What to Feed My 9 Month Old?? - Newtown,CT

No baby food is no problem. Many kids (including mine who is a great eater for her age) never ate it at all. There are lots of great ideas here; really try to stick to the vegetable and fruit, though. I've never heard of a kid who has a problem getting his carbs and cheese, lol. Good luck.

First of all, thank you for posting this. I am going through the same thing with my 9 month old daughter. Here is a list of what she has been eating...
Cheese Crumbles (found in the cheese isle) Pasta Rotini - sometimes I soak it in broth - Frozen Veggies - Pirates Booty like its going out of style - Cut up Perogies - Chick Peas - I ask to have a slice of Turkey cut 1/4 inch and serve to her in strips. Bocca Burgers and Bocca Soy Chicken Patties (Im a meat eater and I love those!) If I remember any more, I will post them for you.
Thanks for making me feel comfortable with my demanding eater. My older daughter wasnt this way.

Hi R.
I am also a first time mom to a 10 month old boy. He started refusing baby food at the same age. My doctor told me I can give him basically whatever we eat.
Breakfast he likes fruit: Bananas, cups of pears,pineapples and peaches. He loves frozen waffles,french toast & Bagels. Cheerios.
He favors the fruit. I try green beans, Carrots and peas. Some days he'll eat them others he won't.
He hasn't like chicken. I did get him to eat chicken parm in little pieces. He loves ham. He ate meatballs and meatloaf all up.
Lunch grilled cheese was a favorite. Cottage cheese he ate once and then another time wouldn't. Whole Wheat toast is always and easy one I know he'll eat. I just do everything in little pieces. I also tried the YO baby yogurt and he absolutely loves it.
I got all these ideas from magazines and books. Also Gerber sends a monthly paper of ideas for him to eat.
Someone suggested gerber and beechnut pasta pick ups and other meals. He didn't like them.
Good luck!

Give him finger foods. I am not the best I have 5 kids all were eating regular food by 9 months they hated baby food. But rice over cooked pasta some veggies. I would always put some on their tray or plate for them to play with texture and such while I fed them just to make sure they were eating enough.

My son started this at exactly the same age. Try giving him baby food while he is in his highchair and he is holding on to something. I find a spoon or lid works really well. That way, they are not concentrating on being mad that you are feeding them. Sometimes he will try to help other times he may just bang the spoon. This really helped us. You can also try waffles with cream cheese and jam or pancakes. Bread with cream cheese or other spread is good too. Try roasted veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, or green beans. I roast them with some tomato and garlic and my son likes to feed himself. He also loves french fries with no salt.

gerber pasta pick ups got us through for a long time, sweet potatoe fries, cheerios, gerber puffies. I think our daughter lived off of pasta pick ups.

Hi R., This is a stage and he will grow out of it. Keep offering him different things. Those you mentioned are good and he will survive. I knew a girl years ago whose child would only eat American cheese, bacon and sliced peaches. The doctor said OK let her eat that. She greaw up into a fine healthy woman who eats everything now. My best, Grandma Mary

Does he like pasta? You can puree veggies (broccoli, carrots, etc) and mix them with pasta shells, butter and grated cheese...also, toasted multigrain bread with melted cheese....you can hide pureed (sp?) veggies in anything...and carrots are sweet..so that's good and broccli is sort of tasteless...spinach purees well and i have put it in my daughters eggs, yobaby yogurt and shocklingly enough...even into vanilla ice cream! whatever works! my girl is 2.5 and is picky because she's testing me...so if i can make green yogurt today!! sounds fun,right...it's intersting to her and the green is a veggie. you can also add carrot juice to water or apple juice...and don't forget...any cookie to a kid is a COOOOOKIE....the rolls royce of kid food...mix veggies in to the choc chip or butter cooke and the extra iciing isnt so bad because of the 2 part healty vegetables ur getting into your son. make sense? when he gets into 2s and later 2s he will only eat what he wants especially because he is testing his boundries and i laugh at that..because the bottom line...they will eat when their hungry....and my favorite fight with my 2.5 year old is the standoff...when she wants fishies and i tell her no fish...you have chk and veg or pasta with the pureed veggie slid in unaanounced..so you choose. chicken or pasta..."but i want french fries" i undedrstand that...but we don't have french fries...so if you want to eat dinner...with the big people...you have chicken or pasta to choose from...so make a choice. and once he decides...that's it. and if he still doesn't eat it and is still trying to get you to react to him...that's when you stop...because he will have to eat something....and after all of that i laugh because the bottom line is....we as moms know best....and in the end after "i want cookies, frenchfries, candy" it doesnt matter becasue again, in the end . starving by now, you will eat either chicken or pasta....and like it...because it's good and you held your ground. if they choose to test you enough not to eat at all....after trying and trying...then let it go, because serving your kid is not a game...and and i remember a day that my daughter threw all of her food of of the table at a restaurant.....shocked first but pissed second...and picked her up and put her in a time out in the middle of a busy restauratt......at an outside cafe....very busy....and she sat ther for 5 mins....because that behaviur can be fixed...as long as you always address it and give clear reasons why you shouldnn't do it and haw it effects other people. I babbled too long...hope you get what im saying...feel free to email me back with questions

