9 month old suddenly too picky

[girlfromcali]

Suggestions please, my 9 month old, who previously ate anything vigorously, has suddenly become so picky that we are having a hard time finding things to feed him.  Up until a couple weeks ago he ate most veggies, meats mixed with veg or fruit, and whatever else we gave him.  Now he seems to only want apple cinnamon oatmeal (I make myself) or yogurt.  I have a babyfood cookbook and tried a lot of the recipes in there and he just throws it on the floor.   We've even moved him on to what we are eating just mushed with a food mill and that works sometimes.  I could really use some practical suggestions for him, I have a 2 1/2 year old as well so simple is better. 
Katie

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi Katie,
We are just coming to the end of this with my 10 month old dd. And she started it at just over 9 months. I put it down to coming back from a long trip teething just about everything but maybe its just a phase. Every meal was a battle and she would only eat puree of carrot, bnsquash and corn. So thats what I did went back to basics. Slowly I started adding a little bit of puree melon to her cereal and the other veg that she ate before back into her lunch, somethings she has started to eat again others not. I would prepare 2 lunches one with the usual stuff and another with the usual stuff and a new veg added. She hadnt even started on chicken yet never mind meat. I also gave fruit and yougurt when she ate it, discovered by chance that mango and apricot puree and dried plum puree mixed with the yougurt was a big hit. In the last week things have improved enormously, she has even started eating puree chicken and though I still do the 2 lunches she has now started to eat both of them :-) and have some fruit and yougurt to follow!
What about finger foods? My dd is just starting on things like toast crusts or baby biscuits.
Hope this is of some help to you,
Fiona

Mom to Leah 23/09/04

[nhogg]

Katie,
My son who is almost 11 months old went through this phase also. At about 71/2 months he stopped eating foods he previously enjoyed and it started taking him about 45mins to eat an entire meal that only consisted of about 4 tbsp of food! While I was very distressed and frustrated for a while, I finally decided that he'll eat when he's hungry. I know that sounds like I'm oversimplifying the issue but at the end of the day it's true. Rather than offer one thing after another, I decided to offer maybe 2veggies and then a fruit and if he chose not to eat it we'd end the meal. Don't get me wrong, I would offer a snack later before his next meal, but I didn't want to get in the habit of offering a buffet for him to chose from. In the last month he's began to eat much better again and enjoys the foods he was on strike from. As long as your son is a healthy weight for his size try not to stress and hopefully he'll sail through this phase, giving you a break before he begins another!

[girlfromcali]

Thanks for your suggestions, I have foiund a few things that he really enjoys, but even still one day he'll eat it and the next he won't.  I also found a great cookbook that has a lot of suggestions my other book didn't have, so that's helped a lot.  One of the thignshe really enjoys is banana slices sauteed in a little butter and cinnamon for 2 minutes and then add 2 TBSP orange juice and suatee that for 2 minutes and then mush it.  BIt hit!  He does feed himself with cherrios and and chex, he'll it steamed carrot sticks occassionally, and he recently loves cheddar cheese, so we are making progress.  Typically if he doesn't like it he just drops it on the floor.  Unfortunately I don't want to risk just rying and if he doesn't eat ending the meal because he is recently waking in the night with his tummy growling.  Anyway, thanks!
katie

[annb]

Im finding at 9 months that DS just wants to have food of his own in his hand whilst Im feeding him.  So I give him bits of bread to eat himself and then spoon the food in that I want him to eat!!  Also have given him cooked penne pasta to hold on to..he doesnt actually eat a lot of it but it keeps him occupied while i shovel food in there as quick as I can!!  Its pretty messy!

[NKmommy]

We are going through the same thing with my 9 mos old.  Just wanted to ditto the above post.  We found that if we let him play with jello (homemade with with juice) on his tray (and he eats some), he is distracted enough to let us spoon feed him...

[evanskimberley]

Yep, same thing happened to us, when she was being picky HV advised not to offer anything else, to try to teach her that she has to eat what mummy is offereing, if she's had it before. this worked for a while and then she started loosing weight!!! We then took it slowly and I gave her a bit of what she wanted and held of f if I knew she was being fussy.

I'm carrying on the ethos of if she's hungry, she'll eat, yesterday she didn't have anything apart form her milk!!!

[Oakley's Mom]

I really needed to read this post-line!  Although I have a Touchy Baby, he has not followed the normal touchy route when it comes to food.  After a cautious taste of anything new, he'll think about it for a second, then smile and beg for more!  he's loved EVERYTHING we've given him that's jarred and of course the cereals.   Last week we tried to make some of our own food, and things went downhill fast!  3 days in a row the homemade food was rejected at first bite, and then all of a sudden he rejected EVERY kind jarred food in the house! EVEN his absolute favourites!  he WILL at least eat the cereal... but if you try to sneak a spoon of anything else inbetween bites of cereal - the trapdoor slams shut!  it's soooooooo frustrating!!  And now he knows that if he holds out, mommy will just make cereal... *sigh*  but i have a hard time not giving into that, as he will not sleep through the night without enough solids-calories... catch 22...

MY QUESTION:  how long has everyone's picky eating phases lasted?

[jchang]

DD refused to let us feed her a few weeks ago.  We had to switch completely to finger foods so she could feed herself.  Maybe that's the issue?