View Full Version : One-Year-Old Not Making Transition to Solid/Finger Foods
Hi All,
I started feeding my baby rather late - around six months, I think, because I'd read something that said I should wait until she was sitting up on her own, and that's when she started doing that. But then I think I also was late in introducing solid and finger foods because I was so worried about her choking and she was doing fine with a variety of purees of vegetables and fruits. Now, however, she has turned one, and we are having a really difficult time getting her to eat solid or finger foods. She started eating Cheerios, bananas, and crackers around eight months, but all our attempts to introduce other solids (steamed carrots, baked potato, sweet potato, pieces of cheese, kiwi, mango, noodles) are not working at all. She has zero interest. All along, the doctor has been unconcerned about how few solids she has been eating, but when I go to birthday parties of other one-year-olds, they are basically eating what their parents are eating, just in smaller pieces.
I'm, of course, convinced I have damaged her for life and that she will never learn to chew properly.
Can anybody here give me advice about how to proceed?
Many thanks in advance!
My daughter wasn't particularly interested in solid foods until about 14 months, and even then, she far preferred breastmilk for a long time.
She'll figure it out. You could keep trying different foods to see what she likes. One of my daughter's favorite early foods was pear sauce - which I made from organic pears. She also really liked lentils.
Have you tried offering her some protein? She'll probably lunge at it like a trout at a fly.
Re: protein - she's been eating organic baby food, including some with chicken and other forms of protein, for several months, and she likes that. We've also tried cheese, but she's not interested. Maybe I'll try little pieces of chicken.
I wouldn't worry too much. My kids have eaten wildly different amounts of solid food at one year old, from James who just now has seemed to give a hoot about food (almost 3) to Travis (1) who is a total piglet.
Most toddlers will have some kind of food weirdness at some point or another. They are infamous for it. For a while James would eat nothing but string cheese and bananas. Cheyenne had to line her food up in order of colour, from darkest to lightest, and eat it in order. They'll like one food for a few weeks and then not like it, or eat more than me in a sitting and then not be too interested in food for a month.
Their nutritional needs are supplied on less food than you'd think and it varies greatly depending on how much they are growing at the moment. If your doctor isn't worried, I would just relax. Keep trying things and don't make a big deal of it.
check out Baby Lead Weaning, and see if you can restart.
DS was eating just for fun until about 14 months when he started eating meals in earnest.
and no, you haven't ruined her. :) DS didn't start solids until he was 8 months, though we followed BLW.
I wouldn't worry either. I see babies 1 year and younger who are eating finger foods, and I KNOW we were late to the game...my son was eating pureed food long past 12 months...at least until 18 months (with some finger foods in there too, but mostly pureed).
IMHO, the only damage that could be done is setting up weird dynamics and tension around food. She's fine! She'll eat solids when she's ready.
I was left to cry, alone & hungry in the crib, for the sake of a feeding schedule (the horrible 50's), raised with the "clean plate club", (trained into overeating), dessert and sugar as a reward, and by a mother who believed she was fat when she wasn't and was always on a diet (at age 85, she still is).
I'm a compulsive overeater, use sugar as a drug, and have body dysmorphia... I have no idea what my actual body size is from day to day, and routinely am shocked either by how fat or how normal I appear in the mirror, totally depending upon how I'm feeling about myself.
Truth is, I am overweight but not medically obese, I overeat to calm myself, cannot dependably tell if I am actually hungry or full, have a terrible sugar addiction, and hate my body. Whatever you do, please try to normalize her food habits so she learns to recognize & understand her own body signals and has a normal relationship with food. Lifelong eating disorders are misery.
Don't worry.
Keep making offers of other food.
She'll come around when she is ready.
I have one niece who did the same thing. When she finally decided to start eatting solids she would only eat one type of solid food a day...and nothing else.
Like when she discovered carrots. That is all she would eat for 2-3 days. Then she liked cucumbers and it was cucumbers 6 times a day and nothing else. Etc...
She was like that for about a year. The Dr wasn't concerned and she survived!!! Infact, she just got accepted to a Science high school. Smart kid.
I am so with you! My son, who was a shark teeth wise by the time he was 8 months old, would gag if even a speck of solid food was in his puree. It was so silly, really. So what we did was wait until he was good and hungry, made a pot of beans, then fed them to him one by one. He would take one, chew it forever, then swallow. Finally made it through a bowl of beans and on to other stuff. Funny kid. As an adult, he eats everything and is actually very adventurous about trying new things.
