Refuses to Eat Baby Food...

Updated on April 27, 2007
N.S. asks from Bryn Mawr, PA
18 answers

Hello, My son is almost 9 months old and is just learning to chew and is refusing to eat his pureed dinners. I mostly give him Earth Best Organic stage 2 dinners. He does eat gerber puffs and teething cookies but I worry about giving him whole food so soon. Any suggestions on what to feed him besides mashed potatoes and soup?

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So What Happened?

Thanks so much to everyone! I experimented today with cut up bananas and he enjoyed that but as far as chopping up "our" dinner (mac & cheese and brisket)uh.. that was a no go. I will most definitely try more of the suggestions as they were great! thanks again to all!

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J.M.

answers from Pittsburgh on

My daughter's favorite was frozen peas and blueberries, right out of the freezer. They get soft really quickly, so there is not much of a chocking hazard. She actually liked them so much that I could not open the freezer without getting her some! She also liked banana's cut into pieces.

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M.M.

answers from Sharon on

My son was the same way so I gave him the Gerber Graduate Meals. I was reluctant at first but he ate them just fine. They are small enough bites and they are rather soft so they mash up easily when they are in the baby's mouth.

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L.M.

answers from York on

hi, my son is just about to turn 9 months this Sunday :)... he does great with babyfood, but only stage 2. he's just now learning how to chew, also,but i really cant give him something like choped up bananas, bcz he will choke! even in little square pieces!..my husband and i tried giving him the fruit puffs last month, and he choked so bad, i started crying!( maybe since a month has passed i should try it agn) but i just 3 days ago gave him mashed potatoes for the first time!.. he loved it, i should've tried it earlier as it would've saved me alot of money from babyfoods lol... so anyways... i made spagueti today, and what i did was i got a jar of babyfood (mac and cheese st.2) and put half of it in his bowl, then i got the spaguetti i made, and i chopped it up good, and mixed it with his mac and cheese.. he loved it!.. u should try that!, or maybe u can just steam some carrots and mush them up with a fork, or blend it and put the spaguetti pieces in it! im sure he'll love it! :)

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M.A.

answers from Allentown on

My son had a lot of teeth early and wanted to chew his food rather than eat pureed food at that age too. I just cooked his veggies very soft (overcooked to us) & cut them up very small. If he can eat teething cookies and puffs, he can probably do well with very soft finger-food sized fruits and veggies. I tried to serve him a wide variety of foods to maximize the nutritional value, but if he really liked something - I tended to stick with it for a while. Then he would get bored with it & find something new that he really liked. At that point, he was still getting breast milk as well, so I knew he was still being nourished...

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A.N.

answers from Cleveland on

Is it just the dinners that he refuses or baby food fruits and veggies too? My 11-month-old daughter also does not like baby food dinners. She will, however, eat the baby food meats with gravy, veggies, and fruits seperately. There is something about the mixed up dinners that she does not like. They do say that it can take several times before a baby will decide to like something, but my daughter really does not like the dinners! Maybe try giving him teeny, tiny pieces of real meats/table food. My daugher only has two teeth, and she does fine with small pieces of chicken, cut-up green beans, noodles, etc. Good luck!

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H.W.

answers from Philadelphia on

Buy an imersion blender. They are qute cheap. It's the thing that looks like a blender blade on the end of a wand. With this, you can take and puree whatever you are eating so that your son can eat it too.

It's no wonder children don't eat baby food. Have you tasted it??!? Most of it is vile (with some exceptions, of course). Our son ate what we ate once he was old enough for solid (pureed food). It really helped prevent picky eating as he got older, I think.

T.S.

answers from Pittsburgh on

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L.R.

answers from Reading on

I am going through something similar with my son. Our problem is he wants what his big sister is eating. I started off by letting him fruits that were ripe. He loves bananas. So I mixed bananas with his cereal and thats how I got him to eat that. I also give him shredded chicken and mac n cheese. he loves peas. Its a phase All kids are different. You just have to try things and see how he does with it. Good Luck.

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J.M.

answers from Erie on

I say start him on table food! I have three children and all three of them started early with table food and they did great. Of course, we started with the really soft stuff and just to make sure they got enough, I would mix jar food with it (like in the mashed potatos). Good luck!

