My 13 month old is so picky, she gags on mashed potatoes!

[HUGHESTSB]

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Can someone help me?  I have a 13 month old baby girl who will not even eat mashed potatoes.  This is what she will eat: Heinz chicken casserole for 6mths and over, Heinz chicken cacciatore for 12mths and over, Heinz beef stroganoff for 12 mths and over, beginner peas and carrots, custard, 1/2 a Farley's banana cookie crushed and mixed into Strawberry and Apple Sauce, and mixed vegetables.  Oh, and she loves her "bubbas" (8 oz bottle of milk with 1 tsp of baby cereal, heated).  I tried to blend some homemade stew for her and she just gags until she vomits.  My problem is that I don't see her making any attempt to chew her food.  I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that she doesn't have many teeth (she has 6, 2 more coming in).  I'm desperate and feel I haven't done enough.  Can someone help me?  Suggestions or explanations. 

[deb]

Well, I can think of two things that might be the problem:

-Almost all the foods you listed are either processed with some salt or some sugar, so she'd naturally have some taste preference for them.

-Mashed potatoes, among other foods, have a distinct texture that VERY many kids are bothered by. My oldest has issues with some foods over testure as well, potatoes being near the top of her list too - she's not even really into french fries (which is fine with me, because as "food" they're AWFUL! LOL). And frankly, potatoes have a pretty high glycemic index anyway (meaning they convert to sugar fairly quickly in the digestive process), so there are plenty of other foods that are better choices, like ANY green veggies, for example.

For stew, I'd just stick with veggies you know she can handle, and not even blend them, just cook them soft and, well, stew-y, and let her at them - carrots, green beans, peas, maybe corn, maybe lima beans (Josie is the ONLY one in our house who'll eat them LOL), some onion chunks, perhaps even some broccoli florets. The starchiness of the potatoes feels kind of grainy in the mouth.

If it's really important to you that she eat potatoes, try slipping a MINISCULE (i.e. UN-noticeable) amount into the food for a few days, and then EXTREMELY gradually increase the amount. If it still bothers her in such small quantites, I wouldn't push it. There are lots of kids for whom the texture of food can make or break a meal, who are over-sensitive to certain sensory stimuli (as Josie and I are), food texture being one of many issues they have, so it might no tbe picky, it might just be an issue with the feel of it and/or the taste of it in her mouth.

[{{{Angela}}}]

I think also it may be you've been giving her food that's fairly soft and doesn't need chewing, so she doesn't bother chewing at all.  My ds is 17 months and has only 6 teeth too (he just got two recently, so he'd been eating with only 4 teeth) and he eats pretty much everything we do.  I mean, I don't give him raw carrots or nuts or hard stuff like that, but he eats meat (keep it tender), cooked veggies, fruits raw (e.g. apples in slices), crackers...pretty much everything.  The thing that gives him trouble is stuff you need to grind, like raw lettuce, because he has no molars.

He doesn't like potatoes either (or bananas), and I think it is a texture thing.  So many you could start giving her food that's soft, but does require chewing, and she'll get the hang of it.  There are foods that just sort of go right through them, like corn kernels, so try something more easily digested (carrots, sweet potato, squash).  HTH!

[HUGHESTSB]

Thank you for your suggestions.  I will try out the well steamed veggies and well shredded meat.  Please keep the advice coming.  Thanks again to all that replied.

[Deb_in_oz]

i always thought i had the only child who hated mashed potatoes - alex is 29 mo and still will not touch them - only roasted potatoes or french fries / chips.

[HUGHESTSB]

Okay, so yesterday, I thought, "I have to be more aggressive with trying to feed her more textured food".  I took the beginner chicken casserole that she loves and added some boiled and chopped broccoli and carrots.  I made sure that the pieces were just big enough that she knew she couldn't just swallow it.  I boiled it nice and soft.  She gagged, then swallowed.  The next bite, she would grit her front teeth on the veg chunk and then gag and swallow it whole.  I am at a loss.  I feel like I messed up my daughter.  Am I easing her into this properly or am I too late?

[deb]

Okay, so yesterday, I thought, "I have to be more aggressive with trying to feed her more textured food".  I took the beginner chicken casserole that she loves and added some boiled and chopped broccoli and carrots.  I made sure that the pieces were just big enough that she knew she couldn't just swallow it.  I boiled it nice and soft.  She gagged, then swallowed.  The next bite, she would grit her front teeth on the veg chunk and then gag and swallow it whole.  I am at a loss.  I feel like I messed up my daughter.  Am I easing her into this properly or am I too late?

There's no need to be "aggressive" about your baby learning to eat! I'd go ahead and make sure the pieces are small enough so that she can work them in her mouth without difficulty. Even if you feed her chunky puree, odds are that her mouth will go through the motions of gumming the food,and her tongue will push the food around in her mouth. Pieces that are too big to permit her to do that won't help her learn to eat. Actually biting food with her front teeth will probably emerge on its own in time; gumming/chewing is more natural at first.

At 13 months, there really is no rush. To avoid prolonged eating issues, I would avoid pushing foods she doesn't like, isn't ready for (in terms of size, taste, or texture), or gags on. I'm 40 years old and I still gag on lima beans - I'm perfectly CAPABLE of chewing the food, but the taste and texture of lima beans, YECH! The ONLY, and I mean ONLY way I can eat limas in if they're in something else (like soup) and small enough to swallow whole. I really think the gagging may have as much to do with food preference/sensitivity issues as it does with food in the wrong part of her mouth.

I have clear memories of my mom being so sick and tired of me not eating peas (I gag on cooked peas as well) that she decided that if I wouldn't eat peas, I wouldn't eat anything. I sallowed a few of them whole and washed them down with milk, like taking pills, but other than that for two days, I didn't eat ANYTHING. Needless to say, it was a LONG time before mealtime had positive associations for me again.

By all means continue to OFFER other foods, continue to try to sneak in bits of new things when you can, but respect your child's pace of learning about new foods, taste, textures, and sizes of portions and morsels. In the long run, you'll be building a more positive mealtime experience and a more positive relationship with food for your child.

[jubee]

Our ds had a similar issue at that age. Gagged on lots of soft foods that needed to be chewed/gummed.  I think it was partly a texture thing and partly I started him late on learning to chew.  Most kids learn much earlier, but he always gagged so I hung back.  He is now 18 months and no longer has the problem, I just kept offering things that I knew would go down easy but would give him pratice chewing.  He had no molars at the time.  He still will not eat very many meats, I think because of the texture. He will chew it very well and spit it out. Only breakfast sausage and fish fillets at the moment get swallowed.  Gerber make lots of things that dissolve easily in their mouth - to reduce gagging- but can be chewed too.  Good luck.  It will get better.

[carasmom]

You may want to start with little finger foods, to get her used to chewing and swallowing... plus it puts her in control of what she eats.  Gerber puffs are great, and they dissolve well... those were one of the very first  finger foods we offered.  Cheerios were one of the first things that my DD chewed and ate that was a little crunchy, I was nervous that she'd choke, but they also get mushy quickly in their mouth.  Once she was able to chew those... we started moving on to more textured foods.
HTH
Trish

[Oakley's Mom]

my 10 month old is also having a problem... due to a sensitive stomach, we opted to do jarred foods until 8 months.  but now if we offer anything we make ourselves, he projectile vomits at the 2nd bite!  it doesn't matter if you make it smoother than a jarred puree!