I have a one year old who doesn't swallow anything that she has to chew. She chews it up, then sucks out any juicy bits and holds the leftovers in her mouth for hours. My doctor has told me to get her started on more solid food or I could have trouble later on. Any tips??
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Getting a Toddler to Try New Foods
20 comments:
Do you feed her baby food? One possibility is that you can start making your own food for her in the blender, and gradually make the consistency a little chunkier. My son is a BIG texture freak and is very picky, it started around the time he was 1. One thing that he loves is fruit smoothies, I buy the frozen fruit by Europe's Best and throw it in the blender, that way I know he is getting it ALL, instead of just the juice.
I make all of her food and she eats everything with no problem. But I am trying to get her to eat apple slices, cottage cheese and other things like this and she chews it up very well but just doesn't swallow.
I don't mean to be dense or sarcastic... but how does a fruit smoothie differ from pureed food? She eats pureed food very well (fruits, veggies, meats and lentils) but won't swallow anything she has to chew.
Make homemade food but make the meat in small chunks at first.That is what I did for my son and he is almost 11 months old.He use to choke on the baby fod I bought so I started making homemade.Like if we were having potatoes and steak for supper I would take some of each and puree it with a little water, then I would put it in ice cube trays and frezze it.After frozen I put the cubes in ziploc bags.Homemade last longer than store bought to.
Oh ok, I just thought you were worried that all she was doing was sucking the juice out of things. I just meant it as a means to get her to eat the WHOLE fruit, fiber and all, as opposed to just the juice. Sorry for the confusion.
You can begin with tiny, soft, unnoticeable lumps in your baby's foods. At first, she may selectively spit out these lumps, but in time, she will master the ability to control these little lumps in her mouth and swallow them. Slowly, you can move on to introducing mashed, ground or chopped table foods. To introduce textures simply mix some textured foods into your baby's smooth, pureed baby food.
ok, I have a good one.. My daughter just turned 2 and she is still eating puree foods.. she will eat her fruits whole, (Loves them) but if we try to give her something that we are eating, eg. chicken, pasta, any meats, cheese, she will have a fit! I have tried to stick to my guns and leave her there to it is gone, but all she does is cry (almost fearful) for the whole time she is in her chair, (15mins or more) She do eat yoghurt
Also she will not give up her bottle (milk) only has it at bedtime. I have tried her with sippy cup, etc.. and she wouldn't take it, we went a whole week without drinking it. And I mean, she will not even try it.
any suggestions.. on what I can do..
Hi
I have the same problem with my daughter, 2 and a half. She will not eat pasta, rice, potatoes unless she has watched me blend it. She will eat bread with seeds in but thats all. Shes ok with porridge, yogurt, vege burgers, falafals and nut butter sandwiches, certain fruits, but for main meals im still having to blend them to maintain her nutrition. Im really worried. Can any one offer any experience of the similar problem. thanks
I would suggest gradually blending it less and less. It sounds like she has a real issue with texture. Your best bet is to offer her variations of things that she likes to expand her repertoire.
There is nothing wrong with feeding her pureed foods in my opinion. It is a really big social issue as far as I'm concerned.
If she is eating the same things you are, only pureed I think that's great! She obviously likes the taste, and is getting all the nutrition she needs.
Just give it to her pureed like she likes it, but also offer her a small amount of everything not purreed.
If she is watching you do it, she can see what you are putting in there. So put some in the blender, and show her you are also putting some on her plate. Cut it up in little pieces and give her her own fork to eat with.
Another thing, don't put too much stress on meals because she will sense it.
:)
thanks a lot Jessika
have tried following your advice! Meg has started to eat rice and couscous with other part of meal blended and put in separate bowl. She has also been munching on chunks of pepper, tomato, which is much better. I had always put out an unblended version but she would just leave it untouched. So now she stands on her stool in kitchen and chooses which bits she doesn`t want blended which so far is rice/couscous. We will plod on and thanks for responding!!
