getting discouraged

[Kimberly®]

In the last week it has become increasingly difficult to feed my LO baby food. She seems to do fine with the first meal, I give it before her bottle, but the rest of the day is a no go.  She is not yet ready for regular table foods as far as I know. She like finger foods, she gets excited when she sees them, but now she is refusing mushed food. I tried the stage 3 and she did alright on the single veggies and fruits for a bit, she gaged on the mixed meal ones. Its gotten to the point where she screams when we try to feed her.
Please help! is there a way I can make her take babyfoods again? I'm really worried she isn't getting the right balence in her food. I'm worried about her.

[Katet]

I wouldn't force feed her... with both my boys I just kept offering a good variety & finger foods (soft veg/ breads etc) & it sorted its self out... they both learnt to hold a spoon & part feed themselves by 12mo & with Liam, I just let him spoon while I do at the same time

 from around 9-12 months (different children) until 5+ yo they can go through stages where they don't eat much at all & then eat everything that is in sight.

I think you need to relax about it & if she is screaming when you try to feed, just offer her finger food or things you know she will eat for a week or so until meal times settle down... don't look at what she eats over a day, but a week & you will probably find the balance is there.

Sounds like she is starting to have her own little personality & tell you what she likes & doesn't 

[Kimberly®]

personality?? what personality 
She's driving me batty this week LOL she's just hit a bunch of milestones this week, she learned to get to her knee's last monday, go backwards Tuesday, rock on her knee's Wed, crawl thursday (when she tuned nine months, it was like she'd been doing it all along) and then pull herself up on furniture and in the crib (joy) on Sunday. He naps, eating and bedtime are all a mess.  I'm hoping things will settle down for a bit now.

What can I give her then so she gets more then just grains? right now thats what she likes most. She goes nuts for cheerio's. I give her those, Mum mum's, arrowroots, she's had fries, and I gave her canned pea's and carrots last night. I think more got on her then in her LOL.

I'm just really not sure where to go from here..

[Colin Macs Mom]

Kimberly, have you tried whole wheat bread/toast yet? Colin loves it! I don't know what the recommendations are in Canada for that, but here they say between 8 - 10 mo (I think). Since Kayla has some teeth she might like a bagel too.

[Kimberly®]

she LOVES bread..
 Its more the fruits and veggi's I'm having a problem with

[tylersmommy]

Kimberly-

We went through something similar with Tyler from 9-12 mo. It's an independence thing. He flipped out whenever anything on a spoon came near him but he was more than happy to eat finger foods. So that's all he ate, and he managed to get a pretty balanced diet. We'd try something from the spoon every few days or so, and if he refused, we'd just calmly put it away until next time. Out of nowhere after he turned 1, he suddenly started eating from a spoon again. Go figure.

Grains are easy, but for fruits and veggies, you may have to get a bit more creative. Soft, ripe fruit cut into chunks make great finger food, and you can coat them in dry baby cereal or crushed cheerios so they aren't as slippery. Tyler LOVED steamed chunks of broccoli then, I'd steam up a batch until they were pretty soft and freeze it so I could just nuke it whenever. Peas (canned or frozen) are great too, and you can also do carrots, sweet potato chunks, and spread veggie puree on sandwiches that you cut into tiny bits.

Honestly, your best bet is to ride it out and offer mush every so often. She'll take it again when the phase is over!

[Lana]

If she will take toast then couldn't you spread the baby food puree on it?  That way she would have some fruit or veg.

[taylorbean]

I think our lo are about the same age. Is lo able to use pincer grasp to take in table foods ? If so, just offer a variety of bite size finger foods from the four food groups, ie. bite size grapes, cantelope, ect, bite size cooked carrots, broccoli, ect. sm pieces of whole wheat, rice or flax bread, just make sure your giving iron rich vegetables, ie. broccoli, cabbage, so your getting the iron in there, it's good for their development to feed themselves and at least the food is fresh, you could even go organic to make things even healthier. My baby refused pureed food at about seven months, I don't blame her . . not very tasty. She likes eating stuff with textures. It's definitely more work to prepare the food but once they get going on feeding themselves a variety of finger foods then you don't have to spoon feed them anymore. My dd and I eat our meals at the same time now , while she's eating her morning bread and fruit, I eat cereal and drink my coffee and we chat, it's lovely, try it out!!

[Kimberly®]

Yes DD has gotten really good at the pincer grasp. She's even able to pick hair up off the floore 
I've started offering her more finger foods, but of course since I posted this last night my little spirited darling has desided to eat the babyfood again.  It fogures 
I gave her only finger foods at lunch then at supper I tried the babyfood, she ate 6oz of it then I gave her peas and carrots and then an arrowroot.
I like the idea of spreading the food on bread or toast, maybe I'll try that for lunch tomorrow and make her a sandwich

[Jusser]

Wow it seems I am not alone (see my post Food or Nap issue?) - great advice on this thread, but just wanted to ask do all your LOs still settle for naps OK, i.e. they seem to be getting enough to eat even if they are picky?  I think maybe our nap issue is unrelated to food, will have to post on nap board I think !
Love the tip about putting veg puree on sandwich, I have loads of unused stuff in freezer so guess what LO is having for tea all next week!