1 Year Old Won't Eat Table Food!

You may have to introduce it to at a little later date. When you do try to feed her table food, how long has it been since she had a bottle, as she may not be hungry. And finger table food, even if it is messy, may be a good start. Lay some green beans or peas in front of her to see if she is interested. My first child didn't get any teeth until 10 mo. to a year, so baby food it was for her.

hi M.
i didn't read all the responses but what i did with my son (who is now 20 months old) i took stage 3 baby foods and put them on crackers...so it moistened the cracker a lot but gave it flavor, i slowly added table food into the stage 3 foods! My son has acid reflux and would gag a lot so i had to be careful. This may work for you... hopefully you find something that works!! take care!!
S.

I was a nanny for a kiddo who did this. Just keep offering baby food, and introduce new table foods VERY slowly. Pick one thing to introduce and have it out at every meal, and don't say a word about it or even offer it to her. For example, pick diced pears and simply set a small bowl of them on the table, then prodeed to feed her the baby food. Have a bowl of pears at the table at every meal. Maybe even take a bite of them occasionally yourself. Eventually she should show interest. Basically, eating table food is going to have to be HER idea, not yours (or at least you need to make it look like it's her idea :-)). Try this one food at a time until she seems more receptive.

Hi M.,

In addition to the suggestions you have received, I'd also like to recommend two cookbooks that I have started using for recipes to help my 19 month old like food and eat healthy food. With the suggestions you've received, and some perserverence (sp?), your daughter will eventually come around to table food. I wouldn't stress that she still prefers baby food. I can't remember if someone else suggested this, but maybe you can try making your table food into purees so that they are in a form/texture she is comfortable with? Then, maybe you could transition to non-puree once you can identify which flavors she likes? A good website for the best ways to do this: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com. Also, the Magic Bullet blender could help make this very easy.

When she does transition to table food, she may be a picky eater. This is what I ran into. The first cookbook I recommend is Deceptively Delicious. The other is Toddler Cafe. I have found concepts and recipes in both of these books to be very helpful.

Good luck, and as with most phases, this Cheerio-only phase will probably pass!

My son is almost 18 months and will not eat fruits and veggies unless they come out of a jar. So, I still feed him stage 2 fruits and veggies. As long as he is getting healthy foods, I don't care where it comes from. I, also, feed him toast, crackers, yogurt, and waffles. I totally disagree with anyone who says to force a child to eat a certain food by withholding everything else. Kids have preferences, too. They should have the right to choose what they want to eat as long as their choices include only nutritious foods. My oldest child is very picky and will not eat any veggies or fruits, except apples and orange juice. His diet includes only healthy foods, but only those two sources of fruits and veggies. The pedi says give it time and he will eventually come around, so we don't make a big deal out of it as long as he active and healthy. All kids are different. You can only offer new foods and eventually she will probably choose a few she likes. Good luck!!

Well, you can't force feed her. My suggestion is to let go. Instead of trying to feed her, let her completely feed herself. You can also mix her cherrios in with a tiny bit of say tiny cut up chicken or veggies. Don't forget tho, cherrios are actually very healthy.

We used a baby food grinder and ground up our table food and mixed it with the baby cereal. Gradually we eased off the cereal and fed ever stronger portions of real ground up table food.

You can put small bits of unground up food on her plate to peak her interest. My kids liked chewing on corn cobs.

Here's a thought - maybe the taste is so different that she can't enjoy the table food. Grind some of the table food and mix a small amount with the appropriate jar of baby food.

Good luck!

Try giving your child things like green beans ,softfoods etc, just put them on her tray and let her put it in her mouth, or you can save some of those jars and put your food in it see if she will eat it taht way.
I had a daughter that only wanted peanut butter. She wouldn't eat meat at all . The peanut butter had the protein she needed . I am not saying give her peanut butter because they can choke on it at her age.She will eat when she is hungry. but make sure you don't give her sweets or treats before meals.

I really like the suggestion before mine but I also would just feed her baby food she will eat table food when she is ready. it may be a sensory thing for her she does not like the other texture. also you can take the table food and puree it for her then she might get used to the taste and decide to try it from your plate soon...

hth
A. J

We had the same issue with our son - anything with any real texture would make him gag. My husband put a cheerio in his mouth once and he gagged and threw up. So we just didn't rush it. We kept giving him baby food and tried to introduce things with more texture. I'd give him some mashed potatoes and would grind up some chicken and hide it in there. He now eats more things - but is still pretty picky. I had kept him on the second stage formula for a while - just to make sure he was getting all the nutrition he needed - but now that he's eating a lot better we're just giving him milk. I say don't rush it - as long as he's getting all the nutrients he needs. Every kid is different - yours just might not be ready for table food yet! Good luck!

Feed her baby food until she is ready. Offer table foods. If she doesn't want it, no big deal. keep trying. She won't go all her life on just baby food.

