When Lydia was six months old, I started feeding her babyfood. We skipped the processed cereal and went straight to sweet potatoes. She ate every bite with minimal mess and loved it.
We went on the cruise and were moving when Asa was six months old, so I started a little later with him. His first food was avocados. He did not likey. He is now almost nine months old and he has yet to finish even one ounce of baby food. I’ve tried squash, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, cereal, carrots, blueberries, pears and even cherries. He spits it straight out. And adds a grotesque face to match. And usually gags to add a little oomph to it.
I finally let him gnaw on a carrot yesterday and am pretty sure he may have gotten a half of a sliver of it down his throat. But seriously, what am I supposed to do? I’m thinking of just skipping the purreed baby food now. But what are some good finger foods? What’s something he won’t break off and choke on? Any advice for a baby that doesn’t want to eat?
After my breastfeeding difficulties are you believing this is happening to me?!!
I’m not home so I can’t look at Maggie’s journal/calendar – yes I still have it, but I’m thinking we were doing cheerios by 4 months so we would have been doing small bites of other stuff by 9 months. I’m pretty confident I remember taking a picture of her eating a chic-fil-a meal not long after her first birthday. So, all that said, start chopping up what you’re eating as long as it’s soft. There are also those net things that you can put food in and they can chew on it, but not get big chunks out of it.
I’m going to go home and check the journal, but that’s what I’ve got for now. 🙂
Libbie will eat purees–and does at daycare, but at home, she mostly eats finger foods. Easier for us, more fun for her. I don’t really worry about her eating too much of it because she doesn’t really need the nutrients until 9-12 months, according to pedi.
She eats cantaloupe, watermelon, peeled apple slices, steamed broccoli and carrots, peaches. Cut into sort of french-fry sized shapes so she can pick them up is easiest.
I’ve found this Web site very helpful. Check out their information on baby-led weaning.
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
I’m interested in the info you get. Megan has been fine w/jar baby food but now I’m trying to switch over to solids & she sounds like what Asa’s doing with the jar food. Cantalope, yummy mashed potatoes … even the puff & cheerios – wants nothing to do with them. Evan was all for it. I know he was eating green beans at her age. But I’m just ready for her to try something else. The only jar food she likes is pears, applesauce, squash & sweet potatoes – sounds like a good variety huh? Oh – and bananas are making her spit up, every time.
Sorry … this was a post about Asa & I turned my comment all into Megan!!!
I think you may be on the right track with going on to finger foods. It may be the texture of the puree. How is he on teeth? My guys got teeth early and therefore we were able to do a lot of finger foods earlier with them. Both of them were pretty much self feeding by the time they were about a year old anyways.
I say skip the pureed food if you can. It was one of my least favorite times of babyhood.
Good luck
Olivia thinks she is a big person, NOT a baby. She’ll tolerate baby food but she really prefers ‘big’ food. Boiled egg yolk is her fav. Then bananas, but they can’t be pureed they have to be broken off the whole banana. If she won’t eat something I have to take a bite and show her that I am eating it too. Not very nutritious, but she love the gerber puffs.And finally yogurt. She LOVES yogurt.
Bug is eating banana chunks, watermelon, & strawberries like there’s no tomorrow. About 3 weeks ago, she began refusing to be spoon fed anything. Then, for about a week there, she hated the texture of EVERYTHING I gave her to put in her mouth herself. Now, she’s cruising along with just about everything we eat (finely chopped, of course). Of course she’d starve if it were not for cheerios & those little freeze-dried apple cubes (I prefer the Parent’s Choice brand to the Gerber). I’ve been wanting to try those Jumbo Rice Krispies w/ her too (but I’m waiting for a coupon!)
This is my first time reading your site. I linked over. Anyways, sorry that you’re having trouble feeding the little guy. I currently have 3 kiddos. My youngest is 2 1/2. Here’s my suggestions. #1: Don’t stress! When he gets hungry enough, Lord willing, he’ll eat. #2: When my boys were first eating solids, they wouldn’t have ANYTHING to do with eggs. Now I buy 12-18 a week, because we have some sort of eggs daily. Also, with my youngest, the little rascal could tell if you had hidden a pea in some of his other foods. Regardless of how clever I tried, he always managed to swallow the other food and spit the pea out! There really isn’t anything my kids won’t eat. Seriously, we had brussel sprouts the other night, each of my kids ate them! I say, as long as you don’t FREAK out over food, your kids won’t either. If there is something you don’t care for, don’t let your kids know it! I was raised that way, I “hated” yellow squash, zucchini, and cabbage. Until I was old enough to try them for myself, at a friends house no less, and find out how delightful those foods could be regardless of my mother’s face over the whole situation, lol. So, just keep introducing foods, daily even, and eventually, your child will eat. I would say be careful with the carrot thing, sometimes when I get a wrong piece of carrot in my mouth I feel like I might choke. I’d go with what Kathy said and get one of those mesh holders. Then the choking won’t be an issue. Hope that helps. Have a Blessed Day.
