Meals Ideas

Have you tried freeze dried fruit? Gerber makes some freeze dried fruit cubes (very small) and you can also buy freeze dried apple and banana slices at the grocery store, Trader Joes, and Costco. They are a little pricey, but they dissolve almost instantly when they hit the tongue. They may be a little easier for him to eat. Also try cheerios and/or the veggie and fruit puffs from Gerber (or the store brand). Fruit chunks may just be a too big of a transition right now.

He's probably getting close to ready for table foods. We started my little girl on table food at about 10 months. Try frozen peas or carrots (thawed of course)... small peices of bread or cheese... cottage cheese if he'll take it (my daughter doesn't seem to like the texture), small banana chunks, or avacado chunks, soft pears (I give her canned pears)... apples are great too, but remove peels from fruits to reduce gagging.

Cut everything into pieces no bigger than cheerios or peas. They should also be soft/cooked enough that you can easily smush them in your fingers. When my daughter was there, most of the gagging was casued by fruit peels or too big of peices. Their teeth are still pretty useless at this stage.

As far as finger foods goes, try Gerber yogurt bites. They's a little pricy, but my daugher loves them. Its freeze dried yogurt. She also really like the puffs as a first finger food.

Keep trying on the finger foods... keep offering them and eventually he'll get it. It could just be a texture thing for now... generally babies at that age refuse things based on texture more than on taste. Good luck!

Hi M.

Cottage cheese was a huge one for my little one. Just get the small curd variety. Also, what about "big people" oatmeal but watered down a bit more than usual. Sounds like you're trying to get more substantial foods in him so he's no so hungry all the time. Sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes were a favorite, but just keep in mind they have to be more watery for this age. Like maybe the Idaho boxed potatoes with a bit more milk in the mix.

Hope this helps. I know how you feel as I am the Mom of a daughter who had acid reflux and still, at 2 1/2 doesn't like bananas. As of only about 6 months ago she started on pasta. It was a challenge to try to feed her every day.

Good luck!

Will he eat little bits of pancake (without syrup)? When my kids were little, they loved the bits of pancake. I made my own baby food. I saved some of the mashed bits of veggies or fruit and put it in pancake batter and cooked them up. My second son has always been very picky, but loved little pieces of pea pancakes or squash pancakes. That way I also knew he was getting protein and carbs and fruit or veggies in one snack setting!

I had the same "problem", my Ped Doc told me though that variety is only important for MY palate. It's doesn't matter as much for them as it seems to for us.
Good job mommin'!

Hi M.,
He probably just has some texture issues. Don't worry too much about it. Just keep trying. Meanwhile (I know it is a ton of work BUT) on the weekends make your own babyfood with slightly thicker textures each week. For example is he eats carrots, cook a couple pounds of carrots (steam in the microwave with water until really soft) then mash and add water till he'll eat them. You can slowly make them thicker and thicker OR add cereal directly to the food. To save the food you can freeze it in an ice cube tray (once they are frozen put them in a ziplock bag). I know it is a ton of work, but eventually using this method my daughter would eat the steamed food cut in small pieces and then regular food. Oh, if you can find some healthy frozen waffles (Trader Joes has some--But there isn't one in CO yet), microwave them and cut them up.

Hang in there!
R.

Rochelle's post sounds right to me -it sounds like he has texture issue. My son had the same thing, only when he gagged everything came up with it (he's a preemie though, so I expected some texture issues with him). The doctors and therapists agreed that his body is probably just not ready for textures in his food. Here is what they suggested doing to try to help him along (and it seemed to work well!)

Find a cracker, baby poofs or graham cracker that he likes, and mash it into a fine powder. Place a little baby food on your spoon, then sprinkle the fine powder on top. Finally put more of the baby food on top of the powder. You have to make sure the cracker powder is covered up - if it hits his mouth, he'll gag. Give it a try! It only took a few weeks for it to start helping with our son.
Good luck!

Try scrambled eggs and cheese, diced up grilled cheese sandwiches and even diced up cheese pizza. My son at this age totally gave up baby food and I just fed him whatever we ate at meals. I got him instant oatmeal as he wouldn't eat baby oatmeal and he LOVED the apple cinnamon flavor. Both of my kids loved frozen peas, it was fun for them to try and pick up and it melted pretty much when it got into their mouth.

Your son will get over the texture issue, if he is eating crackers or cookies it may be he likes stuff that dissolves in his mouth. Try even putting mac n cheese on his highchair tray (messy but good). Just continue exposure and sit and eat with him. That will really help him not be so picky and realize meals are important part of being in the family too, sit and give him bites of whatever you are eating and talk to him while you eat!

My second child is also 10 months. We had some feeding issues with our first child and had to see a feeding therapist. She helped us with introducing foods according to age and developmental ability. One thing I remember from her (being as it was 2 years ago) was that she told us never to use stage 3 foods. She said that the way they are made causes the baby to choke. She said that babies learn to suck down purees by placing them on the middle of their tonge and sucking just like a bottle. The other solids, those that require chewing, they need to learn to move them to the side of the mouth so that they don't choke. She says that stage 3 has puree and chucks of food so they suck but the chucks cause them to choke. I think what she recommended for teaching a child to move foods to the side of their mouth would be things like celery sticks, Graham cracker sticks, carrot sticks etc That way they hold it and automatically move it over to the side of their mouth. these weren't necessarily foods that they would 'eat'. Also, she recommended giving mushable foods that if you put it in your mouth and pushed it up to the roof of your mouth with your tongue something that would be swallowable after a few mushes... Don't know if this helps but just thought I would pass along what I had learned.

When my now 14 month old started eating real people food I blended it (okay I still do cause he only has 2 teeth) Spaghetti, tortellini and fettuccini are a few of his faves that I blend in our little mini blender or sometimes I just use the Pampered Chef Chopper that way it is not chunks of food but it get them use to the thicker foods. he now eats Mac & cheese and grilled cheese and kinda just chews with his gums. Hope this helps.

Hi M. - I have a 10 month old boy too :-) I make my own babyfood and have just gradually made it chunkier. We do fruit mixed with cereal for breakfast and then at lunch i give him mashed fruits and vegies like mango, avocado, papaya, banana, steamed carrots or sweet potato and i try feeding him with my fingers so he gets used to the lumps - he loves cottage cheese which he will now pick up the little lumps in his fingers. We get the gag reflex too if something is too lumpy or i've noticed if it is a little dry - like egg yolk. scrambled egg yolk is a good soft finget food too. Then we do vegies mixed with yogurt for dinner.
Hope that helps!

As soon as my daughter "decided" she was done with stage 2 food, I started giving her pretty much whatever I ate within reason. If I was having spaghetti, so was she. She loved it (also loved rubbing it all over her highchair tray). I would give her small chunks of bread, chunks of fresh fruit (apples, bananas, peaches). If we went out somewhere and I had squash, she had fresh squash as well. He'll definately let you know if there is something that he doesn't like, but just because he doesn't like it now, doesn't mean he won't later. Just keep trying to introduce new things at meal time. When your family sits down to eat, feed him whatever you are having. I also gave my daughter the vienna sausages.