try making meatballs. you can chop up veggies in them too. make up a whole tray and freeze them. take one out for a meal and reheat in a alfredo sauce (sometmes the red sauce is too acidic for them). it will be soft enough yet big enough for him to pick up on his own and he will love them. Cut up veggies (carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli) and cook til tender. store in a tupperware for the week. just grab a portion size and put the rest in the fridge. makes meals a breeze and gives him variety. take a sweet potato and cook in microwave til done (don't forget to poke first). store in a tupperware or ziploc baggie. slice of a few pieces at meal time. should last a few days of meals. Also try string cheese, peel a piece off and break into small bits. Fruit is always a winner: canned pears & peaches, cooked apples.

Good luck! T. (mom of 3 girls - 5yr,3yr,1 yr old)

check out my Blog for more ideas:
http://thefrugalmomscookbooktofun.blogspot.com/

my daughter too didn't like meat.. actually didn't eat any meat until she was 7 yrs. old.. but she loved watermelon, tomatoes, corn on the cobb, she loved noodles in soup, I used to put a jar of baby food into campbells soup like sweet potatoes... so she got more nutrition, grilled cheese, tuna fish with a little mayo, egg salad, cut up apples in small pieces,, and add a little cinnamon if he doesn't like them plain, oranges, nectarines or peaches.. little peas.. good luck

My son loved tofu and avocado at that age. The consistency is similar to ripe banana and I cut both into cubes so they are good finger foods. You can get plain firm tofu, which lasts up to a week as long as you keep it in fresh water (change the water every day). This is an especially good option if your son isn't a big fan of meat since it's also a good protein source.

Good luck.

in addition to the other suggestions that have been posted...
i like to give my 9 month old lightly toasted toast with butter and cinnamon in the mornings and lightly toasted grilled cheese at lunch. He a really loves the grilled cheese. I give him also the frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, beans, lentils) and those are perfect size for little fingers :)
and Cherrios. He can eat a whole meal and still have room for Cherrios :)

I mix thawed frozen spinach into eggs or ground meat to help get some veggie into my 10mo son. Also, when i serve him macaroni noodles I include peas in the mix-- if you child eats like mine, he ends up grabbing/eating both because he can't pick out the peas.

These are all finger foods I have been feeding my son...

protein - black beans, tofu cubes, cheese cubes, yogurt (my son cannot have cow's protein so I get the soy yogurt and sheep or goats milk cheese)

veggies - sweet potatos (slice crosswise, steam and cube - they can be frozen before cubing), peas (the frozen kind - I just warm them in a little water before serving), broccoli (steamed), carrots (sliced and steamed), zucchini or squash (roasted or steamed)

fruits - blueberries, grapes, mango, kiwi, apples, peaches...none of these need to be cooked, but ripe and but small enough.

other...we have pancakes, french toast, pasta (he loves the rotini style cut into segments...I get the high protein kind and cook with chicken stock to add more flavor/protein)

He hasn't always eaten the foods the first time I gave them to him, but I kept trying. Blueberries for instance took 4 or 5 tries...to the point where I thought to myself before I put them down that he was not going to eat them..then one day he gobbled them all up! Keep trying the healthy foods becasue their tastes change all the time. There are days when my son will eat whole peas and others when he acts just like a one year old and will throw them on the floor! :) By the way, my son is almost 13 months and still only has 2 teeth on the bottom - and eats all of these things successfully...even the apples. Good luck!

i don't have much time so this will be short -
sweet potato! (the best). avocado, noodles with mushroom sauce (or other vegetable based sauces to sneak some veggies in), brown rice, pear (poach in water for a minute if he doesn't have any teeth -- can also do this with apples), berries (peeled if necessary)...
try the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. outlines everything you can feed your baby at different ages and how to get the right vitamins and protein if they don't eat meat -

i noticed that children have cycles of eating and not eating. probably due to growth spurts. he will eat when hungry. just keep offering different things. good luck