13 month old won't eat anything textured or lumpy

[joshuanathan]

hi guys, this has probably been covered already and probably a lot, but i am having trouble with solids. my son who is a lovely little boy, not underweight, just will not eat lumps or textured food. he does not throw up, but he just spits it out or sometimes gags. he happily will eat finger foods, toast, bread, cheese, but anything on a spoon he expects to be pureed. he really is not a huge eater either.

the thing that is really starting to worry me is that i struggle to get protein into him in the form of finger foods. anybody else having the same issues?
this is my feed routine

6am wake and bottle feed (180ml)
8:30am breakfast (about 250ml of mix of yoghurt, pureed fruit and weebix – this is very smooth in consistency)
12:30 lunch (mix of finger foods and i try lots of other things, but i have to resort to pureed foods)
2pm (bottle of 180ml)
5-5:30pm (dinner, really struggle here - its mostly pureed food again)
6pm (final bottle of 180ml)

help, anybody please?

[anna*]

Is it the same if he feeds himself? You could stop with the purees entirely and let him feed himself all by finger foods, take a Baby Led Weaning approach.

[Chicane]

chiming in...my DS was not eating anything until he was almost 13 months...I stopped puree as it was hopeless...and took the Baby Led Weaning approach as Anna mentioned. At this age its not hard at all...you don't need to worry about protein as you can find ways to give it to him in finger foods and forgo the spoon all together...there is a thread of recipe ideas...but here are some things we do that work really well for us

Chicken patties - I make up a batch with lots of hidden finely chopped veggies and freeze them. Lightly pan fried and chop them up into finger size bits, put it in front of him and let him go for it. My son likes the bits to be quite small.

Little pasta rings (these are made special for little fingers but you could easily cut up penne. I put some bolognese sauce over it and grated cheese (so its melted and hidden) he mostly eats the pasta

Rice Salads - I cook up some rice, throw in a bit of tinned tuna, finely grated carrot, finely grated cheese and avocado, mix it all with a fork, the avocado helps to bind the other ingredients which makes it easier to pick up.

Fruit sandwiches - my DS loves bread but i try to limit how much he has cause its not very nutritious and I worry he gets more carbs then he should. but one thing i do is banana, peach, or pear sandwiches - just press the fruit into the bread so its kind of stuck together and let him suck/munch on it.

He also loves to suck on prunes which are a great source of iron and good for his bowels..

There are a bunch of great toddler recipe books around...

hope this helps
xo