Someome please help me. I have a 2 year old daughter that just will not eat. I have had her tested and everything seems to be fine. I have had all kinds of specialist see her and still nothing. She eat great as a baby, once I started her on stage 3 gerber foods when she was 9 months old, that's when things changed. She got sickl the first time and sense then, she has not eatten like a child her age should be eatting. the only thing solid she will put to her mounth is chips and fries. But even then, all she does is licks them and then throws them to the floor. She will not attempt at all to chew them.
Some kids just don't like to have to chew, and if you have had her checked out and she is developing fine in every other way, then you can relax a bit.
What exactly does she eat? Milk, juice, yogurt, pureed fruit?
My baby is just over a year...he is still on formula, will not drink formula if I mix it with homoginized milk.
He will eat nothing with any texture. (Still on stage 2 baby food)
I let him "play" with food in his high chair, he puts nothing in his mouth but enjoys feeding me with his hands. i allow him to sit for an hour sometimes...he will not play with anything wet or slimey. I have tried to give him food that I puree but he gags and vomit.
Other than baby food, he eats yogurt.
He is developing normally in every other way; he walks etc...
His gag reflex is horendous...My first son was far ahead of schedule with walking, eating, talking, potty etc. I really dont now what else to try or how long this might last.
Any tips?
There is nothing wrong with him still being on formula, there are a lot more vitamins and minerals in it than cow's milk regardless. You can also get formula made especially for toddlers and it is cheaper than the infant formula as well.
Your son sounds like he is hyper-sensitive to textures and it really isn't your fault he was likely born that way. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with him either, he just likes what he likes, and doesnt like what he doesnt.
Try offering him variations of things he likes, if he will eat one type of cracker try to get him to try others, etc. If he likes toast with butter, try toast with jam, or nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), etc. (providing he's not allergic/ past the age allowed)
My son, who just turned 3 the other day only started to eat things like toast and muffins when he was around 2. Youre certainly not going to be able to force him to try new things thats for sure and your best bet is patience.
Keep offering him things he doesnt like, but always offer him at least one thing he does like.
Dont get stressed out at mealtimes, because he will get stressed out too and if he gets really upset he will really likely end up gagging and maybe even puking.
Try and engage him in a different type of messy play every few days. Like playdoh, finger painting, puddle splashing, etc.
You will probably have to make him a different meal than what youre having for a long time to come, but he will come around, and try things at his own pace.
:) Good luck, I have been in your shoes and still am, my son still wont eat mashed potatoes, yogurt with fruit chunks, or anything else he deems inadequately textured, but I'm sure he will someday, after all he's only 3 and Im in no rush to make him grow up.
Hi everyone
After reading all your comments, I finally feel relieved that my son isn't the only one not wanting to eat solids. He is 15 months and prefers formula and cow's milk. When he's offered solids usually it ends up on the floor. He just chews food and then he spits it out. The only thing he will sometimes eat is pasta, but in saying that he will only eat a small portion, around 4 mouth-fulls and that's it. So naturally I was worried that he only lives on liquid. So I hope he will grow out of it soon. Also he used to eat pureed vegetables but since around 2 months ago, he refuses to eat even that. I was thinking that it could teeth, but it has taken a long time, so I'm not sure anymore. But hopefully it's just a phase.
Gabi
Hi. My husband and I are struggling with this issue in our 14 month old. He's still on Stage 2 foods...and sometimes refuses them as well. He enjoys things like blueberries and watermelon, but once he's chewed and sucked on them, he just leaves them in his mouth and starts to get upset the longer they're there. Eventually he has to spit them out or we have to pull them out if we don't want to wait 2 hours for him to spit them.
He gags and vomits on lumps from Level 3 foods, though he can sometimes take those foods when he's distracted. I'm hoping someone here has had some luck in the past few months to give us some hope. My husband says it will right itself and that he is fine, but I keep upsetting myself and end some nights crying.
Any help or advice or (especially) success stories.
help...