I agree with others. He will come around in time. He probably won't be 20 years old eating puree. I think the absolutely most important thing is to not have food fights in the home. Sets kids up for all sorts of food issues later. Like others say, kids will get their nutrition and survive. I know it's frustrating now. Hang in there!
Geez, redfox, are you sure you aren't me?
Yeah, Elizabeth, it is okay to relax about what your baby is eating. I wish I had known that when my kids were babies. She's going to grow up just fine, because of or in spite of her parents. (That might be a useful affirmation).
Hug for you.....((((ej))))
Dropping by to reiterate all that has been said thus far. At age one, I would carry on with what you are doing, and leave your worries behind you.
My oldest sister had a child that was a late-comer to solids, and to help coax things along, she'd sit at the table with him and eat things like fruit and vegetables and things with her fingers. Dear sister, said it took a little effort, but once my nephew grew comfortable with it, he was in his glories! Being able to mess around with his fingers and digest chunky goodness.
If there's one thing I've learned about kids/babies, no two are alike, and steps and stages related to development, don't necessarily coincide with each child's progression.
it's true. i think the kid is getting nutrition, and that's what matters, truly. :)
my kid is exceptional. this is for two reasons: 1. who he is; and 2. how we parent.
you see -- no matter which way it goes, ignorance is bliss. we never assumed that DS couldn't learn to use a knife, fork, and spoon before he turned one. Using baby-lead weaning, we discovered that this became natural. He never had a high chair, and always ate in my lap, watching me use knive, fork, spoon, chop sticks. usually when we ate (before he was eating food) we gave him silverware to play with. He was "pretend eating" with knife, fork, and plate before he was eating any food (just breast milk) around 5-6 months.
so, he was eating solids with a knife/fork/spoon from around age 1 and up.
then, this past year (when he started kindy) he started eating foods out of a fist. We called it "fist-eating" and we think it's disgusting. Seriously, makes my want to vomit when he eats like that. I couldn't figure out why he would do that.
Then i was at the kindy, and saw all of the other kids doing that. ACK!
So, DS and I had a chat about how different kids have different skills and that he has the skill to use a knife/fork/spoon and I expect him to use that skill and "behave like a gentleman." And I pointed out that his best friend woudl be a "gentleman at his own level and ability" because he doesn't know how to properly use a fork yet. DS then asserted to his friends that they needed to learn how to use a fork, and spent the better part of indoor play the next week teaching children how to eat with forks. LOL
WE met a local chef recently -- whom DS loves -- who owns a fancy restaurant, and invited DS for a 5 course tasting. For free, no less! So generous. So, DS and I went online and learned about the different forks that he might see, proper manners in a fancy restaurant, and how he would be dressed and what we expected of him.
We went, and thankfully it was off-hours. DS was *thrilled* and the whole kitchen was smitten with DS's excitement over each course. He would identify the food, ask for verification, and choose the right fork right off the table. At the end, the chef gave him a little pin and said he was an "honorary chef." Apparently, that same day, a food critic was in the restaurant, and was really impressed by DS's manners.
Kids are vastly different.
One of my friends says that she "plans on taking her kids to that restaurant as a gift, when they have developed the proper table manners." Her kids are 11 and 9.
See?
Very different indeed.
domestic goddess
4-6-12, 5:57pm
ejchase
Hugs to you and your baby! Isn't parenthood fun?
No, you haven't irreparably damaged your child, and yes, she will learn to chew. Just continue to offer her foods, and let her choose what she will eat. As she watches you, she will become more interested in eating, and will eventually start trying more things. It may take awhile; they all do it at their own pace.But as long as she is getting food from some source (breastmilk, pureed foods, whatever) she will get enough nourishment. When she next has a growth spurt and wants to eat everything in sight, she'll probably want to stuff some of those finger foods in her mouth. Just no apples.
it is true. and some kids are much slower than others due to texture and experimental-ness.
some kids love to stick with what they know, and some kids will try 20 new things at once. honestly, you never can tell.
it will all be fine. :)
Thanks, everybody, for your kind responses.
I was a compulsive overeater for about a decade, so, yes, I agree, the most important thing is to not make it a THING.
My SO, our nanny, and I all agreed today that we'd keep giving her pureed foods while also putting solids and finger foods out daily so that she can try them when she's ready. After a couple days of refusing most of what we offered, she ate a big dinner tonight of pureed sweet potato, whole grain cereal, about half a banana, and a bunch of Cheerios, so I'm confident she's not starving.
sounds like she's eating pretty diverse. :)
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