Get an Infant to Eat More

A common concern among mothers is that their babies are not getting enough to eat, especially once they start eating solid foods (6 months and up). Your baby will let you know when he or she is hungry, so listen to the signs and provide food. Since infants' appetites can alter based on growth spurts, changes in sleep schedules and the type and amount of food previously eaten, their eating patterns will change. Be patient and trust your baby to know when she is hungry. If you are concerned or she is not gaining weight, talk to your doctor.

Steps

Determining Why She May Not Be Eating Enough

1. Trust your baby to eat when she's hungry. If you are think that your baby is not eating enough, or seems to only feed for very short periods of time, there is not necessarily a cause for concern. There are many reasons why a baby might refuse food, ranging from simply already being full, to being tired, distracted, or a little ill. Try to trust your baby and avoid making feeding time into a battle. If you are concerned, and she if appears underweight or the change is dramatic or sudden, don't hesitate to talk to your doctor.
2. Don't be concerned by a picky eater. It is not uncommon for a baby to turn her nose up at a new and unfamiliar food. In most cases she will grow out of this, but that can take a while. Be patient, and if she rejects something, offer her something you know she likes. Return to the new food later.
   • She might also be avoiding the food for other reasons, such as teething, tiredness, or just already being full.
   • Don't get restless and annoyed with her. Just set the new food aside and come back to it later.
3. Limit spitting up and reflux. Spitting up is a common occurrence for babies as they get used to digesting food, and tends to reduce as they become a year old. Frequent spitting up can interfere with your baby's diet, so taking steps to reduce spitting up will help her get into good eating habits. Be sure to burp her regularly, don't overfeed her, and keep her upright when you feed her. It is also advisable to avoid playing with her immediately after eating so she has time to digest a bit.
   • To manage reflux, feed her a bit more slowly, and a little bit less at each meal. Keep her upright for half an hour after eating, by sitting her in a chair or buggy.
   • If she spits up often, throws up violently, or is increasingly sick, you should contact your doctor.
4. Be aware of potential intolerances. Food intolerances or allergies could be one reason why your baby might not seem to be eating as much. Allergies can appear suddenly, and will often have very noticeable symptoms, such as vomiting, a rash, diarrhoea, sweating, or stomach pain. Food intolerances may produce less severe symptoms, but can result in your baby feeling bloated, gassy, and uncomfortable.
   • If she has a allergy or intolerance she will most likely not want to eat, so look out for any symptoms and contact your doctor.
   • Your doctor will be able to run tests to investigate a potential allergy.
   • Take your baby to the doctor or emergency room immediately if you see signs of wheezing, swelling, hives, or trouble breathing.

Finding Ways to Help Your Baby Eat More

1. Make new foods look like an established favourite. If you find that she is regularly rejecting a new and unfamiliar food without tasting it, you can try to put her at ease by making the new food appear similar to one of her favourites. For example, if she is big fan of mashed potatoes, but doesn't like the look of sweet potato, try mashing it up so it has the same consistency.
   • Try to ease her in with small portions that you gradually increase over time.
   • Introducing new foods gradually, and not trying to force anything on her, will help her develop her tastes gradually.
   • A completely new food can be a very strange sensation for a baby.
2. Offer finger food. You can try to increase the amount she eats throughout the day by offering her small amounts of finger food between meals. Soft cooked vegetables are good choices for finger foods, as are washed and peeled fruits. If your baby is more than six months old, you can also try dry food such as graham crackers and melba toast. Noodles are also a good finger food.
   • Don't offer food that may cause choking. Avoid apple chunks, grapes, popcorn, hot dogs, nuts, or hard chunks of uncooked vegetables.
   • Avoid salty or sugary foods.
   • If your baby is around 6-8 months and is teething, toast strips, teething biscuits, and unsalted crackers can make good finger foods.
3. Make the most of mealtimes. Your baby will copy a lot of what you do, so eating together can encourage her. She will watch you carefully and learn from what you are doing. If she turns away from the spoon, eat it yourself to show her how tasty it is. Talk to her when you feed her, and include her in family mealtimes. Having regular mealtimes can help your baby learn what time is food time.
   • You should expect some mess, and make sure you keep mealtimes fun.
   • Be sure to allow plenty of time for eating, and be patient. Go at your baby's pace, and don't try to rush or force her to eat something.
   • Don't leave the table until she has finished eating too.
4. Involve more people. Sometimes bringing in more people to a mealtime can encourage your baby to eat more. This can work well if you have an adult friend or family member who she likes. Get your friend along for dinner and your baby will often eat happily for someone who isn't mum or dad.
   • If she has some friends that are good eaters, inviting them round for dinner can also have the same effect.
5. Give her plenty of variety. It's important to provide plenty of variety so she has a healthy balanced diet, and gets introduced to all sorts of different foods at a young age. Generally, once babies get used to new foods they will learn to like them. Give your baby a good range of healthy foods at a young age to help her grow and develop, as well as get into good dietary habits. Giving her foods and drinks with added sugar, salt, or fat, will increase the chances of her wanting these in the future.
   • Providing a variety of foods, and allowing her to choose what to eat for a particular meal, can help her get used to a new foods.
   • Babies like to choose foods themselves, so try to give her a choice every now and again.

