9 Month Old Doesnt Want Baby Food

My youngest wouldn't touch baby food ever. I often just gave her canned veggies (low sodium kind) and diced fruit- she liked to feed herself. I would give her whatever we were eating too, as long as it wasn't really spicy. I never ground it up because she preferred eating with her hands for the most part. I'm always amazed at what babies can gum or chew with just a few teeth. :-) Good luck!

My daughter is the same age and the same way. I just give her little bits of what we are eating as long as it is soft. She likes to pick it up herself and feed herself. She also does not have many teeth but she does great at gumming up things. I would not worry about it. Just give him bits of food that are soft.

My daughter was the same way. She would NOT eat baby food. The only thing she ate was things she could feed herself. She went straight to table foods. At nine months, make sure what you are eating is not going to cause choking...but other than that, I would say go for it and let him eat what he wants!

I guess don'ts are anything hard (carrots, nuts, etc) and anything with too much salt/sugar. There are lots of pre-packaged finger foods from gerber graduates.

We don't buy baby food from the store. We mash up what we are eating and give that to our babies. Have you tried baby food? LOL It's nasty. You can steam fruit/vegies and give those to him also. They are softer, easier digested, and more easily handled by the baby. Make sure that if you give grapes, you cut them up small enough (quartered or so) so that they don't choke him. And, if you give fruit, don't do too many at once or it can cause diahrea.

Have you tried the Gerber Puffs, or other toddler finger foods?

Some of your food you should be able to mash up really well and let him have some. My daughter is 4 & I can't remember specific things I fed her at that age... lol

My son never ate baby food. We mostly just gave him fruits and veggies off our plates. We just cut it up into cheerio sized pieces. You can go to wholesome baby food and they have great charts for what to feed babies at certain ages. Here's the chart for your son's age:

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solidfood8to10montholdba...

One thing that is really awesome is the Gerber Graduates.
They have these lil Puffed cereal things that literally melt in your mouth.
these
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/187-###-###-####-###...

My son LOVED those when he was starting on solid food.
He didn't really like the idea of baby food either.

Double ditto, Tonya :) Not only is it NASTY, it's also incredibly expensive. Let him eat what you're eating, just mash it up, or get a baby food grinder or a blender works well too.

My pediatrician said you can take babies off baby food at 8-9 months and just let them eat everything you eat in small bites.

That is the way my daughter was..... she loved cheerios, the gerber graduates - mini weenies, cubed carrots, peas .... she just went crazy for them.
We just made sure that when we were eating something we gave her the same but in gerber graduates form.
If they did not have what we were having we made it work.
Meatloaf and mash potatoes are a great one for them as they crumble.
There is so much out there that they can eat... mac and cheese, spaghetti with the noodles cut up into smaller pieces.... bananas.....

Just take things one step at a time and make it an experiment.

Just chop it up really really small and give it to him in little tablespoon size portions. You can do hard boiled eggs, peas, cooked carrots, scrambled eggs, cooked meat, bread, cooked sweet potato and regular potato. Really, anything that you are going to eat. I wouldn't want to eat baby food, either!

A 9 month old won't need to eat baby food. My youngest went from breastmilk to table food around 8 months. I was shocked at some of the things she could chew with no teeth. Just cut up really small pieces, and he'll be fine.

My daughter was the same way. I loved it at the time. It was great! :o) Now that she is older, we are dealing with more "sensory issues" It was because she did not like the feel of the spoon on her tongue. She was what is called Orally defensive. The best advise I ever received was from an amazing OT... help her explore orally thing... different textures... I would recommend the same for you. I hope this helps. <3 good luck!

Lots of babies don't want that nasty baby food. Buy a baby food grinder and grind everything you eat, even at restaurants.

My son never liked baby food or cereal so we had trouble the first 2 months until I finally gave in. Anything soft and mushy really- my son ate the Gerber meat sticks (I usually peeled the nasty skins off) and the Graduates raviolis and chicken & stars (although I usually only gave him those if we were on the go). Otherwise he got soft fruit- bananas, applesauce; steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, peas; lunch meat turkey & chicken (oven roasted, not smoked or cured); ground beef; shredded chicken; bread; mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. We just started giving him what we were eating cut up into tiny bite size pieces- he ate steak at about 10 months old and loved it!
If you look up baby-led weaning you will find lots of ideas on how to feed your child without typical baby food. Honestly, I thought this idea was crazy until my son decided he wouldn't eat baby food and I had to find an alternative.
My pediatrician said his gums were incredibly strong and as long as he was eating solids it was okay.

Ditto Tonya, we never used commercial baby foods either, just steamed and mashed fruits and veggies, and table foods by 9mos. The Gerber foods are very bland, and not very nutritious, and the Graduates/older child/toddler meals are very high in sodium and are full of preservatives, don't bother with them. Give him what you are eating in small bits.

if your baby is tolerating solids and wants to eat them, it is just fine for them to eat what you eat! You will want to take precautions with certain things like meats and proteins, be sure and cut it up into pea size bites and limit the amount he is getting of those until you see how his body processes them, simply because some proteins are harder for young digestive systems to break down and can cause some tummy upset and/or constipation. Other things like vegetables you may eat, keep a few in the pot for him and cook them a little longer so they are softer and easier for him to mash up in his mouth. Be aware that some things may be a little too spicy for him so maybe set a small portion for him aside before you add the spice or seasoning that you would for yourself and your husband. As with the meats just make sure everything is cut into pea size bites and as long as his body is tolerating it is should be just fine! With mine I kept a food diary for them for a while so that if they had some kind of tummy issue or reaction that may be food related it was easier to deduce what food may be causing the trouble! If you think about it, way back in the day, baby food did not exist, so parents had to feed their kids regular unprocessed foods and those people (probably now your grandparents) turned out just fine!

Hi proud mama, at 9 months you can put the foods you eat in the magic bullet or chop everything up real small, and mix it with mashed potatoes, i did that with my kids and I do that with my daycare children, green beans, cooked carrots, squash, sweet potatoes are all soft and can ve mixed with other foods. For finger foods, any of the gerber puffs, or cherrios, are safe for a 9 month old, I mean you still want to monitor him while he's feeding himself cause the have a tendecy to put to much in their mouths. Hope this helps. J.

My daughter was like that. We kept feeding her formula for a long time until she started finger feeding. My pediatrician said kids who don't like baby food are usually great at finger feeding. That was true with my daughter who would eat 1 and 1/2 Italian sausages in one sitting at 16 mo. old. I tried to get her started on finger food as soon as I could and kept her on formula a little longer.

Here's a good link and guideline on feeding solids per age:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-y...

This is a good website.

good luck,
Susan

My daugher went straight from breast milk to table foods at 6 months. She had 8 teeth then, and it must have been the texture of the mushy baby food. That stuff is gross! I wasted jar after jar and she always spit it out. My pedi said just cut everything up about the size of your pinky nail and it should be fine. But I didn't get her anything fried or unhealthy since their tastebuds get a taste for those no-nos too easily.