9 Month Olds Eating Habits.

You offer her healthy choices and that is it. Her primary nutrition should be breastmilk or formula. Food is just for practice at this stage in the game and you want to set healthy habits right from the start.

Yogurt is fantastic for her, offer veggies, offer fruits, etc. You will offer the same fruit or veggie every day for at least 5 days. It takes at least 5 or maybe even 10 offerings for a taste for a new food to develop. I always started my kids off with veggies like green beans or peas then moved on to carrots, avocado, then fruits. I didn't want them to develop a taste for the sweet first. It's hard to go backwards.

Ditch the chef boyardee, ditch the graduate snacks, the pasta meals. Ditch all the processed junk. She doesn't need any of it. It was very easy for me to make all my daughter's baby food. Just steamed the veggies and tossed them in the food processor. I baked sweet potato mashed it. Then I froze ice cube size amounts.

Offer her foods closest to their natural form. That is all she needs right now. And she doesn't need much of that.

You can begin offering tiny bites size pieces of whatever you are have for dinner, such as mash potatoes, well cook and tender vegetables, and for meat you might do the baby food meat links. My kids used to like the beef and pork links. I would dice them up and put them on their plates. You might also consider soft fruits such as banana or diced strawberries and you also may try canned fruits in their own juice such as pears and peaches. You might try regular unsweetened apple sauces. We like the ones with other fruits mixed in.

Neither of my kids ate baby food either but loved to feed theirself at that age. You might want to try adding banannas and sweet potatoes ( just bake or microwave them till they are soft and easy to mush). Cut them into small pieces that she can hold and feed herself. These worked great with both of my kids at that age. They also loved fruit like watermellon, pears and such. Sweet peas were also a winner. Keep trying to offer a wide varriety of things. They say it takes what, 8 times of eating something before you know if you truly like a food or not. These early years are full of strange eating habits. Hang in there. ;)

I would feed toddlers food cubed and stuck onto a stick pretzel, kinda like an appetizer. Another thing would be to put stuff in individual little bowls (ramekins). An ice cube tray is good and probably even an egg carton. Something to switch it up.

Only have healthy food available and think of their diet over the course of a week, not a day. It makes things much easier.

I agree. It's so easy to make your own if you make a lot at once. And cheaper with so many fruits and vegetables in season right now. Start with one or two things - just mash a banana with a fork and see how she likes it. I never had a problem with a baby preferring sweets because fruits were offered first; I don't think that would be an issue since your daughter's already eating solids anyway. I have found it helpful to mix the fruit or vegetable with some baby cereal if the baby seems a little resistant to the taste or texture.

Good luck! It's not as hard as you think and the sooner you can establish good eating habits, the better.

Feed her what you buy... you choose what to feed her.
Try different things... and textures.
She is not starving...
their taste-buds are also still developing... hence, food likes/dislikes in conjunction with their tendencies.

Feed her what you eat perhaps, but mash it. So she doesn't choke.

My son is picky. Very picky. But over time, as he's gotten older, he has naturally eaten other things... I don't cater to his picky-ness but yet, I know him and what he will eat. I don't battle about food...because as a child changes/grows, their palate always changes too. It is NOT static.
My son, on his own, now eats more things... and is more adventurous. But I do not punish/scold him for his tastes. I rather him know his body/his feelings of fullness/his own palate, than eat for emotional reasons.
I don't feed junk to my son... but whatever I buy.
He is healthy, in the 97-98th percentiles for growth and weight, and grows like a weed... DESPITE his picky-ness.

Remember: meals are either a pain in the rear and a battle, or it is not.
I rather my son enjoy meals, with family, that it being about fighting about it.

Also, some kids are just more texture oriented... so experiment with that too.

good luck,
Susan