Developing Your Infant's Diet

1. Find out how often a baby up to four months old can feed. When your baby is this young, all her nutritional needs will be met with breast milk or formula. If you are breastfeeding, a baby may nurse around 8-12 times a day, approximately every 2-4 hours, or when they are hungry and demand feeding.
   • If you are using formula, your baby may need to eat 6-8 times a day. Newborns will start with a daily consumption of about 16-24 ounces, with about 1 ounce per serving for the first week, and 2-3 ounces per serving after the first week of life.
   • If the baby does not feed enough during the day, waking her at night to feed may be necessary if she is underweight.
   • Maintain close contact with your doctor so she can monitor your baby and advise on the action you should take.
2. Provide more food less frequently after four months. By the time your baby has reached around four months, she will begin to cut back on the number of times she feeds each day. If you are breastfeeding, she may now feed 4-6 times a day, rather than 8-12. The amount of milk she consumes at each meal will, however, increase.
   • If you are using formula the number of feedings will also decrease as she gets older. To adjust to this, the amount of formula you provide for each meal will go up to around 6-8 ounces.
   • By the time the baby is 4-6 months old, she should be consuming around 28-45 ounces of formula a day, and you can begin the transition to solid food.
3. Recognise the signs to introduce solids. When your baby is around 4-6 months old you will be preparing to start transitioning her to solid foods. You need to take care and not try to rush this change. If your baby is not physically able to deal with solid foods, there is a risk that she could choke. There are a number of milestones in her development that may indicate she is ready to solids:
   • Her weight has doubled since she was born.
   • She has good control of her head and neck.
   • She can sit up with a bit of support.
   • She doesn't keep pushing the spoon or food out with her tongue.
   • She can indicate to you that she is full by not opening her mouth, or turning her head away from food.
   • She is beginning to show interest in food when she sees that other people are eating.
4. Introduce solid foods. When you begin to introduce solids into her diet, use a iron-fortified baby rice cereal, which you have mixed with breast milk or formula. Make sure it is mixed to a thin consistency in the early stages. As she becomes more adept with solids you can use a thicker consistency.
   • To start with, mix one or two teaspoons with the breast milk or formula. Offer this as a serving twice a day.
   • Gradually increase the amount of cereal you mix in to 3 or 4 tablespoons, once or twice a day.
   • Once she is eating cereal regularly and routinely you can try bringing in other instant cereals, such as oats, wheat, or barley.
   • Carefully control the new cereals and don't introduce more than one new cereal every 3-4 days. With each new one watch for intolerances and allergies.
   • There is some disagreement amongst experts about in what order to introduce new foods. Experts do agree that you should introduce your baby to a wide variety of new foods, but there is no scientific consensus about in what order they need to be introduced. Some people begin with fruits or vegetables, while some even start with meats. Talk to your pediatrician if you are thinking about trying a different order of starting foods.
5. Bring in strained fruit and vegetables. When your baby is around 6-8 months old and has successfully mastered a variety of cereals, you can begin to introduce more variation to her diet with strained fruits and vegetables. As with the cereals, introduce them one at a time and wait a few days before adding another food so you can check for allergies or intolerances.
   • It's best to start with plain vegetables, such as peas, potatoes, squash, and carrots. For fruits, you can start with banana, apricots, apple sauce, and pears.
   • You might want to start with vegetables first, as some people believe that the sweetness of fruits might make the vegetables less appealing.
   • Offer 3-4 servings a day of {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of vegetables and fruits. Depending on the child, the total amount she might consume per day can vary from {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} all the way to 2 cups.
   • Although her consumption of breast milk or formula will be falling, you should continue to offer it 3-5 times a day.
6. Move on to meat. When your baby is around 6-8 months old, she will be eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and will be ready for some strained or finely chopped meat. If you have been breastfeeding your baby, 6-8 months is the appropriate age to introduce meat. Breast milk is not a rich source of iron, and by 6-8 months her iron stores will need replenishing.
   • You should continue to offer breast milk or formula 3-4 times a day. Your baby should, however, be off the bottle by 1 year old. Any bottle you use after 1 year should just contain water.
   • Introduce meats one at a time, and allow a full week before you offer a new meat. Offer the meat in {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} servings.
   • Increase the serving size of fruits and vegetables to {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}, four times each day.
   • You can also feed her cooked egg yolk (not white), 3 or 4 times a week.

Warnings

• Call your pediatrician if you are concerned that a lack of appetite is harming your baby's health.
• Call your pediatrician right away if your baby's appetite has changed dramatically, she seems to be losing weight, or she is frequently gagging or vomiting with food.
• Do not give honey, nuts, cow's milk, shellfish, or egg whites to a baby under 1 year old.

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Sources and Citations

See also

• Use Leftover Baby Food
• Make Baby Finger Foods
• Reduce Toddler Food Throwing Messes
• Mix Baby Cereal
• Feed a Baby or Infant Solid Food
• Make Healthy Baby Food
• Formula Feed a Premature Baby
• Burp a Newborn
• Store Baby Food
• Wean Your Baby off the Bottle

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• Choose the Best Cereal for Your Baby