I have a 9 month old son who primarliy drinks formula for all of his nutrition. I give him cereal in the morning and sometimes afternoon with fruit. In the evening I try the veggies or meats, but he will only take the 2ng stage foods that are pureed. I thought he should be eating more lumpy foods like in the 3rd stage but he just eats the "juice" and spits the rest out. The only thing he likes are cherrios. He has 4 solid teeth and 2 others well on their way in. I give him fruit and veggies in his fresh food feeder. But what else can I do to get him to eat more table food and 3rd stage baby food? Shouldn't he be transitioning to that by now or should I just keep him on mainly formula and let him tell me when he's ready?
Moms, Thanks for all the great advice!
My son was having a texture issue, he doesn't like the "slimy" texture of the pasta in the 3rd food but will eat cooked pasta alone just fine. He is now 1 yr old and drinking soy milk from a cup 3 times a day, and the rest is takle food, and only eats the 2nd foods (fruits) in his oameal in the morning, But thats mostly b/c it's eaiser for me. Now We begin the meats, he wants no part of those! :)
At 9 months you don't have anything to worry about if he just wants baby food still.Lots of kids don't heat table food until over a year or so. Hey he's eating veggies, and if you just want to not have to buy as many , mash them with a fork, like peas etc. but I think he sounds like he is doing fine.
It is probably the teething. I know that my child would eat less when she was teething. Just keep offering him the food; he will eventually eat it. You are still providing him formula which is well balanced. I wouldn't worry so much about the stages. If he likes it less lumpy, you may just want to mix the two stages together.
6 months+, even without teeth, can handle finger foods.
Check out:
www.babyledweaning.com
Baby-led weaning is an approach to the introduction of solid foods which involves babies from around six months of age feeding themselves with their fingers, thus avoiding the need for spoon-feeding and purees. Babies who are allowed to take control of their eating in this way seem to enjoy the process enormously and to become less fussy eaters later. It’s also less work for Mum! Join the Y! group to share the experiences of those who are using (or have used) this method.
As others have said, the main thing is not to worry about it. However, I have a 9-month-old with NO teeth, and he eats just about every kind of table food there is. They do not get the back teeth to chew with until about 2, so the first couple of years they gum everything, which is fine. They will be fine. Just don't give him hard foods like carrots, apples, etc. Mine loves rice, pasta, bread, peas, corn, Club multigrain crackers, avocado, plums, bananas - basically anything we eat. If it's too slippery for him to pick up, I crush multi-grain cheerios or graham crackers in a baggie and shake his food in that. Another food that he loves is YoBaby yogurt. Good luck!
My daughter didn't like the 3rd stage foods and neither did any of my cousin's kids. I just gave her real food that I pureed. He will eat what you have. If he has teeth then it shouldn't be a problem. My daughter didn't get a tooth until she turned one, so it was a little harder. I think the 3rd stage foods are probably just not as sweet as what they are used to.
I have an eight month old- she will be nine months in about a week. Anyway, when we went to her 6 month check up, her doctor put her on the following feeding schedule.
Morning: cereal mixed with apple or pear juice and a jar of fruit.
Lunch: jar of vegetables and jar of fruit
Dinner: cereal mixed with apple or pear juice and a jar of vegetables
18 oz. of formula/ breast milk
6 oz. 1/2 water and 1/2 juice
This was with the stage 2 food. When her teeth came in I was supposed to feed her stage 3 food. I began stage 3 when she was 7 months old. She sometimes eats all of her food in a day but it is actually a struggle to get all the formula and juice down her in one day as she is kind of tiny for her age- in the 15% for weight.
I would heat up the food a bit. That has helped her enjoy more. I also bought some Hungry Jack mashed potatoes today to have in case I cannot get her to eat.
Good luck.
Hi L.,
My daughter just turned 1 year old two weeks ago and she STILL eats Stage 2 baby food. We're trying to get her to take solid food or Stage 3...but she sort of does the same thing. Sucks the 'yummy' stuff and spits out the chunks! She didn't get teeth until she was almost 11 months old and I'm pretty sure she's having a rough go of things right now where her teeth are concerned, which probably makes her not want to push anything down on her gums. This is our third child and we didn't have this experience with our other two. With our first two I made my own baby food, but with the third unfortunately I have very little time! (They're 4 and under)
I guess my somewhat seasoned advice would be...relax. You're doing a great job and he'll eat regular food before you know it. I'm going right to solids myself now and am skipping the stage 3. Honestly, boiled pasta is so easy and you can add other things in to please his pallate. (Dice some steamed chicken breast really tiny and put it next to the pasta on his tray and I bet he'll give it a try.)
One other thing that helped me was when someone said to try to have 1 veggie, 1 fruit and 1 protein at every meal. Once you're sure his teeth aren't a big factor, that rule of thumb may help!
Good luck!
