9-Month-old Eating Only Table Food

When my daughter started not wanting the baby cereal anymore, I put a dash of cinnamin in it, and then she loved it. Just thought I would share that incase you wanted to keep her on it a little longer.

Sounds like she has a great appetite and eats a variety of food! Be glad you don't have to shell-out for that expensive jarred baby food anymore! If she's more interested in table food and her digestive system is handling it... let it roll!

By 9 months my youngest son (who will be 1 next month) wasn't eating anything but table food and drinking formula. At his 9 month well check him ped. told me that that was fine (he said it was great actually). Cereal and baby are practice foods to learn how to use gums/teeth, the jaw and how to swallow. As long as she's still drinking formula or breastmilk then she's really getting everything she needs and the table food is just a filler.

Hi J.,
It sounds like she is eating a lot of good finger foods! The baby cereal has the added iron, which is important, but if she won't eat it, you could give her a vitamin. If she is having formula I think that they have added iron as well. My 100% breastfed boy ate very little cereal, but his iron levels tested fine at 1 year. I found he liked the oatmeal or whole grain blend better than plain rice cereal, and I mixed it with applesauce.

A good resource for finger foods is the "Super Baby Food" book by Ruth Yaron (I think that's her name). Anyway, she has a ton of recipes. There are also a lot of websites out there with info on finger foods as well.

Good luck!
J.

If it makes you feel any better my 9 month old is also almost exclusivley on table foods as well. He only gets some cereal in the morning and that is the oatmeal not the rice. I mix 3 tablespoons of it in with about 4-5 oz applesauce and it almost dissapears. I would reccomend trying that.
Although there are some benefits to the cereal at this age, she is still getting a lot of her nutrition from her formula/milk. I would say if she really doesn't want it, and wont take it anyway you offer it, don't stress about it.
As for regular foods I will make a few reccomendations, my son eats anything so I havn't had much trouble with this part of things. My son loves yogart-flavored or otherwise ( another good place to hide cereal), He likes wheat/whole grain rice with some cheese melted over it, he also enjoys stuffing. That covers the grains/starches. You sounds like you have the fruits and veggies covered pretty well. For meats I offer him chicken, turkey on a regular basis but he has also had ham, and beef.
Amounts are largely determined by the child. They are normally pretty good at stopping when they are full, sometimes that is more or less then we think they should eat. Obviously if the amount is excessive, you are allowed to say, your done. :) For fruits and veggies i try to keep in mind how much i would be offering him if it were baby veggies, and trying to get about the same amount into him. (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt) For meats, i normally do a few oz, he doesn't normally eat a lot of meat.
I hope this helps!

My boys never ate jarred baby food. ITs processed, then jarred, so no, its not the 'best' food for baby at all. We made all our baby food homemade, they started solids at 6 months, and by 9 months both were on just table foods, and breastmilk of course.

If she's happy eating finger foods, nad it sounds liek shes eating a nice well balanced diet, just go with it. Offer her lots of fruits, veggies, and diced up meats, and stick to healthy foods, she'll be just fine.

www.wholesomebabyfood.com is a great resource for babies and toddlers, recipe's, etc. But again, baby food that is jarred and from the store is NOT necessary, nor is it the best food because it is processed and then preserved. Homemade is the best. If she digs applesauce, make her some homemade, then mix some of the baby cereal into it so she gets iron. If you are nursing, she's better able to digest all the iron she's getting from solids, and from your milk. If you are formula feeding, she will get some iron from formula.

Hi J.!
A nine month eating only table food is actually a good thing as long as it is healthy and nutritous which it sounds like it is. If you think about it, baby food is really only mashed up foods conveniently cooked and packaged. I think you are talking about the infant fortified baby cereal that you aren't able to get your baby to eat. It contains essential iron however, your baby will be getting iron from her formula too. If you are breastfeeding, then I would check with the Dr. and see if you can get her iron level checked to make sure it is appropriate. WIC also does this. I do believe I have heard of iron drops to be added to babies food or bottles if your child is found to be deficient. Self feeding is a natural part of a babies growth and independence. Celebrate the fact that your little one is taking the step to self feeding. It is also good to encourage this because I have seen little ones that are old enough to be feeding themself but have not been encouraged to do so. This particular child wouldn't even attempt to pick up her own food so that created a different issue. That would be taking away from a child's self esteem by not allowing them to do things for themselves. I mix the Infant Fortified Cereal with soft pears or peaches or mash up some bananas so at least my 12 month old is getting some each day. All you can do is keep offering her a variety of foods. A child needs to be offered a food at least 8 times before they may develop a preference for it. Remember too that babies and children have more taste buds on their tongue then adults so things taste stronger to them. Hope this helps. Good Luck~

Hi J.

Your baby girl is doing great! It's an important step to want to become independent and she sounds like she's getting great nutrition! Her main source of nutrition still comes from her formula/breast milk, so don't worry what kind of food she is eating at the table (as long as it's healthy). It's all really just for learning experiences and taste. Don't stress yourself, you and baby are doing awesome! As far as other food options, with my son, anything went. I worked at the daycare he went to and I was amazed at what the babies ate. He ate everything from ground beef in tomato sauce to watermelon. I think that aas long as your baby is doing well with "chewing" and not gagging a lot on her food (and you're comfortable with it), start letting her experiment with all kinds of food. Just remember to keep the salt and spice content low. My son is now 2 and eats everything. I think it's helped him become a well-rounded eater. Good luck in whatever you choose is best for you! Happy Eating!

