Despite being hungry my 4.2-month-old son is refusing all solids from a spoon
My son has always fed extremely well (on milk); He is currently drinking 8oz at 7am, 11am, 2.30pm and 6.15pm. He went onto the CLB routine very well and dropped his 10pm feed 10 days ago with no problem, sleeping from 6.45pm until 7.30am without waking up.
At 18 weeks I decided he should have some solids, also due to dropping the 10pm feed (where he was having 5oz), as he was starting to become fractious half an hour before his feed were due. He weighs 17lbs.
I started with baby rice and he refused to accept the spoon, instead sticking out his tongue in a rigid fashion, which makes it impossible to get the spoon between his tongue and upper gums. I left it a couple of days and tried again. It has now been nearly two weeks and he is still refusing to let the spoon into his mouth, despite trying pear as an alternative food.
I had thought that this might be the reflex that makes them push foreign objects out of their mouths still working and that I should leave it a couple of weeks and try again, as I do not want him to gain a nervousness of a spoon at this early stage, however he is clearly hungry and in need of more food, but he is taking his maximum amount of milk at each feed. Should I re-introduce the 10pm feed for a couple of weeks and then try again? I am loathe to do this as I am enjoying him sleeping 7 until 7 and don’t want to revert. What would you suggest?
Until you can get your son more happy about taking a spoon, it would be advisable to offer him his 10pm feed again. When you stopped giving it to him did you split those lost 5ozs amongst the other feeds? Some babies do take a while to get used to a spoon and until well established on solids need a fifth feed. By losing it completely, rather than cutting back on it slowly as he increased eating solids, he will be hungry in the day.
Give him another week before trying with a spoon again. Remain really positive and offer him the food with a smiling face and encouraging words. You may need to distract him before offering him the spoon. Try waving a toy or a rattle in front of him and then quickly put the spoon in. Don’t place it in too far, bring it up and out against the roof of his mouth so his upper gums suck it off, encouraging him to feed. The theory behind the distraction is that a baby will suck on anything which is placed in his mouth, provided that he has not decided in advance that he doesn’t want to. Being distracted by a toy helps take his mind off what you would like him to do.
Once he has begun to accept a spoon into his mouth, he may take the food but spit it out. It may not mean that he dislikes it, but it is a different taste to milk and he will react to that. Keep offering food to him in an encouraging way. Once he has realised that he can get food in another way than by a bottle, he will probably begin to enjoy his solids.