Starting Solids - Tongue Thrust Reflex?

[sweetptater]

DD is almost 6 months old. For the last month she's been extremely interested in what we're eating and trying to grab it off our plates, so we took the plunge and decided to try some solids with her over the holidays. In short, she's not good at them. She doesn't open her mouth at all and instead pushes her tongue out over and over the entire time we're trying to put the spoon in her mouth. When I actually do manage to get some food in there, she pushes is all out.

I don't know whether to keep practicing solids with her or wait for a few more weeks. Is the tongue thrust reflex something that can be overcome with practice, or does she just need to outgrow it?

[Deleted]

I'd wait a week and try again.

Also, baby-led weaning is awesome. If she's trying to grab food, she might prefer to feed herself.

[sweetptater]

The only way to get the spoon in her mouth is to hand it to her, so you may be on to something. But even then she pushes it all back out. We did a mix of purees and BLW with DS and it worked well.

[gibbinator]

Ds has only had purees for this reason. We also started solids around 5. 5 months because he was so interested but a lot came out. Really it's only in the last few days (at 7 months) that I've noticed the tongue thrust reflex is gone.

We really didn't (and still dont) worry too much about how much he was eating. It was good spoon practice and has been one of his favorite daily activities. He loves sitting at the table with us and licking his spoon and bowl. "food for fun under one" as they say.

[cinco]

Jan 3, 2013 9:23:10 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

I'd wait a week and try again.

Also, baby-led weaning is awesome. If she's trying to grab food, she might prefer to feed herself.

My youngest has had this issue, and it just took time. Baby led weaning worked perfect for her, and she has always refused to be fed solids. She wants to do it herself. I used puree's with the first two, but think baby led weaning worked so much better for this little one. She still will only do finger foods (ie not using a spoon), but it is progress.