8 month old not eating any solids...?

[cgriffin]

My son is 8.5 months old and is currently only eating formula. At 6 months old the doctor told me to start baby food which I did and he was all about it for a few weeks. Soon after he got a stomach flu and I stopped all food due to his upset stomach and tried it again when he was feeling better.
He now wants nothing to do with it and gags and spits it out every time I try and sometimes it ends up making him throw up. I will be going to the doctor soon but I wanted to get some other moms opinions first...since I BF'd my daughter exclusively I don't have any experience in this area. I know that my doctor is very pushy with starting solids but I know its ok to BF exclusively to a year so does that go for formula feeding too or is there a difference that would make starting solids more necessary with formula feeding??
I know this post is a bit all over the place but I am having trouble getting my thoughts down....
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me!!

[boilermaker]

Regardless of whether you are FF or BF, it should remain the primary source of their nutrition up to 12m or so. Solids, even at 8 months, is more for learning and experiencing. My DD is just now getting to the point where she will eat meals (purees) on a consistent basis and still doesn't show much interest in finger foods other than cheerios. She's 10m.

I would continue to offer it to him, even if you move to finger foods. If he wants to eat it, he will. If not, the formula is plenty. Good luck.

[cgriffin]

thanks alot boilermaker! Thats pretty much what I was thinking but like I said since my ped is a little overboard on the solids I wanted some other thoughts on it to strengthen my gut feeling before I talked to her.

[Pine Tree]

My dd is 8 months (bf) and barely eats any solids. We offer them twice a day now, but really just for the experience not for nutrition. I don't want food to be a battle so we just offer different purees and if she's not interested no big deal. She might eat a few spoonfuls but that's it. This wouldn't change if she was on formula, I can't make her eat! It would be nice if she would eat more cereal for the iron (not an issue for you since your son is on formula), but whatever. I don't know of any kindergartners who refuse solids - our babies will eat when they're ready.

[basketcase]

Oh good, I'm glad to see this thread. My DD just turned 9 months and she isn't too keen on solids either. I can usually get her to eat 3-4 cubes of fruit a day, but that's it. She generally hates cereal and veggies. Solids are definitely not anything that fills her up.

Lately she seems hungrier though, so I'm trying to add more BFing sessions to her day. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish what's actual hunger and what's just crazy teething!

[Marisa]

DS wouldn't eat almost anything until he could pick it up himself, so that meant very little in the way of solids until at least 8-9 mos, and then nothing you could call a proper "meal" until much closer to a year. He would eat cubed veggies, cheerios, cheese, things like that, but really despised the purees.