Need Advice on Feeding My 14-Month-old

He's way too old for jarred baby foods and is trying to tell you so. Buy a bag of frozen vegetable, mixed or maybe peas. You can also buy it in a can. Put some on his tray in his high chair(defrosted, although some babies like the frozen stuff whe they are teething). You can also buy canned fruit and cut it up. He can chew all of this stuff. He does not need teeth for it.

My 8 month old is eating finger foods with only 3 (all bottom) teeth! He feeds himself avocado- which he loves! Cherrios, Gerber Puffs, 1/2 blueberries, mangos...whatever ripe fruit which I have already introduced cut into pea size pieces- today we even tried tofu (I personally have never eaten tofu but found out how packed full of protien it is) cut into tiny dices. I have read that finger foods are important for their fine motor development (pincer grasp, hand eye coordination, etc). Good luck.

Not to worry, D.. If you look in any book on feeding children this age, you'll find that they don't need to have all their teeth to start eating table foods because they use their gums to crush their food. Just steam vegetables until they are very soft. Rice or pieces of soft, ripe fruit such as bananas or pears would be great. But you get the point. I have a 14 month old son too and he loves eating his blueberries and watermelon in the morning (and these fruits will also keep him regular). I imagine the new challenge to pick up his food will fun for him.
Good luck!

D.,
My daughter just turned one on 6/18 and never truly liked her jarred food, so we were ready for table foods! She only has her 2 bottom teeth with the top 2 making their way out now and she is great with table foods!! You don't need a lot of teeth to eat mushy foods...veggies, fruit (no skin), cut up pastas, grilled cheese (small pieces, no crust), scrambled eggs with cheese. She also LOVES the Gerber Lil Crunchies, Puffs, and Yogurt Melts and YoBaby yogurts which are made with whole milk. Just a few suggestions :) At 14 months, your son is more than ready for these foods.
All the best,
S.

In my opinion he is probally sick of the jarred foods. They are bland and boring. If i were you i would start table food imeadiatly. Also my guess is he is starving! I do not think the jarred would fill the tummy of a 14 month old. Start with small pieces of fruit. No skin. Their are alot of soft fruits out there! Watermelon, cantelope, strawberries, bannana, so many more. Cooked carrots, peas, the possibilities are endless! Give him a big piece of crusty bread to knaw on. Also soft cheese, cheerios. Small pieces of turkey, chicken. Gosh he would probally love pancakes, etc! Just start with small pieces. He will be fine! And he will be so much happier! I would do 3 meals a day and 2 snacks. Good Luck!

Hi D., chances are the baby food is no longer satisfying most babies are on table food by a year old. I have a toddler here in my daycare and what I do is I give him table food but I chop it up in my magic bulllet, and east everything now, also its good to made mashed potatoes and put chope up meat and vegetables, I did that with my kids when they were babies, and I do that with my day care toddles who don't handle table food like they should. works like a charm. J.

My daughter refused eating baby food at 6 months. She had no teeth for a full two more months. But I gave her any finger foods that were soft enough for her to chew (with her gums). We over cooked her veggies so they were soft enough and she loved them. Very ripe fruit was great too. After we started giving my daughter finger foods, she once again enjoyed eating her food. It was hard at first, trying to find things she could eat with no teeth but she ate so much better when she could do it herself. The only food that she enjoys pureed is applesauce, we try to feed most of it to her, and then we let her feed herself. It gets a little messy, but she loves it and is learning along the way. Your son probably just wants something different and a chance to feed himself. Good Luck, hope it helps. ~ C.

Hi D.,
Feed your son some of the softer table foods. He's old enough now to eat foods like; mashed potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc. You can also invest in a good food processor and blend up some chicken w/vegetables for his protien. I hear that healthy looking babies can be under-nourished.

At 14 months he should be eating table foods so he is fine doing so. Since he has few teeth just give him soft foods like the Gerber Graduates stuff, etc. Our son was eating table foods at 8 months but he had a good amount of teeth and chewed his food like crazy.

I think he might crave a REAL BUTTERY slightly salted soft carrot ,
a REAL mashed potato with a splash of sourcream/ yogurt and or a buttered warm and baked banana
hmmmmmmmmm
he wants REAL FOOD !!!!
( that's what I can sense .... )

hmmmmmmm...!!

He's probably bored with the texture. I started my son on finger foods at 7m. Peas, beans, cheese cubes, egg, whole wheat noodles, fruits, cooked carrots, cucumbers, tofu, corn, green beans.........

D.,

Feed him soft table foods. My son has been eating regular table food cooked soft or cut into tiny pieces since he was about 9 months old. At 1 year he had 4 teeth. They just mash it around until they are ready to swallow it. It sounds like your boy is just ready for more taste and more variety.

T.

Start him on table foods. At 14 months, he's bored of the same old thing and is ready for new tastes and textures. Just make sure that you feed him soft foods like bananas, yogurt, cheese, turkey, etc. (all cut up very small) and let him enjoy. Good luck! :)

does he eat finger foods? my daughter whos 15 months only has 6 teeth (4 top and 2 bottom) and is on solid table food. he may be bored with the jarred food and it may not be satisfing him. what i do with my daughter is buy fruit cups, applesauce cups, and sugar free jello cups (they are all low in sugar and are good portion siz for her). she loves fresh and dried fruit (i cut up bananas, strawberries, grapes and dried prunes for her). she eats canned vegies (i use a stage 3 jar to measure portion and get 3 jars out of 1 can) of all kinds - corn, peas, green beans and mixed vegies. meat wise she eats chicken breast, turkey, hamberger (all cut in to small pieces of course) i also have many snacks she loves like - fruit rolls (they are low in sugar and salt), cheese, gerber fruit and vegie puffs, and gerber baby crackers and cookies. she basically eats anything i do. have you tried the pasta pick ups or the lil entres meals? they are easy to chew and your son may enjoy them. give it a shot and buy a couple. good luck i hope this helps!

I think you need to start offering him solids...soft solids. My son did the same thing, he started refusing the pureed stuff. Even without a lot of teeth he can eat banana, peaches, pears, peas, corn, squash, mashed potatoes, beans, yogurt, all kinds of solid foods. He is probably just bored. He can even eat cereal pieces, they are small enough that he wont choke if he accidental swallows them whole, best place to start is usually cherrios. There are also these Gerber foods that are perfect...they literally dissolve in the babys mouth and they taste pretty darn good. Try that on for size, you would be surprised how well he fairs even with only a few teeth. Good luck.

Hi D.,

I find soups are a great first time option. I usually cut up the large pieces. Progress makes a Minnistroni or Veggie that is great! The veggies are very soft and lots of flavor to encourage chewing!

Good luck,
H.

My 13 month old son lost his interest in jarred food as soon as he grew in his first teeth and we started him on finger foods that were healthly for him like cut up banana, avocado, cheese, etc. because these were soft and easy for him to swallow. As he grew a few more teeth, we added in Gerber Graduate finger foods like the Yogurt melts, fruit chews, and cereal puffs. Again, these are easy to swallow and not messy at all. It helped us because we could put these dry foods in a small baggies and they helped to supplement his regular meals so he was drinking less milk and juice. Gerber Graduates also have great mini-meals that offer a protein and vegetable combo or there are the single meals in small little buckets called "Lil Meals". Gerber even has safety utensils to help babies learn to self-feed and my son loves his. He sees us eating with utensils so he wants to too! Our babies are growing up and wanting to become more independent all the time...it made me sad when he stopped eating his jarred food but they can't stay babies forever! Good luck!