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C.H.

answers from Philadelphia on

For a softer finger food cut up ripe banana's into really tiny pieces. This not only works as a finger food but can add texture to pureed foods (I prefer mixing it with fruits). I hope this will help you out,and good luck!

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M.

answers from Pittsburgh on

I have a 1 year old - and he started eating table food around 9 or 10 months. He would still have some stage 2 babyfood - but he was off of that entirely around 11 months or so. He just prefered table food - especially what he could feed himself. Just make sure the things you feed him are soft and in small pieces - things like bananas, peaches, strawberries, bread, pancakes. My little guy had teeth early so i also added in little pieces of chicken or ground meat, well cooked veggies of all kinds (he really likes asparagus - wierd!). Now he eats just about anything we're having....so just go with what he seems to really want.

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J.C.

answers from Philadelphia on

Try meatballs and just use your fork to mash them a bit. My son started table food at about 9 1/2 months old and he never looked back :)

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K.S.

answers from Pittsburgh on

My daughter just turned 10 mos. and has been eating most foods for a few weeks. All steamed veggies (no butter or salt or anything) Plain cooked chicken and fish....pasta with sauce. Really anything that doesnt have butter or high salt or sugar. Of course all of these need cut up in small pieces.

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J.G.

answers from Philadelphia on

Yogurt, bananas, cheerios, (i think they disolve quicker than the puffs and are smaller, my daughter ate them at 8 mos and she didn't have any teeth). Gerber Graduates has some jarred fruits and vegetables that are very soft. Canned veggies are soft, just get no sodium added. Good luck!

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C.C.

answers from Philadelphia on

my daughter is 7 months old, if she doesn't like something i give it to her with something she does...for example she loves those cookies so i dip them in veggies and she eats them up the puffs i mix with some cereal, and fruit.. it more like she want to feed herself so i find things that she can eat herself and i feed her alittle more inbetween. I also will blend some of the food we are eating or cut very small for her to eat and she loves that...i also never give the baby food dinners i don't give my child anything i wouldn't eat. The fruit baby food is also good on waffles....all three of my kids love that better then syrup...

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P.J.

answers from Philadelphia on

My son was like that and I had to just cook carrots and smash them my self and just do the fresh foods and cook them and smash them yur self andd he might like them better and you know what is in hte food.

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J.T.

answers from Pittsburgh on

Hi N.,
My daughter did the same thing, but she did it at 7 months! it seemed that once she learned to chew, she no longer wanted the 'icky' stuff. We'd even try to mix regular food in with her bay food and she would bat it out of the way. One night she screamed until I gave her some of the regular rice on my plate. She at it all. We talked to her doctor, and he said that the rule of thumb to follow is to make sure that it is soimething soft or something that can dissolve in water. for any meat, it had to be cut up very tiny...big enough that she could feel that she was chewing, but small enough to swallow wiothout chewing. For snacks, raw veggies like celery and carrots were good choices because they are healthy and cold on the gums for teething time. If you did't nurse your son, watch a little more closely and wait a little longer before introducing new foods to mark any allergies. At nine months, we safely gave her cooked rice (white and beef flavored), shredded chicken, shredded roast, diced fruit and veggies-raw and cooked, baby teething cookies, baby puffs, pretzels (hard only until she was 11 months old). Our doctor said it wasn't so much a dislike for the baby food as it was an interest in doing what mommy and daddy were doing. Now she eats everything. Just be very careful and watch closely. You have to build YOUR confidence level as you build his variety. Don't give him anything you are scared to give him yet. be careful of foods that you or his father have problems with, and be slow with high allergy foods (for example, when you introduce peanut butter, make sure that you haven't introduced anything new in the few days before, watch closely whle he eats it, and don't introduce anything for at least a few days afterwards....there are more nut allergies these days, and this way you can be sure of the food causing the allergy if there is one.
I hope this helps you some.
Good luck!
Jenn

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M.S.

answers from Philadelphia on

It is hard right now at that age to eat. They will only eat things that they like. You will have to try all differnt types of food right now to make sure he is getting enough of proteins and minerals. I'm really not sure how the organic food is. But from my children it was always mac n cheese and green beans were the only food untill three years. I would also try hotdogs. Although this not not you're choice of foods, it is kinda hard, because right now they are picky eaters untill around three.

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