'Why Wont My Almost 1 Year Old Eat Finger Foods?

She's not interested yet. Solids at this age are just for practice, not nutrition, so stop stressing and just keep breastfeeding or giving her formula. None of my kids really liked "baby" food, they went straight to eating table food at around 18 months.

She's not ready. One of mine refused solids until 14 months, then he would eat anything. It's totally normal. Just give her more time.

Those puffs and mashed potatoes would turn into paste with my kids, so I avoided them. They gagged too. I stuck to things like cheerios or whole grain O cereal for finger foods.
A relative of mine is a pediatrics dietician. She says this is more common than you would think. She only needs a session or two to finger out what the problem is and what foods to try first, building up. Sometimes it's a physical thing, but often it's just developmental. Sometimes parents introduce solids a bit too early (before the signs that a baby is ready) and this causes babies to reject food. She hasn't had a case where they haven't been able to help. She works with a paediatrician - to cover all bases.
I would mention it next visit and see if you can arrange a consult.

Please try your good old stage two foods for now. Pureed vegetables contain far more nutrients than empty calorie foods like mashed potatoes and puffs. She may not have the motor coordination in her mouth to chew and swallow foods, even 'soft' ones. The suggested ages on many of these foods are only suggestions; not all kids will be ready for them at the same age. A lot of the stuff that is marketed to parents isn't actually great foods for babies anyway; as I said, there's a lot of empty calorie stuff which kids can easily gag on. All they need right now is fruits and veggies and formula or mother's milk. If they like other things, great, but it's not nutritionally to their advantage to eat puffed anything.

Do check with your pediatrician about this.. some kids really don't like the textures of certain things. If she's gagging it might be the taste, the texture, or some issue with how her tongue is working in the mouth.

My son ate mostly baby food up until about a year and a half. He loved yogurt, pureed stuff-- he just didn't care for chunkier stuff (like pureed lentils and rice or blanched carrots) chunks of banana (super-mashed was fine), bread stuff, or Cheerios... none of that. It took him a while to like more advanced foods, but we took our time and he did when he was ready.

She is either not ready (some kids take longer than others) or she has sensory issues. My son had sensory issues and would gag at all kinds of foods that other friends all fed their one year olds...mashed bananas for example. If she is not ready it will just take more time. I had some friends who breastfed their children till about age 2 and I remember some of them did not eat much solid foods at age 1. I think some kids are ready much quicker than others...just like all people have different personalities...we all have different rates of maturity. If she is like my son and it is sensory issues, she will grow up a picky eater. He is 13 now and eats a pretty good variety but I would call him picky still...he likes plain foods and "meat and potato" simple dinners. Our method was to not make it a big deal and just serve a variety of foods. He had to touch and taste things he didn't like (I'd say preschool age and up) but it took many years for him to like new foods (as in 10 years for some foods even though we served them regularly).

I wouldn't put so much on her plate/tray. Certainly not enough for her to toss on the floor and make a huge mess. Just put a few pieces out at a time.

Try Cheerios (or the generic O cereal) - they dissolve quickly and don't turn to much like mashed potatoes do. Don't overcook the carrots - just put them on the tray in somewhat harder pieces (sort of "al dente") so she can actually control them more in her mouth. Have you tried French toast squares? I made my own with really "holey" bread and a good soy powder protein mix so that a fair amount of nutrition got absorbed into the holes. It's okay if she gnaws on something a little harder that she can hold on to and have more control of. They can "gum" a lot of foods before they have a lot of teeth. How about an oven-friend sweet potato?

It does take a while for them to figure out how to chew and work the food toward the back of the mouth.

We also use a good, high-nutrient product that can be added to milk or water to make up the nutrients kids aren't getting.

If she gets upset, just say, "It's okay, we can try again later" and take her down from the stressful high chair. The more she sees you enjoying food and not stressing out about hers, the sooner she will get through this stage of being so frustrated all the time. Some kids just have issues with textures - mine did. So we kept him on pureed foods longer than most.

My granddaughter gagged on finger foods until she was 15 months. Then one day, she was ready so she ate. Give her time.

Seek help from an occupational therapist who specializes in feeding therapy. My son has been getting feeding therapy for about a year now (he's 2 years and 3 months) and it's helped tremendously.

what does her pedi say?

She will be fine on breast milk or formula for a while. Baby food at this stage is just for variety and texture and not nutrition. She's not ready, so don't push it.

Check with your pediatrician on when this should be a concern if it continues. If she has sensory issues that persist through to the stage where she really should be getting most of her nutrition from real food, your pedi can refer you to early intervention for an evaluation and feeding therapy. But if she's gaggy and has had reflux, she probably is just not ready for the aggravation of solids.

At 5 months of age, a sippy cup is not appropriate. At that age, breast feeding is best, or formula from a bottle. It sounds as though you're rushing her (putting baby puff finger foods on her tray every time she's in the high chair, for example, and giving her mashed potatoes).

She's 11 months old. It takes time to develop the skill of eating. It involves getting those little fingers to grasp a food, then finding that mouth, getting the food in, using the tongue to move the food to the right place, and often there are no teeth (or few teeth) to help). It's a complicated process.

Relax, don't rush her, make sure she's getting the right nutrition. Ask your pediatrician if she's getting enough food, growing in a healthy way, and what foods or formula or breast milk she should be consuming.

What has the ped said? You've discussed it, right?

Some babies have sensory issues with eating that have to be dealt with. Maybe not now, but if things don't improve, you should ask the ped for an evaluation.

Our son use to like gnashing on French fries.
Baked in the oven they weren't greasy.
He'd have to have one in each fist and he'd nibble and gnaw one at a time.
He was late to take to solid foods - I was afraid he wouldn't be able to eat a cupcake for his birthday but he got there just in time.
Sometimes he was just so hungry and he didn't have the manual dexterity to get the food into his mouth - so he liked me feeding him - but after the initial hungries were taken care of, he'd take the time to finger his food and got better at it with time and practice.
Don't give so much that she has lots to throw on the floor.
When the throwing starts, the meal is over.
She's only one - there's no rush on this.
Even once he was on regular food - he went through a stage where he'd only eat something if it came from my plate first.
Now he's 18 yrs and can just gulp things down with hardly any chewing.
It's scary watching a teen guy eat!