Hi There,
My family had the same problem and I swore that if we got it resolved I would make sure to write about it on one of these boards. I know that when things were at their worst with his eating, I was desperate to find some positive, hoepful stories from some other Moms, so here goes.
My son is turning 16 months old in just a couple of weeks and only recently started taking true solids. For the most part, he did take pureed food, however, as soon as anything actually solid or lumpy touched his tongue he would gag, burp and vomit it up. No matter what we tried it got worse. We were told all sorts of things from different parents (and grandparents) up to and including that we were parenting poorly and it was a control issue. When we finally hit the end of our ropes, my husband and I decided to really roll everything back and start fresh. Basically, we only fed him what we knew he would eat without a problem...so bottles and some pureed fruits. We kept that up until he really started to show interest in our foods...and even then we waited another week before we tried anything else. At that point, we made some pastina and made it very soft, put some water in and added butter. Then we made ourselves some pasta with butter, so our dishes looked alike and between his pureed foods, offered him a bite or two. It worked!! Absolute joy. I was crying I was so relieved. We kept him strictly on the pastina and purees for awhile and gradually started to add some different consistencies...a little angel hair cut up small in the pastina.
Anyway, things are very well now. He'll eat his pasta, some chicken, cookies, chips, bananas, blueberries...most fruits, pizza and toast. The point is, it's ok and will eventually get better. After we stopped showing him how upset and freaked out we were and let him just do his own thing...things settled down. Maybe starting from scratch and letting him recover from the stress we were causing was what did it. I don't know.
Anyway, good luck. Its awful, scares the crap out of you, makes you cry and makes you feel sick to your stomach. But when you feel that way, know you're not alone and it will get better! Everybody, best of luck!!!!
**worth mentioning, we did go to a feeding time after things got better just to check in with him. they gave us a thumbs up, but afterwards when i was speaking to one of the specialists she mentinoed that Level 3 foods often set this problem off. Apparently lumps in pureed foods is VERY difficult for babies. She and her team were frankly upset that Level 3 foods were even around...just another way to make money.
CS
I was googling and found this thread because this is our issue right now. I wanted to agree with CS and say our problems started with the whole "stage 3" foods thing too. A nurse who does feeding evaluations for EI in NYC here said the exact same thing, that Stage 3 foods give a lot of babies problems. It's not a texture they are naturally inclined to like or to eat; it's hard for them to figure out how to eat something that is part puree part lumps. So I am going to disagree with the others above and say DO NOT put lumps in puree or give course purees if your child has a problem with gagging on certain textures. The nurse said Stage 3 foods are just the food industry's way of trying to make more money because really babies should go right from purees to solid foods. The process should be starting to give them bits of solid food to play with and feed themselves anywhere around 8-10 months old, while you feed them spoonfuls of puree, then eventually they're just eating the solid food. This nurse told us she tells parents to skip the Stage 3 food entirely. It's only because that stage food exists that we ourselves spent so much time trying to get him to eat it; when he'd gag on it we thought he wasn't ready for solid food. Not true! Now our son is going on 14 months old and he's just starting to eat cookies. He won't eat solid fruit himself. We're way behind. Thank you, greedy food corporations.
Well, it's a comfort to read this. My 18 month old will only eat puree foods with some lumps. I have tried making the lumps bigger, but past a certain (very small) point she either spits it out or gags, vomits or even does some scary choking. She just doesn't seem to have figured out the gumming lumps/ chewing concept yet, was late to get teeth (13 months) and has always had an intense gag reflex. She is interested in imitating everything else we do, but not eating. So, I guess I will just keep waiting to see when she is ready...
My daughter is 26 months, she will barely eat anything! She only eats stage 2 baby food & yogart. I cannot even get her to try real food. I bribe her, and sneak in a spoon full with the baby food and she just throws up ! The doctors say she is being fussy. I have tried everything. She walked and talked early, she is potty trained, a very smart girl. But no-one can get her to eat !! (only 20pounds) Can anyone help?
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