one of our first foods, mixed into mashed banana. Now they have it mixed with their veggies.

I was kind of relaxed about food introduction, only waiting a couple days between foods.

One of my guys has reflux, as well.

At 7.5 months my guys eat mashed banana, applesauce, pearsauce, avocado, sweet potato, carrots, prunes, green beans, peas and yogurt. I added the green beans and peas at around 6.5 months and then yogurt at 7 months. They get very little cereal (problems with constipation), but I have recently tried it again, but mixed in with yogurt, mashed banana and mashed stewed prune. Their food is usually a bit lumpy/chunky except for the occassional jarred food (which is smooth).

We're going to try tofu next. You can buy the soft kind and mash it into what he likes (fruit).

And, fwiw, veggies made me sick (as did meat) while pregnant, but my boys don't seem to mind them so far.