my son turned one about 2 weeks ago. so now he is drinking less (sbout 18 ounces of whole milk a day) so we are trying to get him to eat more solids. He is on WIC so we try to arrange his meals with what they provide for him (bread or rice or tortillas, beans, milk, fresh fruits or veggies, eggs, and cereal) he use to love feeding himself, but lately he will onlyself feed with things he reconizes really well. which really limits us (basically its cheerios, crackers, scrambled eggs and sometimes cheese.) we can't get him to try any new finger foods. I tried giving him everything from pasta to veggies to even grilled cheese and chicken nuggets. he just stares at it. We also use to feed him baby rice cereal every morning for breakfast but now we are trying to give him, new things (like real oatmeal) and he doesnt seem to adjust well to it. I tried even making him pancakes for breakfast and he just threw them on the floor. I know he is hungry because he sleeps through the night for about 13 hrs. which means he has gone 14 hrs without eating. Is it ok to keep feeding him his meals if he only wants to self feed at snack time (the times when we give him cheerios) what are some good meal ideas to feed him? (oh he only has his four front teeth) I should also add that if I manage to get something in his mouth he doesnt reconize he pulls it back out. . but mostly I don't know how to get him to self feed (
oh and I give him a spoon everytime I feed him...otherwise I could never get him to eat)
Really I just wanted ideas on how to help the transition for half baby food half table food to all table food. you get some really great answers on mamapedia but you also get some real awfull ones that make me worry more than I need to! Deb T I don't think he needs to be feeding himself 100% at 12 mnths old. I asked him peditrition and his nutritionist and they both say that most babies at that age will want to do it themselves one minute and then want to be fed the next because they are caught between wanting to keep the cushy role of baby and wanting to be a big boy. so I should feed him when he wants to be fed and let him do it when he is feeling more independent.
My daughter NEVER ate baby food or Cheerios ... I had to give really small bites of food off of my plate for her. Just put the food on a plate or in a bowl and let him pick it up when he's ready.
Try giving him cheerios mixed with quartered banana slices and a little milk. This way he recognizes the cheerios and will also get to taste the bananas.
And truly the only thing you can really do is keep presenting him with the new foods. You can also make a big production of eating the same foods yourself and how delicious they are. You know, roll your eyes in ecstasy over the flavor of the new food ;). Eventually his curiosity will be peaked and he will pick it up and try it. Another thing to try is to let him sit on your lap while you are eating and let him indicate what he wants. All babies that are allowed to sit on mommy's lap while she's eating eventually start grabbing for what's on the plate. Sometimes taking advantage of the nature of the little poachers can be beneficial! lol! It could also be that he just wants to start using a spoon or fork. Maybe you could try one out with him and see if it encourages him toward self-feeding.
Good foods for trying with him are peeled and quartered seedless grapes, peeled and chunked apples, banana slices, soft cooked carrots, peas, green beans, peanut butter toast or just buttered toast cut into triangles with the crust removed, string cheese (already "strung" if you know what I mean), Gerber yogurt bites (freeze dried yogurt), cottage cheese (once he's using a spoon or to practice using a spoon), baked instead of fried frozen french fries or already mashed tater tots, cut up buttered pancakes, cut up buttered waffles, rice, pasta like macaroni noodles or spaghetti noodles cut up etc...
Please don't be put off by what I'm about to share. It does not sound like your difficulties (picky eater) are as severe as mine were. However, my son was reluctant to wean and very hesitant about new foods. When he was 18 months old, his diet consisted of about 7 items (and he was still nursing.) That was around the time he was diagnosed with autism. One of his manifestations was oral/sensory defensiveness. Since his diagnosis, we have worked with a pediatric speech pathologist with training in feeding therapy. Some of the practices of this type of therapy may help you conquer your son's pickyness. (Please keep in mind, I am in no way trying to imply that you son has a disorder. Just that the way it's broken down to deal with autistic children can be very illuminating for any parent having a difficulty like this.) The basic principle of "food chaining" is that you take one quality of an accepted food and introduce a new food with the same quality, changing as little as possible at a time. For instance, if he will eat sliced apples, try sliced pears. Once he will eat sliced pears, see if you can cube them up and have him eat them from a spoon. And so on.
Also, keep in mind that the stages of acceptance are sometimes more pronounced in some children than in others. 1. They must accept the food being on their plate, but don't have to touch it. 2. They must tolerate touching the food (food play) but don't have to put it to their mouth. 3. They must allow the food to get near their mouth, if not in. (Give it a kiss.) 4. They allow the food in their mouth, but with no requirement to chew or swallow. (Lick it, perhaps.) 5. They sample the food.
We generally consider a new food integrated when my son has eated it seven times.
Also beware of "food jags." These occur when a child gets so attatched to such a limited number of foods that they get burnt out and actually wind up rejecting favored foods and limiting their diet even further.
PM me if you would like me to share additional resources. Best of luck to you.
By the 1st birthday, a child should be 100% self-feeding (with fingers, using a spoon comes later) and eating all the regular foods that the rest of the family is eating at mealtimes. Snacks can be the same thing everyone else is eating, too. Just give him a wide variety of healthy foods. There isn't really anything he can't eat (unless he's already been tested and you know he has an allergy). In fact, MANY studies done in the past 2 years have shown that it's best to introduce as wide variety of foods before the 1st birthday as possible, to minimize allergies. He'll watch the rest of the family eating at the table and he'll eventually start copying you and eat better. Also remember the tiny tummy. His snacks should be more like mini-meals and he'll probably want to eat 4-5 small mini-meals a day (3 being the regular meals he eats with family, 2-3 being snacktime).
Keep offering a healthy variety of foods. Cut them into pea-size bits and put on his plate. Then ignore the food. It's your job to prepare and serve the food, it's HIS job to actually eat it. Don't get drawn into a power struggle over this. A child will not starve if offered a healthy variety of food. Remember that his growth rate has slowed down significantly in the past couple of weeks and he only needs about a third of the calories he's been eating up to this point. Remember that a toddler serving size is 1T. So like 3 green beans is a serving.
Teeth don't matter - only the molars are used for chewing and most babies don't have those until closer to age 2. Babies can gum pretty much anything, just cook meat until it's soft and fork-tender. Then cut into pea-size bits.
You're doing great S.! Keep doing what your doing and offering him new foods at every meal. Make a kid friendly plate of what you are eating and eat together. He will want to copy what you are doing. Try giving him some things he can dunk. My son loved dumping small banana slices into applesauce. Even if he won't try something the 1st time give it to him over and over so it starts to look familiar to him. He'll catch on quick.
He can eat anything you eat. Use whatever they give you for him for family meals and let him eat whatever you make. There's no reason to make separate meals for him:)
You know how i got mine to eat regular oatmeal. I would add cinammon to the baby oatmeal, then after a week, switched to regular but made it thin, then gradually thickened it up. It tasted the same the whole time, just the textured changed. So I had to do it slowly. I have been trying to get my baby to eat eggs (in various forms) since she was 12 months, now at 18 months she still will wont touch them (which is sad because I love them and apparently am the only one in my family who does). It's the same with cheese, she wont touch it. But I keep trying.
I got her to eat cut up veggies by adding them to baby rice cereal, then just taking them out slowly. Now she will finially eat steamed veggies on her own, but she wont eat raw veggies. LOL. It drives me bonkers at times. It's all a learning process. just keep doing what you're doing, let them try everything on your plate (thats how we found out ours liked hamburger and pastrami). Good Luck!
You need to get a copy of FEED ME, I'M YOURS by Lansky. It gives you lots of tips, food ideas, etc.
