What to do if your child refuses to eat complementary food

After the baby is six months old, he can eat some complementary foods appropriately. This is very beneficial for the baby's physical development. As the child grows and develops, the mother's breast milk or formula feeding can no longer meet the child's nutritional needs. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement some complementary foods in time. However, some children are unwilling to eat complementary foods. At this time, parents must make the complementary foods as delicious as possible and make them in different ways.

What to do if your child refuses to eat complementary food

The number of complementary foods has increased: In order to make their babies feel fresh, some mothers try to give their babies complementary foods of different flavors every day when they start feeding them complementary foods. Some mothers are afraid that their babies will not adapt, so they feed their babies the same complementary food for a long time. In fact, both approaches are biased. Children have a very sensitive sense of taste, and they will refuse food if it is a little different. However, feeding children the same complementary food all the time cannot achieve the goal of balanced nutrition. The correct approach should be to feed your baby one kind of complementary food at first, let the baby adapt slowly, and then increase to two, three or more kinds. During this process, you should always pay attention to the baby's reaction. If he cannot accept the new complementary food, put it aside for now. Adaptation requires a process and cannot be rushed. There are some things to pay attention to when adding complementary foods: Generally speaking, babies are more likely to accept complementary foods such as porridge, so when mothers consider feeding their babies complementary foods, porridge and congee are the first choice. After the baby has adapted to this type of complementary food, you can add some foods with a softer taste, such as fruit juice, vegetable juice, fruit and vegetable puree, etc. The taste of apples and bananas is easier to accept, so you can try these two first. In comparison, vegetables have a stronger taste, but you might as well try cabbage and cabbage. Egg yolks are also a good choice. Once the baby has adapted, you can transition to complementary foods such as meat and fish.

Reasons why babies don't like to eat complementary foods

Don’t know how to “eat”: For 6-month-old babies, the lip muscles and tongue movements are already relatively flexible. At this time, parents can start training them to eat complementary foods such as rice porridge, fruit puree, and vegetable puree. However, when starting to add complementary foods, some babies will habitually use their skilled sucking movements to get food. However, these new foods cannot be obtained by sucking. At this time, the baby will begin to become impatient and push the food out with his tongue. In fact, it is not that the baby does not like the taste of new food, but that the baby does not know how to swallow the food. For parents, if you find your baby showing this behavior, you can patiently feed him a few more times with a spoon. As long as your baby is given more time and opportunities to practice getting complementary foods, he or she will gradually get used to eating with a spoon. Giving too much too soon: Many new parents are eager to add food to their babies and often feed their babies too quickly. If you find that your baby has trouble swallowing or that food is spilling, remember to adjust the amount you feed each time, giving slightly less per spoonful to make it easier for your baby to eat. In addition, remember to let your baby rest after feeding him/her complementary foods and avoid strenuous activities. Not to the taste: Some parents are busy with work, and often feed their babies food of a fixed flavor for convenience. If the baby eats the same food frequently, he will lack a sense of freshness and easily lose his appetite. In order to stimulate the baby's appetite, parents should appropriately innovate the types of food according to the characteristics of the baby's age at each month. It is understood that many times, babies refuse a certain food not because they don’t like the food itself, but may be related to the way it is eaten. For example, some babies don’t like to eat pure rice porridge, but if the rice porridge is added with egg yolks or vegetable puree, the baby will like it. Parents may wish to spend more time to discover the baby’s taste preferences.