Hi L.,
This is a great website to check and see how much formula and what types/how often a 9 month old needs solid foods. I use it all of the time!! I make my daughter's baby food and this website has great ideas for what to make, if you're interested in that - like others have said, the jarred stuff isn't really very good.
Basically, your 9 month old still needs the formula, so unlike someone else said, you do still need to feed him the formula first, and then worry about eating solids. It's ok that he's getting his nutrition from just the formula. The solids are for practice, some additional nutrition, and getting used to tastes and textures. My daughter is 9.5 months and in the past few days likes eating finger foods - but it was a sudden thing, she wanted nothing but purees a few weeks ago!
Both of my boys HATED the stage 3 Gerber foods and Gerber Graduates. I stopped spending a small fortune on baby food and started feeding him bite sized portions of my food - just remember no nuts (including peanut butter), honey, or eggs. It is so much easier and quite honestly, that food tastes nasty. I would get avocado, dice up some fresh fruit and cook some carrots, corn, peas, green beans, etc and feed him what you would eat. You will have to supervise - you don't want him choking, but I don't blame him for not wanting that stuff. My youngest flat out refused to eat it, but ate table food like champ! Good luck and no wowrries...they will eat when they are hungry!
I suppose all babies are different, but by 9ms (actally, about 8), my son was eating mostly all table food, with only 3 nursings a day (dr. said that was great). Maybe he doesn't like certain textures. My son also loved (and loves) to feed himself. He'll explore more foods if he can do it himself. Good luck!
OK, I had to add a few thoughts. First, regarding stage 3 foods, I believe they are TERRIBLE. Both my kids (ages 9mo and 3 1/2) have been able to eat almost every variety of table foods and they gag/choke on stage 3 foods. They are actually more confusing then helpful to alot of babies because the texture is so mixed. The initial reaction because of the smoothness from the puree part is to simply swallow, and then suddenly they hit a chunky spot and gag. Table foods, such as jarred veggies (carrots, peas, green beans, etc.) are soft and easy to mush/gum down, but the solids consistency is not confusing. By the way, I'm a pediatric physical therapist, and my speech therapist co-workers who work on feeding with kids who have feeding difficulties have found the same thing- many kids do not do well with stage 3 and do fine with real solid foods. So, I would say try real table foods that are soft and see what he does, if he can't handle it, then go back to your pureed foods and keep trying periodically. On a side note, my pediatrician is very conservative and he has good research to base his decisions on (for example, he does not recommend any food other than formula/breastmilk and maybe rice cereal until 6 months), but he does not really recommed baby foods at all because they taste different and once they get older, transitioning from baby to table foods in the toddler ages is like introducing a new food entirely and they often reject it, while babies are very open to trying new foods.
I know that everyone has a different opinion, but based on my doctor's recommendations, once they are 6mo. of age, if they are taking 3 good meals a day of table foods with a good and healthy variety of foods, he does not worry at all about the nutritional value or need of pushing the bottle. So you can do your own research on this, but I wouldn't worry about the bottle at all.
Anyone who says he should be eating more then drinking at this age is wrong.
Most of babies nutrition for the first year of life should come from milk, either breast of formula, food for the first year is experimental and not for nutrition and should only come after milk.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-when.html
Take it slow there is no hurry you have to feed him for the next 18 years.
Heck, I didn't even start Catherine on slids until 10 months, nothing but milk.
Matter a fact delaying solids actually has health benefits.
hi L.(love that name btw ;) )
i put 3rd stage foods on crackers and broke them into 4 peices! It worked for me...not sure if it will since he is picking them out but you could feed him the crackers peices and 3rd stage foods would mix witth the cracker peices so he'd eat them...??? It worked for me! :) Or you could just go right into whole fruits.... like kiwi ...thats soft, i also peeled grapes and cut those up, cantalope was a favorite!
good luck!
S.
the best advice I can give you is to talk to your peditrician about it. Don't give up on trying other finger foods. Continue to try the Stage 3 foods.
All the other moms have good points. Some kids stay on baby food longer than others. My daughter probably will she's seven and a half months old and just recently stopped rejecting the first stage of baby food. She's petite and has only just reached 15 pounds so she probably didn't need the many extra calories yet.
You said that he'll eat cheerios, though. His problem then is not ability to eat the chunky foods that's stopping him. Maybe there is another side to this. My son on the hit a very independent streak early. He wanted to feed himself. Maybe if you steam up some veggies that he likes (make sure they aren't tender crisp but plenty soft) and cut them into bite size pieces. Also pasta would work (I'd hold off on the sauce), even some bananas cut up (not too small as he'll have trouble picking the gooey little pieces up). Then, I'd let him start to feed himself. Stay away from the messiest foods at the beginning. Just give him some freedom. Hey it's worth a try. If it doesn't work then he needs a bit more time on the softer foods. Every kid is different.
Hi all moms!
