Author Topic: 11MO refusing most finger foods  (Read 1728 times)

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Offline m.ned

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11MO refusing most finger foods
« on: October 16, 2013, 23:40:03 pm »
My almost 11-month old DS is driving me crazy! He has been a great eater since day one and would eat ANYTHING when pureed. When he started to show interest in feeding himself, he also loved a variety of finger foods. Now, he refuses to eat most finger foods except bananas, cheese, pears, and cereal. Even though he loves pureed veggies and meat, he just plays with them when they are on his tray (no matter how they are prepared). If I try to feed them to him, he either completely refuses or spits them out as soon as they are in his mouth. The only exception is that he loves eating things off of my plate on my fork, but still refuses to feed himself if I put what I'm eating on his tray. He has 6 teeth and chews very well so I hesitate feeding him purees (even though they are lumpy), but I can't feed him bananas for every meal! He BFs 4x a day (W/U, mid-morning, late afternoon, and right before bed), but there is always a 2hr gap between the last BF and a solids meal. I don't know what to do!

Offline <Catherine>

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Re: 11MO refusing most finger foods
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2013, 13:32:45 pm »
Bumping for you :)

This is a common age for things to get tricky with feeding, particularly from a spoon - this information may be useful to you Spoon Refusal and Finger Food Tips
Catherine x








Offline creations

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Re: 11MO refusing most finger foods
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2013, 20:18:20 pm »
Hello.  Mine was always basically a good eater and self feeder too (no purees here, finger food the whole way) but I experienced a few phases where he really seemed to question the food on his plate, your thread reminded me of it, that your LO is willing to eat off your plate with your fork.  Here it seemed to be just following a developmental leap and it was as though he had more awareness of the world, questioned it more (or re-questioned the things he thought he knew to check if they were still the same or had changed) and it was almost as though he mistrusted eating something unless I tested it first. Here this involved checking out that both our plates LOOKED the same, was the food prepared exactly the same, accepting food from my plate and my verbal reassurance (once he'd eaten a bite of mine) that his was the same stuff (I would point at mine then the same item of food on his plate and say "same, same" then name the food "carrots" or whatever), serving him his plate with a little extra on and once we were all at the table showing him that his food was safe by naming each item and taking a bite from his plate.  I used to joke a little that I was the court jester testing the King's food for poison.  So I'd take a small bite from his plate, let him watch me eat it, and tell him "Mmm, yeah that's good, it's safe" and "look I have some on my plate to, same same."
I don't know if this will work with any other baby, but worth a shot perhaps. The way I saw it was that with greater understanding of the world, perhaps with greater mobility (did your LO just start cruising for example so can reach more things than he previously could) they *need* to have more caution, it's what would instinctively protect them from eating pretty berries in 'the wild' by being more reluctant to eat anything until Mummy has assured it's goodness. To me it's similar to the phases of separation anxiety, it's like a safety mode to stay by Mummy.

I can't comment on the milk feeds - I think people tend to continue the bfs longer than formula fed babies perhaps?  I would have thought it fine at this point to drop the mid afternoon bf but as I don't know about bfing you might want to get this checked.

I wouldn't give any purees at this point really, I'd just give him the finger food and let him get on with it. I'd also cut right back on the bananas, they are very filling and taste lovely, if he knows he can get one he'll hold out for it.  If you really want to give him some how about just a couple of slices rather than a full banana?  I doubt he would miss many meals before he tucked in, the survival instinct is pretty strong.  I always chopped things the same way, and even recently my DS asked "what's that Mummy?" - it was carrot chopped differently but at his age now i can just tell him that. At 11 months I would give him baton cut carrots every time so he knew what they were.

hth some or gives you some ideas.


Offline m.ned

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Re: 11MO refusing most finger foods
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2013, 17:53:58 pm »
Thank you so much for your reply! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. It was just a phase and thank goodness we are through it! LO still likes eating from my plate, but he will eat pretty much any finger food you put on his tray which he was definitely not doing before. Thanks for the help and advice!

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Re: 11MO refusing most finger foods
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2013, 21:59:16 pm »
Great update! :)