How to Feed a Baby That Won't Eat

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What to do when infant won't touch nutrient

There are many reasons why a child may non be interested in eating, but what do you lot practice when babies or toddlers aren't interested in even touching their food?

Chase the why

If a baby is not eating, they are trying to communicate something. For some babies, they simply might not have the involvement, skill, or desire to swallow at that moment; for others, it may be more complicated given their history (reflux, a bad gag, negative associations with the highchair, etc.) It'due south imperative to listen to baby's cues in any of these situations while guiding them to learn.

The nearly important thing you can do is bringcalm conviction to the table and believe that baby can learn the skills for eating. In other words, stay calm and don't give up!

If baby is 6 months one-time or younger

Y'all've done all the reading virtually starting solids. You have the highchair, bib, and you know what food you want to introduce first. And then, in the blink of a photographic camera, at the height of your anticipation, your bubble bursts. Infant doesn't bring a single thing to their mouth.

Or mayhap y'all started with spoon feeding and decided to brand the switch to finger food. Y'all cut the food but correct, fix the meal just and so, but instead of enjoying it, baby doesn't touch on a matter.

At 6 months of age or younger, babies are often just not ready. Evaluate whether baby is truly gear up for solids (see our page on readiness or bank check out our video) and brand certain baby is truly coming together all of the developmental signs before starting solid food.

Consider waiting a week or two.If baby is less than or around half-dozen months quondam and showing signs of readiness, but doesn't engage with nutrient offered, effort not to worry as well much. Many babies at this historic period are just not cognitively ready to cocky-feed, even if they are showing the motor milestones for readiness. This is normal.

Fifty-fifty with spoon-feeding, many babies volition turn abroad from the spoon when they are not set up. This is advice proverb they are not interested or prepare yet. Listen to what baby is telling you lot.Sometimes the youngest eaters just demand another week or 2 to wrap their heads around eating.

Avert feeding schedule changes.Encouraging or pushing baby to eat before they are ready can lead down a bumpy road of food refusal. At this age, avoid feeding schedule changes to make baby hungry plenty to endeavour solid foods. Call up: Baby's primary nutrition should be from breast milk or formula until 12 months of age. Plus, an overly hungry young baby is not primed to acquire. Babies who are too hungry and don't withal have the skills to self-feed will stop upward melting down at the tabular array. (Cue screaming for the breast or bottle.)

Let infant spotter you consume, often. Even before you lot first solids, bring baby to the tabular array. Pull upwards the bouncing chair and so baby can sentry y'all eat or sit baby on your lap. Aqueduct a dinner party vibe—laugh, smile, and enjoy your meal so baby can see the fun of eating. When baby is ready to outset solids, pull baby's highchair up to the table or put baby on your lap while Yous swallow. Babies larn from watching us, and many immature babies need more modeling to realize that food goes in our mouths.

Get baby'southward attention. Tap their highchair tray or table with your fork or finger, call their name, and make middle contact. One time they are paying attention, bring the food to your mouth and smile. This is very important with spoon-fed babies. Spoon-fed babies learn that nutrient comes on a spoon, it'southward put in their oral fissure, and swallowed. Picking up nutrient with their hands and bringing information technology to their mouth is an entirely dissimilar story—the concept that hands bring food to the rima oris is brand new. Run into the tips below for helping baby pick upwardly and bring food to their mouth or dive in to our video on transitioning from spoon feeding to self-feeding.

Talk to baby and draw the food: "This is delicious spaghetti with Grandma Mary'southward famous sauce! Information technology'south tangy and sweet at the same time!"

Model with your mouth open. Throw your manners out the window and chew with your mouth open so babe can run across what yous are doing. When you swallow, point to your stomach and say: "The spaghetti went all the way to my belly!" You lot may feel a fleck silly, but modeling is a game-changer for many young babies.

Go BIG with food sizes. It may seem counter-intuitive, but for young babies, bigger is better. Lookout man how a 6- to 9-month-old baby interacts with toys, and yous'll notice they use all of their fingers and the palm of their paw to grasp things. Bigger pieces of food are much easier to grasp, hold, and control. Learning to chew is challenging work, and we want to assist make everything else (i.e., reaching and grasping) as easy as possible. A babe struggling with a smaller piece of food may requite up because they don't accept the skill to grab it yet.

Bigger pieces of nutrient are also easier for baby to manage in their mouth. The brain more readily notices and registers big pieces. Young babies are more than likely to explore and motility big pieces around in the oral fissure successfully.

Y'all want to provide simply the right amount of challenge. Bigger pieces of food provide babe with a fun challenge but aren't also difficult to reach, grasp, and move effectually with their natural language. When tasks are too hard, babies may give up and (in their own mode) say, "No, thank you!" Fine motor control improves equally baby gets closer to ix+ months, and they'll commencement using their thumb and index finger to pinch smaller items. This is a great fourth dimension to size down in nutrient so they can utilise their new skill.

If infant is 9 months old or older

If baby is but starting to self-feed afterwards a period of spoon-feeding, they might not know what to do with food in front end of them. Call back, they've been practicing a specific eating skill (accepting a spoon) and demand to learn a different way to eat.

