diff --git a/src/objective-c/GRPCClient/private/GRPCHost.m b/src/objective-c/GRPCClient/private/GRPCHost.m
index b06c90db1e4c8b30d40c9a0d57732ccd4b87895e..f8634b448e9d9ada50c4bb37fde26a90d16489ad 100644
--- a/src/objective-c/GRPCClient/private/GRPCHost.m
+++ b/src/objective-c/GRPCClient/private/GRPCHost.m
@@ -219,8 +219,8 @@ static NSMutableDictionary *kHostCache;
   if (_responseSizeLimitOverride) {
     args[@GRPC_ARG_MAX_RECEIVE_MESSAGE_LENGTH] = _responseSizeLimitOverride;
   }
-  NSNumber *initialBackoff = [NSNumber numberWithInt:10000];
-  args[@GRPC_ARG_INITIAL_RECONNECT_BACKOFF_MS] = initialBackoff;
+  // Use 10000ms initial backoff time for correct behavior on bad/slow networks  
+  args[@GRPC_ARG_INITIAL_RECONNECT_BACKOFF_MS] = @10000;
   return args;
 }