Had the same problem with my twin 2.5 yr olds. Was really tough to get them to transition to table foods. I just kept at it; look for new kinds of things she might like, introduce from time to time, wait a while and try again. To a certain extent I think it's just fear of change. Also I would eat in front of them the foods I was hoping they would eat, then offer to them. If she takes a bite or even puts it in her mouth, make a BIG deal of clapping for her and encouraging her. Try things she would be sure to like, such as fruit filled breakfast bar; Gerber has a wonderful fruit-filled snack. I sort of avoided that sort of thing initially, but when I could not get them to eat, I took whatever I could get...graham cracker bits, club crackers, chicken nuggets, tator tots. Eventually they changed over, though I still have a hard time getting them to eat new things. Also had a heck of a time getting them to switch from bottle to cup. Good luck, and just keep trying.

Our pediatrician said that you may have to introduce foods 10x's before they will eat them or like them. I would stick with baby foods and concentrate on adding 1 food at a time. And eventually she will get the hang of it. I think its the whole texture thing being such a change with them. If you think she's hungry and you cant get her to eat, maybe talk to your pediatrician as well. She'll get there, Mom! Take care

This is the only thing a 12 month old can control. I would just give her Cheerios and not offer food until she acts like she wants to, as long as she is recieving enough calories from and at least the nutrition from formula or Ensure...whichever you doctor says.
Maybe even try laying out some of those Gerber snack that are dry and kinda crunchy soft (I can't remember what they are called, maybe toddler bites.) Put them out at time other than meals, and maybe she'll try one out of curiosity.

Figuring out a childs diet is difficult sometimes!

M.,

You need to have the heart to be firm with your daughter. She is only 12 months old, she NEEDS you to be the boss, she cannot make good decisions and that's your job.

Decide which food to feed her (I would choose a vegetable) then try to feed it to her. If she won't eat it, then take her down from the high chair. When she wants to eat again, bring out the SAME food. Don't let her have anything else but water. You don't want her to just like on milk/formula at this point.

She will scream & cry. You have have to calmly put her down from the table. Because she is young, you need to keep teaching her that the same food will keep coming until she is ready to eat it and that she won't get anything else. You probably need to remove the Cheerios from the house entirely so you are not tempted to give in.
You need to be calm and sweet even when she is being difficult. If you give in to her tantrums, you are teaching her that tantrums are how you get what you want.

It is not wise to make this a power struggle or unpleasant. Please be as calm and IN CHARGE as possible. She needs to know that you mean what you say and you don't change your mind because she cries/screams. This is a lesson that you will have to re-teach occasionally throughout her growing up. Society will thank you.

Hang in there, Mom!

D.
Mom to 8 children

maybe she is getting "stage fright"... try just place the foods near where she is playing (of course be right there, but don't let her know you are paying attention), then it'll be like picking something up off the floor and putting it in her mouth, something all babies love to do. She KNOWS you want her to eat the table foods, if you don't care she might relax and try it. Just a thought.

Hey M. -
I'm in the exact same boat your are in. My daughter just turned 1 in December and my son is 5. With my son, I never gave him jarred baby food - I made all of his food. So, transitioning him to table food was super easy. But, I started my daughter out on baby food and so I am struggling with getting her to eat table food as well. This past weekend, I refused to give her a bottle instead of food. She threw several hissy fits (she would be acting perfectly fine, but if I walked into the room and she even saw me, she would throw her head down on to the floor and cry). But, at the next meal, she ate her food. Last night, I chopped up what we were eating into very small pieces and let her have it. While we ate dinner, I let her have the spoon and do what she wanted with the food. She ate some of it (she enjoyed having the spoon herself). When we were done, she accepted eating some of the food from me. But, eventually, I went ahead and fed her baby food (I got another spoon - she really did enjoy holding her own spoon herself). So, I am going to continue in this manner - provide her chopped up food, but continue with some baby food. I'm not going to let her "win" and just go ahead and have a bottle though. She has to eat something at meal times first.

I'm sure you are going to get lots of advice, so here is mine too. I promise promise promise they will eat when they are hungry. I have an 18 month old now and boy do I hate to hear people tell me that, but I know it is true and I just have to keep telling myself that. Little ones listen to their tummies and adults really don't. We eat with our head or heart. Why don't you try letting her feed herself. If she hasn't done it before it will be very messy and even when she gets the hang of it, its gonna be messy. Try mixing cheerios with baby yogurt. Try macaroni or try something that she likes out of the baby food. If she likes green beans or peas or carrots from the baby food. Get the real thing and mix in peas, carrots or green beans. Put it in a little bowl in front of her, give her a taste with a spoon and then let her try it with the spoon (with you helping of course) and then let her go at it with her little fingers. Try mashed potatoes with cream gravy (we like KFC because it isn't lumpy) or stuff like that. She will be ok, I promise. Take it from a mommy whose little one used to gag and throw up mashed potatoes!