Brand certain baby comes to the table happy. If babe has a meltdown the minute y'all put them in the highchair, starting time there. Have a interruption from the highchair and serve a meal with baby sitting on your lap or accept a picnic on the living room floor. Some babies dear a picayune excitement on the style to the table—try dancing, twirling, or crawling! Set baby up for success and offset the meal happy.

Model your daily eating routine. This is especially important if you are transitioning from spoon-feeding to baby-led weaning. Remember: Everything baby is doing is a new skill, and they need to meet how it'due south done to empathize improve.

Imitate baby'due south facial expressions and encourage them to imitate you lot. Watching to acquire is a huge part of infancy. Think about it this way—the more yous bask something, the more interest your baby has in it. The more you wait at your phone, the more than baby wants to play with it, right? Enjoy eating your meal, and baby will desire to participate in eating, too!

Bring infant'southward attending to the nutrient. Tap babe'southward tray about the food to make sure they are visually attention to it, telephone call their name, and say, "Look!" Sometimes a unproblematic, unmarried cue is all a baby needs to acknowledge and touch food on a tray. Annotation: While not mutual, a lack of sustained attention can be a sign of autism. If baby is non attending to the food afterward repeated attempts to get their attention to information technology, consult your health intendance professional.

Offer food vertically in the air.Go far piece of cake for babe to option the food up by offer it to them in the air. You can besides try standing food upright to brand information technology easier for baby to grasp. (Such as banana sticks in yogurt with the banana standing upright.) If babe is withal non interested, try taking a bite of the nutrient yourself and then offering that piece to baby in the air. If you offer something like yogurt, oatmeal, or other puree-type foods, you tin load the spoon and hand it to your kid or hold the spoon in your mouth and lean toward baby to grab.

Offering the food from your own mouth.Put your manners bated and try this tried-and-true feeding therapy trick: hold the nutrient betwixt your teeth, lean toward baby, and let them have the food out of your mouth with their easily.

Remember: Footstep one is for baby to interact with the food; if they are reaching for and/or grasping the food items, you're making progress! Patience is fundamental. We don't await babies to roll from tum to back consistently the beginning time they try. Likewise, we don't expect babies to eat consistently in the outset, either. Their primary nutrition source remains breast milk or formula until 12 months of historic period. Whatever tabular array food they consume is a plus.

Bring infant to the table a chip hungry. Consider offer chest or bottle 1.five-2 hours before mealtime, then they have a bit more than hunger bulldoze to consume the food on their tray.

However, if a 9- to 12-month-old babe tries to consume but appears frustrated and irritable at the table, information technology could be a sign that they are besides hungry and want food just take however to hone their fine motor or chewing skills—cue the hanger. This could exist a sign that babe needs an titbit, and so they come to the table with a desire to eat, ready to larn and build skill, merely aren't hangry. Consider a small breast or bottle-feed 30-45 minutes before mealtime or offering easy-to-swallow nutrient to outset the meal.

For toddlers 12 months onetime and up

Hither are some boosted tips to encourage food exploration and new skills for toddlers resistant to touching foods or who take been spoon-fed and are now transitioning to self-feeding tabular array foods.

Practice makes perfect. Toddlers learn by doing. They may need boosted practise scooping with their easily and using containers. Yous tin encourage and practice these skills by scooping water with cups in the bathtub or scooping dry out items like rice or beans with spoons or their hands.

Let them practice feeding y'all. If the child is okay touching nutrient but won't feed themselves, enquire them to feed you. Bring their attention to a slice of food, manus it to them, and enquire them to put information technology in your oral cavity. If y'all have pets (and experience comfortable with little hands nearly the pup's mouth), ask the toddler to feed the dog.

Pretend play! Feed blimp animals or dolls and explain what's happening: "Y'all fed bunny a slice of cheese! Information technology's going to go all the fashion to her belly and help her grow big and potent!"

Model and characterize more. Toddlers notwithstanding learn a lot from watching and modeling. Demonstrate feeding yourself and explicitly enunciate what'due south happening: "Mama is putting this assistant in her mouth! And and so she's going to chew it with her teeth! Spotter!" And so indicate from your rima oris to your belly and explain: "The banana is going all the way to my abdomen to assistance me feel strong!"

Engage in sensory play outside of mealtime. If the child does not want to bear upon certain textures (i.e., wet, cold, sticky), try sensory play outside of mealtime. Go for finger paints, shaving cream, or slime. If texture avoidance happens with more just food, consider talking to a pediatrician. An occupational therapist trained in sensory integration may be able to assist.

Explore different shapes, sizes, and props.Some toddlers respond well to making food more than fun. Effort serving nutrient with a toothpick or cutting food in a fun shape. Mango in bite size pieces on a plate may seem totally ho-hum… but mango on toothpicks? Fun!