Dear J.,
I have a nine-month-old girl also. She's my fifth child. (They're so fun aren't they?)
It sounds to me like you're doing a GREAT job of feeding your baby. Skip the baby cereal. Grains are very difficult for babies to digest because we humans have relatively short digestive tracts and babies lack the enzymes necessary to properly digest the grains -- specifically they lack amylase. I would suggest that you maybe add organic raw (to preserve the enzymes) or hardboiled (if raw egg makes you nervous or queasy) egg yolk (NOT egg whites until 1 year) to give her cholesterol that she needs. Also don't skimp on saturated fats like butter or in avocado. She needs those too.

Nutritionally and calorically (is that a word?) a baby can do fine on breastmilk alone until 12 months. So don't sweat it too much. ;)
A.

With my second, I put food on a tray and let him eat it. He never had anything with a spoon, and he is a great eater, just like your daughter. I think cereal is a myth. My kids never had any. I think the cereal myth is because of the fear that kids don't get enough iron.

Sounds like you are both doing great! Let her go!

She will let you know when shes full and stop eating the table food. The cereal is good for them but as long as she getting the right nutrients she should be just fine. Also the more you push it the less she will want it. You could also try giving her some vitimin drops you can get them at walmart.

I am having the same problem with my 10 month old. He just had his check up last week and I found out that his Iron was low, so the clinic reccomended that we get poly-vitamin drops with iron. They are over the counter and only cost around 3 bucks. It does not smell very good at all, but it will take care of all of the nutrients that she is missing from the cereal.

When it comes to foods, my boy is hit or miss everyday. Some days he likes green beans, somedays he will not touch them. He also was not eating very well at meal times, so we cut out the grazing that we had gotten him into down to maybe one or two small snacks all day. We also make sure that he does not constantly have a juice bottle around. It worked great today, and he ate a very big dinner.

Hope this helps you. good luck!
C.

It is totally appropriate that she is eating table foods. My son was eating predominantly table foods by that age as well. As soon as a child shows interest and is able to handle the texture, then that is the way you should go. There is nothing magic about baby cereal and in truth many nutritionists don't even feel it is a best first food for babies.

Whenever I had questions about what to feed my youngest son, I always turned to KellyMom.com - there were great ideas, particularly on portion sizes. The bigger question is whether you're formula or breastfeeding? My understanding is that the philosophies on solids are different between the two, and I'll be perfectly honest I know more about breastfeeding than formula feeding. I won't go into the differences without knowing which route you've chosen, however - because I do respect the choice you've made :).

As far as cereal - that's a personal call. My older two children didn't tolerate cereal all that well, and breastfed babies don't particularly *need* cereal. So with my third, I bypassed it entirely.

I'm having the exact same problem with my almost 8mo old!!! She actually gags on baby food (both jar, cereal and combo of both) and absolutely refuses it. She's also tiring of the bottle. I recently introduced her to table food (those gerber puff things, cut up banana, canned oranges, frozen veggies) as an option because she just wasn't eating and now she really refuses baby food. This is baby #3 for me, and none of my other kids were like this. I'm curious about suggestions, ideas, info as well!! Thanks for bringing this issue to light, and hope you get some good help/info!

Cereal is never actually an important part of their diet, just easier to digest. The fruits and veggies are just fine. Try to make them organic, and make sure she can safely swallow them.

I am a nurse and also the mother a three children. None of my children ate baby food for more than 1-2 months before they went strickly to table food. All of them are within the 50th percentile for ht/wt and intelligent. Children have to learn how to identify when they are full so let her deciede when she has had enough to eat. Breastfed babies are better at this than bottle fed ones.

I see absolutely no problem with what your daughter is doing as long as she still drinks an adequate amount of formula or breastmilk she's perfectly fine.

I was told by my doctor that all they NEED in the first year is formula or breastmilk they donot NEED anything else but if they choose to eat other things that's perfectly fine.

Feed her at typical meal times and just give her what she wants babies know when they're hungry or full and don't typically over eat. As long as she doesn't give up her milk she's fine.

I have three kids and what I did was as they wanted more table foods; I gave it to them. My kids also got teeth pretty early which helped with the chewing. I don't know that you need to worry too much about rice cereal and the nutritional benefits. If you are real concerened you can always talk to your dr. but I would recommend putzing around on some formula websites and some other baby websites they can usually give more information. There little tummies are about the size of their fists, so the don't need a lot of food for it to be considered a serving size. Does that make sense? I hope it was at least a little helpful. Honestly I don't think there is an exact science to the switch over of baby food to table food.

J.,
Once children express preferences really strongly in an area they are going to go anyway ( feeding themselves and table food), it's not really worth it to fight. As long as you are feeding high quality (nutrient dense) table food, she'll be fine. If you are concerned about her still getting the iron from cereal (that's the most important part of it), you can sprinkle the dry food over what she eats, or mix it in while preparing her food. As a family child care provider, I work really hard in the area of nutrition and I've seen the eating habits of many, many children. The healthiest ones are fed a wide variety of quality foods (not just "kid food") and the parents are calm and confident in what they are offering - they don't stress or fuss over their child's food - the child will develop normal, healthy eating habits. Also, children need about one tablespoon of food per year of age at each meal (as a minimum), so don't panic if she doesn't seem to eat much. It's amazing what they can get by on, but if they are always and only offered good food, they will eat it. IMHO, we Americans eat WAY too much and we offer our children too big portions, so that's what they get used to eating!
Good luck!
K.