9 Month Old Won't Eat Food

This seems to be normal. Keep putting food in front of her, and she'll find things she like eventually. You can't force it, so don't stress.

M.,
I am sure your baby is doing fine. But if your mommy gut still tells you something is not going right on schedule, go back to the basics. For a 9 month old the feeding developmental milestones are: tongue lateralization begins (moving tongue from side to side), munching and gnawing develops, lip closure supports movement of the food back in order to swallow. If she is able to do these oral movements with easy foods like cereal and banana, and can't do these movements with meat and eggs which are thicker and harder to manipulate in the mouth, her oral motor skills are not fully developed for that food texture. Give her time, allow her to explore the foods, play with them etc.The more she exposed to these foods the more likely she will be to try them. If she continues to not eat these harder textures by 12-14 months you might want to see a feeding therapist to assist you. The earlier picky eating is resolved the better she will be nutritionally. Hope that helps!
Best of luck!
D. W., MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Pathologist/Feeding Therapist
www.SpectrumSpeech.com

My kids have all gone through these "food strike" phases. Sometimes I think it has to do with teething, sometimes an overly sensitive gag reflex, sometimes a sore throat. There are so many things that could be going on.

I have always just tried to follow my children's cues. Is she losing weight? If not, I wouldn't be too worried. Try to document on your calendar what she eats each day and just keep offering the foods she is presently refusing. If it continues for more than 2 weeks or if she starts losing weight or crying excessively or running fever, I would suggest making an appointment with her pediatrician to have the situation evaluated by a trusted professional.

Good luck, mama!

S.

I agree with Sherrie, it's ok that formula or breast milk is still her primary food at 9 months, and teething and taste bud development will cause many food strikes, as she puts it....I noticed babies are very interested in what WE eat, feed her at the dinner table, eat your own food with exaggerated enjoyment, they start to 'mooch' when they see you eat....try a teeny bit of whatever YOUR eating, mashed up or watered down of course, otherwise I wouldn't worry to much if she still have her formula....

First off your child IS getting enough nutrition. Kids prefer certain foods, mine were bonified vegans as infants. No meat only fruits, some veggies and lots of liquids! They still dont eat meat they prefer fish. You cannot force a human being to eat food they dont like, from infancy to adult. Formula is adequate enough nutrition for her age. Wait till she is a toddler ! lol your gonna pull your hair out when all she wants for lunch is 1 grape lol

Just remember that formula or breastmilk is the main source of a baby's nutrition for the entire first year of life. Some people don't even start solid food until 12 months old. Have you tried mixing sweet potatoes in with the fruit she likes? Sometimes I was able to make funny "concoctions" to get my daughter to eat certain foods. I certainly wouldn't worry about her not eating egg yolk or meat at this point. We didn't introduce meat until just before the first birthday. With egg yolk...how do you prepare it? My daughter wouldn't eat egg yolk if it was hard boiled, but when I scrambled it up with a little water and cheddar cheese, she ate it up...just an idea.

But truly, just keep offering things to her, and give it a couple more months. Maybe she just isn't quite ready yet. :)

my advice is to just give her some time to start to like food--- don't push it. She's still under a year so technically she could still be living off of just formula. The formula is giving her all the nutrition she needs--- the rest of it is just practice and good eating habits. But babies can be finicky and go through times of eating well and times of not eating at all.
My son was the same way. Actually- he was much worse- had no interest at all in food until he turned TWO. We just continually offered him healthy foods, encouraged him to try new things, but didn't push it. My sister, a pediatric dietician assured me that as long as he was getting at least one bottle of formula at night that he would be fine nutritionally. And you know what? He has been. He's always been at the top of the charts for height and weight. And then one day he just decided that he likes to eat--- and now he eats ALL the things we eat. He eats lettuce and fruit and green beans and broccoli. His favorite thing is avocado. While other parents two year olds will only eat french fries and chicken fingers, my finicky eater has grown to like things are that good for his body. He thinks chicken fingers are disgusting....
So just give it some time. No need to rush with a nine month old- just consistently offer her healthy options and at some point she will be interested in them again.
Good Luck!

I am going through the same thing right now my pediatrican sent me a prescription for vitamins since my child will not eat any vegetable baby food or anything with meat. He does not care for savory flavor only sweet. You should call the pediatrician and they may suggest vitamins to you as well you can also try mixing in veggies with some of her fruit or cereal but I would make sure she does not see you mixing it. You may want to also try avocado and banana.

i have an independant baby that wanted to feed herself :) as long as she had some sweet potatoe or carrot cubes or fruit - cooked and cut really small, so she could feed herself, she would eat whatever pureed thing i fed her. by 9 months she was also sitting in her highchair at the table with us whenever we ate, so i kept chunks of things she could eat (no salt, ect) on my plate - and she wanted to eat it because i did. yes, its messy and it takes a while, but she will eat almost anything now. at lunch time i usually roll her into the kitchen and do dishes and start on dinner while i talk to her and let her take her time. i also use a site called wholesomebabyfood.com to find yummy recipies and fruit/vegie (when your ready and have introduced them separately) combos that she likes and i would NOT have thought of - this week we had green beans with pear and pumpkin and spinach :) good luck!!

All I can say is just keep working on it. My mom used to "hide" the veggies under the fruit on the spoon, and by the time the baby realized it, they had already swallowed it! Then follow up with a bite of cereal to wash it down. Have you tried offering her more finger foods? any cooked veggie cut up the size of a cheerio would work, peas are ready-made bite sized! small pieces of toast, small sized pastas, etc. Just try one new thing at a time and keep trying. She will get REALLY picky around 18 months-3 years, so the more you can get her used to now, the better. She's probably getting enough nutrition, really, babies used to be exclusively breastfed until they were 3. Unless she's not growing, I'm sure she is fine.

1. Formula is complete nutrition. She doesn't "need" anything else, food at this point is only for training her to chew.

2. In the next few months she'll start transitioning to 1/4 milk in 3/4 formula, then 1/2 milk and 1/2 formula, then 3/4 milk to 1/4 formula, then full milk. At that time she'll show more interest in table food and even before. Just keep offering it to her and she'll eat what she wants. She needs the nutrients in the formula more than food at this point.

3. Table food is higher in fat, salt, sugars, calories, all kinds of stuff she REALLY doesn't need. Offer her that fresh fruit and grains in the ceareals. Those are all the supplements she needs. Feeding food at this point is just to train them to eat table food after they are a year old and on regular whole Vitamin D milk.