Stop spoon-feeding.If a toddler knows they will always exist spoon-fed to see their hunger demand, they are less likely to endeavor feeding themselves, which is more challenging for them to do. Tips for this transition:

• Offset meals slightly earlier than usual so they are hungry simply non starving or hangry.
• Apply the modeling tips above and model for them to feed themselves.
• If you lot are confident theytin chew foods, consider not spoon-feeding them and come across if they self-feed. If they choose not to eat, let them to larn that hunger is a natural result if they don't feed themselves. This is age appropriate and should piece of work rapidly. If you accept any concerns, talk over a programme of activity with a feeding therapist or health care provider.
• Offer a snack that they tin can self-feed a petty bit after to help them solidify the skill.

For more support on transitioning babies and toddlers from spoon-feeding to self-feeding, encounter our video here.

If the child has not had the chance to learn how to chew foods and they announced to struggle with consistencies other than purees, consider talking to your pediatrician nearly a referral for feeding therapy with an occupational or oral communication therapist to aid build chewing skills.

When baby will bear upon everything but wet foods like yogurt

Will baby or toddler interact with everything except wet textures similar yogurt, oatmeal, or sauces? Some kids are more sensitive to this type of texture and may need help learning to tolerate it.

Practice self-feeding with a spoon. This is a skill babies and toddlers need for life, so practicing with pre-loaded spoons or scooping with utensils are great options. Offer the spoon but don't put it in infant's mouth: stop a few inches away from their face and permit babe accomplish for the spoon to pull it toward their oral cavity.

Provide opportunities for sensory play. There are many ideas online for "sensory bins" for babies and toddlers, but consider playing in wet grass, painting with ketchup, making edible slime or finger paints, or playing with sponges in the bath or at a water table.

Let baby feed you. Volition they touch the food to bring it toyouroral cavity? This can be an excellent gateway to touching the nutrient for themselves.

Avert over-cleaning their easily. Sometimes when babies and toddlers know that messy play ends with a wipe down, they altogether avoid the activity anticipating the ending. It'southward tough watching kids get super messy, merely in that location's a massive benefit in letting them become sticky. Brand clean-upwards fun and lighthearted. Go to the sink, turn the water on, and have a splashing party.

When to seek help

More often than not, a lack of interest in touching food is non typically a concern; it'south oft just a sign the kid needs more than exposure and practice. However, consult your pediatric health care professional if the kid is:

• Gagging, retching, or vomiting at the sight or touch of food.
• Extremely sensitive to sure textures (like moisture, sticky, etc.). They may need extra help with sensory processing. Talk to your health care professional for a referral for occupational therapy to assistance them meliorate regulate their trunk.

• Not gaining weight well despite drinking breast milk or formula.

• Not consumingany solid foods after 8 months of historic period. Note: Spoon-fed babies and toddlers in transition to finger food and self-feeding may have a menstruum of nutrient refusal. See our video for tips on how to bridge this transition.

• Not accepting whatever chewable foods after a couple of weeks of exposure to solid foods (9 months or older). If baby is younger than 9 months and not accepting chewable foods, employ the tips above for baby'southward historic period and give information technology a scrap more time.

• Swallows all chewable nutrient whole without attempting to chewand is 12 months former or older.

• Not attention to the nutrient on the tray after attempts to go their attention (calling their proper noun, borer the tray, etc.). While non mutual, a lack of sustained attending can be a sign of autism.

Mind the division of responsibility

No affair the age of baby, call up the division of responsibility. There are certain things yous can command and sure things y'all cannot:

Y'all control what foods the child is offered, when nutrient is offered, and how you prove up to the repast (i.eastward., your attitude).

Your kid is in control of whether they eat and how much.

No affair how difficult you attempt, you cannot control if or how much your child volition consume.

Trying to control their intake is a slow spiral downwards a rabbit hole of picky eating and nutrient refusal. Try one or two strategies at the meal, and if your kid is still non interested,enjoy your ain meal, and movement on. Tomorrow is some other day.

How you show up to the repast is much more important than you lot probably realize. The literature on picky eating shows that parental business organization well-nigh intake and pushing babies to eat when they are not interested consistently leads to picky or selective eating later. ^{i 2 iii 4}

And then, take a deep breath and endeavor to take fun as kiddo instinctively fumbles through learning to swallow.

If you lot are concerned about your child'southward weight proceeds or ability to eat table foods, talk to your kid's pediatrician. A feeding therapist can provide new ideas and additional back up.

Reviewed by:

Kary Rappaport, OTR/L, MS, SCFES, IBCLC

Kimberly Grenawitzke, OTD, OTR/L, SCFES, IBCLC, CNT

1. Emmett, P. Thousand., Hays, Northward. P., & Taylor, C. Chiliad. (2018). Antecedents of picky eating behaviour in immature children. Appetite, 130, 163–173.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2018.07.032
2. Cardona Cano, Due south., Hoek, H. Westward., & Bryant-Waugh, R. (2015). Picky eating. Electric current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28(6), 448–454.
3. Steinsbekk, S., Bonneville-Roussy, A., Fildes, A., Llewellyn, C. H., & Wichstrøm, Fifty. (2017). Child and parent predictors of picky eating from preschool to schoolhouse age. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, xiv(1).
4. Cole, N. C., An, R., Lee, S.-Y., & Donovan, Due south. M. (2017). Correlates of picky eating and food neophobia in immature children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews, 75(7), 516–532

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