It took medical science a long time, but they have finally determined that TEXTURE (duh) is more critical than TASTE for young children. Their tastebuds are not well developed yet so they depend on texture. They didn't say how you know which TEXTURES your child will like. (That's another study)!
I have decided that maybe it is the mixed texture that so many of them don't like. What do you think? Taste them yourself.
D.
hey L., you've gotted some great advice. One thing I would suggest is make sure you are feeding him the table food before you give him the bottle. That way when he is the most hungry he is eating the solid foods. Each kid will do things in their own time. My 1st one didn't start baby food (other than cereal)until 7mos and was on table food by 1 yr. My second has always refused ANY form of baby food and I had to grind up whatever we were eating. Your son will do what works for him.
Both my boys hated stage 3 baby food and refused to eat it. My now 13 month old will only eat stage 2 fruits and veggies, so I continue to feed him that for his daily fruits and veggies. He won't touch steamed veggies or raw fruits like bananas, only jarred baby food. So, give your baby stage 2 if that's what he likes. You could try some whole wheat crackers broken into small pieces. My son loves grilled cheese sandwiches and toast. Also, English muffins, Fench toast, small bits of soft cheese, and yogurt are good choices. I would stick to whole wheat products because they are more nutritious. Oh and well-cooked pasta is good with or without the sauce.
He really needs to be EATING more than DRINKING at this age. Give him food first, cut up bananas, green beans, peas. If he only eats the bananas and cereal "non-baby food" that's a start but give him food first and formula AFTER. I sure hope you're giving him his formula in a cup, his bottles should be limited at this age.....especially since he has so many teeth. You should set him in his highchair with options like bananas and cheerios and other fingerfoods (there are MANY out there in the baby food aisle) he will take awhile most likely and it will be a mess but with patience he will learn to like to eat. good luck.
my 8.5 mo old is still primarily BF'd... we give solids maybe 2x a day if he's lucky. i say lucky b/cs he loves to eat... but his thing is he wants flavor. he doesnt do the stage 1/2's but likes when i grind whatever we're eating, and he seems to prefer savory to sweet. i'm not saying grind your food, but see if he likes tastes of what you're eating as long as it's mushable, i bet he'd enjoy it! and as they say, just keep offering those foods... he'll eventually eat them!
Oh am I am the same boat w/ my 9 month old. Until recently that is. Have you ever tasted the gerber 3 foods? They are horrible so once I tasted it I gave up on that. It sounds like your child may be adjusting to different textures like my daughter. My daughter would actually gag and throw up, maybe for dramatic effect.:) But I slowly found little ways to introduce different textures. You've mastered cheerios, I added some gerber diced peaches and apples to the gerber 2 peaches to add texture. I cut up little mandarin oranges and put them w/ the cheerios. I tore up little pieces of american cheese and put it on her tray. The best that worked was the Dannon activia Blueberry and raspberry yogurt. It tastes good and my pediatrician said was good for the baby. Plus it has little pieces of fruit in it. While messy, I would let my daughter feed herself and I didn't push her. If she was unhappy or gagging I would feed her regular gerber foods. But every meal I would try something. All of these were okayed by my pedi and he in fact, at her 9 mos appt, said that my daughter could eat anything we eat, very small, barring the highly allergic ie. peanuts, shellfish etc. Just keep trying and be patient. Now, my daughter just shovels it in w/ no problems. I tried to not push too hard because I was a child w/ texture issues and at 34 am still having issues. good luck!
when my son was 9 months (he is the middle of my 3 children) - his pedi said to feed him what we were eating with the exception of some meats that he couldn't chew obviously. We never did 3rd foods - they are just nasty. We only used jar baby food if we were out somewhere b/c it was convenient - I made my own. My kids ate things like canned beans, cheese, yogurt, cooked veggies, cut fruit, small pasta, baby cereal, and I was still breastfeeding.
My youngest wouldn't even beging cereal until she was 7 months - she wasn't interested - she just breastfed.
L.,
I am going through the same thing my daughter was eating stage 2 very well but would not eat stage 3 at all but about 2 weeks ago she stopped eating stage 2 so I just started giving her talble food like green beans and carrots and apples in the gerber grad... And she has started eating again she has 4 teeth with more on the way.. Good luck just try that and see I feel she needs to be eating.. I give her everything cut up very small at this point but that is the only way I can get her to eat also she loves these little gerber Grad snacks they are kinda like cheese puffs there is chedder and veggie and zesty tomatoe she loves those and eats them very well
My first 2 boys skipped the baby food altogether. But my third son was a year before he would eat food with "chunks". He would gag himself on it. Just keep feeding the mushy food and keep trying table food. He will eat it when he is ready. My son is 13 months now and I use a potato masher to mash up whatever we are eating. He eats more than my 4 year old! Growth spurts, gotta love them. LOL
Just be patient.
