solid food strike

[bauries123]

Hi ladies....I always get the best advice from y'all with baby #1, so I am hoping that despite all the changes on the web site, it is still a great place to be:) My dd is 8m and she has recently refused the spoon, baby food-I mean she will just shut her mouth , grunt and push me away, but she WILL feed herself, or take chunks out of my hand...this is so odd to me b/c she LOVED the baby food, and I have only been feeding her for a month or so due to allergies....this all started at the same time that she started her fever with roseola, so I attributed it to illness, but that was almost two weeks ago and she is still not budging. She is teething right now ....the thing about the solid chunks is first, she is not great at getting them in...and second she has no teeth:hugegrin:Dees anyone have a situation like this that resolved and the baby went back to eating reg. baby food? (I just made like 10 batches of food) Or, should I just stop offering her the spoon? Another issue is that I cannot get cereal in her...sorry so long...

[RedheadbyChoice]

She doesn't need cereal to function, momma. ;) Seriously, if she won't eat it, no worries there. Half of my kids haven't had any of that foul-tasting stuff either, they're just fine. :)

I'd let her roll with it on chunks of food. If she can handle them, there's nothing at all wrong with wanting to feed herself. As long as they are soft, she doesn't need teeth to eat them.

[pumpkinhead7]

I agree with Red. At this age solids are just for fun and practice. She doesn't need them. I'd just follow her lead and go with it. You can't force her to eat and it's not somethiong you should try to do. Just keep offering, but if she refuses, don't keep offering her different things in an attempt to get her to eat something her body just doesn't need at this stage of the game :). Let her eat what she wants to eat how she wants to eat it.

My 2 year old has only recently started eating any quantity of anything solid. He started off loving everything at 7 months and then at 9 months decided he hated pretty much everything. He didn't get his first tooth until he was 15 months old thoughs. At 18 months he started eating more variety, but just bites here and there. Now, he eats like a horse and will consume almost anything you put in front of him. So, he was mostly breastfed until he was more than 18 months old but no one (including my doctor) was worried because he surpassed all of his milestones and gained weight steadily.

So, I wouldn't worry, personally. My first was so different! He loved all foods, weaned at 13 months and was a very adventurous eater from the get go. Try not to worry!

[madelsmama]

I agree with the others. Don't stress about the solids--at all. Keep offering her finger foods. My 11 month old doesn't take ANY food on a spoon, and never has!

[ima062002]

She doesn't need cereal to function, momma. ;) Seriously, if she won't eat it, no worries there. Half of my kids haven't had any of that foul-tasting stuff either, they're just fine. :)

I'd let her roll with it on chunks of food. If she can handle them, there's nothing at all wrong with wanting to feed herself. As long as they are soft, she doesn't need teeth to eat them.

This. Two of my three babes never had baby food (i.e. mashed foods).

[hotlama]

I'm still really new at the feeding thing but this past week I have been feeding dd her first foods and she'll eat from a spoon but loves it even more if I dump the food on her tray and let her play with it instead. Food is just for practice and experience for the first year so I have no problems letting her feed herself even if she only gets a few drops in her mouth. I would rather her get more breast milk than solid food anyway.

[PeacefulMom]

My ds almost never ate from a spoon, not with any great consistency anyway. So, I started giving him a spoon to play with too! And now at 19 months old he eats on his own with a spoon or fork almost every time.

He still amazes me with how well he eats with his spoon, things like cereal with milk or oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese, pudding, beans and rice. I just put it in a bowl and he takes care of it. It's actually pretty nice. I just sit with him and read a book while he eats!