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EAT => Feeding Solid Food => Topic started by: fionaerin on July 01, 2013, 07:03:19 am

Title: Need experience!!
Post by: fionaerin on July 01, 2013, 07:03:19 am
Hello,
We started to feed my 7mo DD with solid food about one month ago but still struggling as she is not a fan for spoon feeding. What we tried till now are avocado, banana, carrot, sweet potato, pears and yoghurt. And I can say she liked sweet potato and yoghurt only. Today I tried for pears and she was gagging again, then I gave yoghurt and she ate easily.
Do you have any experience about that? What should I do now?
Title: Re: Need experience!!
Post by: creations on July 01, 2013, 13:59:42 pm
It's a long time yet before she needs to rely on solid food for her calorie intake so the main thing here is not to panic or get stressed about it at all. Any stress you have about it can be picked up by her making meal times an ordeal instead of the enjoyable time they should and can be.
It really doesn't matter at this point if she doesn't take much or doesn't like to have too many different things. Just keep offering the things she likes and also the things she is not keen on or doesn't want to try, eventually the smell and taste of those foods will become more familiar and she is more likely to give it a go and accept it.
It is a great help if you eat at the same time so that she gets the whole social aspect of meals too, the convention of sitting together and eating, enjoying food etc are just as important as tasting the food. She will also be motivated to eat by seeing you eat.  It helps to offer the same foods you are eating and now is a good time to introduce finger foods so when you have a meal prepare some or all parts of it in a way that she can eat them - ie no salt or sugar, cut veg into batons (finger sized) so she can more easily pick them up and gum at them. Then she can play with and explore those finger foods whilst you eat your food.  Again it's ok if she doesn't eat too much straight away, there is a lot to explore with food, smell, texture etc.  You might find she takes more finger food, my DS doesn't like mashed food at all.  I also found it helped to limit what I put on his plate, no more than one or two different foods and only one or two pieces at a time.
You might also find that if she likes pureed sweet potato you can try baked/roasted sweet potato wedges/chips so her pallet is expanding on taste and texture but with a familiar and liked food.  Some LOs really like carbs, so maybe try some pasta, toast, pitta bread, pancakes.

Until 12 months her primary food is still milk, so there is plenty of time for her to discover the pleasures of solids.

hth
Title: Re: Need experience!!
Post by: fionaerin on July 02, 2013, 16:21:51 pm
Thank you for quick reply. I feel much better now, I guess I have stressed about it. As you say, I will be more relaxed and patient as we have plenty of time ahead. Thanks again!
Title: Re: Need experience!!
Post by: creations on July 02, 2013, 19:06:54 pm
No problem. It's always better to post if you feel unsure about anything, it's so much better with support isn't it?  I love this place :)
Title: Re: Need experience!!
Post by: fionaerin on July 03, 2013, 10:25:17 am
Definitely! I also love this place. I got huge help from the beginning!
BTW, my DD loved zucchini and ate 90ml puree which is huge for her ;D I will keep trying by being positive :)
Title: Re: Need experience!!
Post by: creations on July 03, 2013, 11:22:03 am
That's great news :)
I'm sure you will find many foods she likes, some she will take right away, others she will seem to ignore for ages but one day suddenly eat it. My son like long stem broccoli but hates the flowers so I have to cut them off.  Funny what they like and don't like.