My 9-month-old refuses to eat. Solids, that is.
Applesauce. Baby cereal. Yogurt. Ice cream. Whipped Cream. Mashed Potatoes.
You name it, we’ve tried it.
She clamps her lips shut and jerks her head back. She doesn’t want anything to do with real food. She shies away from it like it’s the most disgusting thing she’s ever seen.
At first I was flattered. “She loves my milk!,” I thought.
But it’s been three months since we started spoon feeding her and now I’m starting to get worried.
We’ve tried squeezing her cheeks to part her lips. We’ve tried every helicopter, say, “ahh” trick in the book.
I even had my grandma (aka the baby expert) try to trick her into opening her mouth wide enough to sneak in a bite. But nothing has worked.
Last week she opened her mouth a slit and I shoved in three whole bites of rice cereal. She gagged them down while I cheered.
On Tuesday I squeezed eight tiny sips of Go-Go strawberry applesauce into the tiny crack of her mouth. That was a true victory.
But I’ve got to get her to eat more than eight bites.
It’s not like she won’t open her mouth for other things. She’s happy to chew on the remote control or her brother’s shoe. But put something edible near her and she’s appalled.
My husband thinks it’s a learned defense mechanism. He’s certain she’s started doing it to protect herself from all of the gross, weird things her brothers try to shove into her mouth.
I’m not sure why she’s doing it but I know I’ve got to get her to stop. I’ve never seen anything like this. I keep thinking that someday she’ll be ready. She has a check up next week and I’m going to grill the doctor for get-my-baby-to-eat tips.
Hopefully something will work soon. Otherwise I’ll end up nursing a 10-year-old.
Boogers on the Wall 