My 10 month old is a bottle refusing breast fed baby who refuses to eat any solid foods other than hard cruchies such as cheerios, toast, crackers. When I try to feed her with a spoon she bats the spoon and turns away. When I give her cooked vegetables or any soft foods such as cheese, she touches it with her finger and swipes it onto the floor. She has never willingly accepted purees. Any advice to get her to eat other things.
My son who is 11 months old also does the same thing he bats the spoon with his hands what I do sometimes is I hold his hands and play with the spoon as I'm feeding him (here comes the airplane into the hanger and down to the tummy.)With solid food he doesnt want to eat unless he gets held if he doesnt get held he shares with the dog giving the dog a bite then taking a bite himself.
She might be teething and the hard crunchies feel better on her gums. She might also want to feed herself, which she can do with hard crunchies. MY daughter who just turned two will only feed herself and has been that way since she was 10 months, she wants that independence.
just a thought
M.
http://www.workathomeunited.com/M.
I work with babies with feeding issues. First I would continue to offer her foods that you think are appropriate for her age as you stated, soft cooked vegies, soft meat. Eat them in front of her/with her.
Second, Give her a chance to explore textures with her hands. Start with things like whipped cream, jello, yogurt on her tray, add cheerios to the mix. Do this in small portions (to decrease the mess) and let her play in it.
Also, combine the textures she accepts with a little of something she rejects i.e. a cracker with a little spray cheese. You can also making the purees thicker by adding cereal or oatmeal etc. to them.
Re: the bottle, don't add that now, this is a good thing if you have gone this long. A 10 month old, typically developing baby, can learn to drink from a straw and certainly a cup. This way, once you stop breastfeeding, down the road, you won't have to break her from the bottle. (my second never went to a bottle). You are welcome to e-mail me. I would love to hear how things work out.
I highly agree with Gina-who posted below me. The only thing I would add is to possibly watch the Swedish Chef on Youtube.com at the following links real quick. As you see these, imagine your daughter eating and her developing relationship with food. I don't think any thing captures a baby learning to eat better than the Swedish Chef does! And realize, hopefully with laughter, that our children are really our ticket to our very own comedy show!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfwztLW10oQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLADUlwMHTU
Children are resilient and are vitamin packed after gestation and all the nursing they have been given. So, moms can let go a little bit of the stress. If you are doing your best, she will survive through learning how to eat-although your dining room may not.
I have a 14 month old who did the same thing. The next time your 10 month old refuses any other foods and wants the hard crunchies, put him/her in a high chair with a bowl, pour in the hard crunchies and a small amount of milk. Just enought to make the hard crunchies, soft. Make sure your child watches to see that it is what they wanted but this helps to learn to eat soft foods at first (kind of like a bowl of cold cereal). If they really want it still, they will eat it. It may be hard at first. We also tried small shredded carrots that didn't seem quite so hard to bite but were still crunchy. She ate them.
There is an online catalog company called One Step Ahead that has a product that allows you to put solid food inside a sock-like contraption which allows the child to suck the food out through the mesh of the "sock". Because your baby seems to need a sucking or toothy experience, perhaps that could be an answer. we used it for fruit in particular, but slightly cooked veggies would probably work too. Good luck.
Hi S.,
This advice is from my 94yr old Nana, when my daughter was
doing the same thing. We thought she was never going
to eat.! We put the cooked veggies/purees in a ice-cream
cone. The cake-type cones. It still in "crunchy" and they
can hold it, but you can sneak the good food in too.
Good luck!
A.
Hello S.,
my daughter also went through this . I just gave her , her own spoon and "momma" has a spoon and then you say "mommas turn" and you pretend to eat it.. And then you say "your babys name" and hopefully she will like the idea of sharing.!
Hope it helps
jls