Gosh, he is so darn adorable! Those eyes are simply gorgeous!
None of my kids were very keen on baby food. In fact, after trying for 2 months to get them to eat the mushy stuff, I always just resorted to table foods. For dinner, I always cooked stuff that they could eat (butter beans, green beans, corn kernels (watch the diapers for those), rice, potatoes, fruit, etc. Anything that they could pick up themselves, as my kids have always hated to be fed. Another fun trick…make some chicken and pull most of the meat off a chicken bone. Then let him chew on the bone (make sure there is nothing on there that he can choke on). It will still have a lot of protein and flavor to it, and it is a WONDERFUL teether. 🙂
Have you tried one of those baby mesh bags with a handle on it that you can put food in? They have them at Babies r Us but I can’t remember the name, You can put banana, apple, almost anything in it and the baby sucks/munches on it.
Oops sorry, didn’t realize someone already mentioned it.
You know, at 9 months I wouldn’t be feeding him dairy, citrus, or strawberries because of the allergy potential. Other than that, I’m with H.G. If he gets hungry, he’ll eat, and just because he doesn’t seem to like something once, doesn’t mean he doesn’t like it. My mackerdoodle always gagged and grimaced and spit out the food the first time, but the next meal we would introduce it again and she’d usually be fine.
I would just give him small bites of regular table foods. Bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, those are all soft enough for him to gum. He should also be able to eat peas, cut up cooked carrots, noodles, you could even get a sweet potato and cook it & cut it into small pieces. Don’t give up, though. Emily’s ped, in FL, told us that sometimes you have to offer it several times, before they’ll start liking it.
I always just go to my food, even at 4 months old. I give them my peas and green beans and mashed potatoes right off my plate. They like the texture! Try eating babyfood and see if you don’t gag a little…. or a LOT. LOL Diced cooked carrots are great for finger foods. Frozen peas are GREAT, not just for eating, but for teething, too.
We even did meats that way. We shredded it, but they got OUR meat, not pureed, jarred, nasty stuff.
Oh, and I had one child who was almost completely breastfed for 11 months! It is perfectly safe and healthy to only give breast milk to a child up to a year old.
My four little ones always enjoyed grahmn crackers and wafer cones. They all dissolve. Good luck!!
In addition to agreeing with a bunch of the individual food recommendations above, I might suggest that maybe you consider some mixed purees. Maybe the individual flavors are too intense or something. Go with stuff that hasn’t shown allergic responses if possible — for example, if he likes plain yogurt, mix in some banana or fruit. Or mix veggies, etc. If you’re buying jarred, look for different combos. And if he doesn’t take to them don’t fret about waste — you could just toss the remainder into a pasta sauce or something so you don’t have to just throw it away. 🙂 -Christine
We went through this exact same thing with Shane. John was fine with food. Would take anything pureed and then some. Shane wanted NOTHING to do with pureed homemade baby food (or jars..which I did end up trying). Not sure if it was a texture thing or seeing us eat real food. He has been on solid foods since about 7 months. Even with his food allergies I have found it to be easier, and less time consuming for me. Shane also never had a problem gagging or choking on food-where John did.
I introduced a lot of fruits in the mesh feeder. Then he pretty much had whatever we had as finger foods just cut up into small pieces. Really I can’t think of something (other then peanut butter and honey) that I wouldn’t give him but just make sure its relatively soft and cut up small.
I had the same problem with my youngest. My first two babies ate homemade baby food, and ate pretty much anything I gave them. Then along came the third, who wanted nothing to do with pureed food. I just started giving him table food. He would not eat pureed carrots, but he loved to eat chunks of cooked carrots. Just give him regular food cooked until it is soft, and cut into pieces he can pick up and feed himself. Pieces of carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, graham crackers, bread, etc. My son was eating cheese quesadillas with no teeth at all! He did like yogurt, too. I think it was a texture issue with the baby food. Hope that helps a little.
I saw your post and circled with our resident early childhood expert, Dr. Mary Zurn (www.drzandme.com), here at Primrose Schools and she brought me a book that I think you’ll really enjoy. The book is called “Food Fights: Winning the nutritional challenges of parenthood armed with insight, humor and a bottle of ketchup”. It was published through the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the authors are Laura A. Jana, MD, FAAP and Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP. Laura also happens to be the owner of a Primrose School in Omaha, Nebraska. I think the book is available through the AAP website: http://www.aap.org/bookstore. I hope you find it helpful!
Lots of great advice already. I didn’t see anyone mention about size of finger foods. General rule is if it’s cut to less than 1/2 inch in size, it does not pose a choking hazard. I would steam bite sized bits of carrot and sweet potato for Ladybug, not so they are mushy, but soft enough to mush in the mouth. And Cheerioes are great because of the whole grain.
Keep trying! He’ll get it eventually!