11-Month-old Who Refuses to Eat Chunky Foods

hi, i also have 2 sons, ages 18 months & 31 months & when my younger one was just about your sons age he did the same exact thing! i continued to keep trying really small peices of soft fruits & veggies in addition to feeding him his mushy food. i would always put some peas or something on his plate while i was feeding him his mushy food & eventually he tried it & liked it. sometimes i would even put the peas (or whatever else i tried giving him) on the train table while he was watching tv & let him try them at his pace & he did! i noticed that he only wanted chunky food he can eat with his fingers & never wanted me to feed him! good luck!

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Stick with the mushy foods, keep offering him food from your plate with in reason, IE, Mac and Cheese, spagetti, peas, potatoes, cooked carrots little pieces, soft meats,like, meat loaf, small pieces of chicken(white meat),as for fruit, I would stick to gerber graduates, they are soft chunks. small pieces of banana too.
( no rice, if he is a gagger)
Feed him his mushy foods and put the other food on his tray of his high chair, let him pick it up on his own, dont worry he will eat it in time, just keep offering it to him.
take care and good luck,

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He may not like the feeling of mushy and chunky at the same time. You could either try just giving him soft chunks or stay with the mush for a while longer. My 15 month old didn't care for chunky foods until about 13 nearly 14 months even though he had also been eating dry cereal and even the soft dried apple and banana pieces from Gerber.

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I know exactly how you feel, and actually you are better off than I am. My son will be 12 months at the end of the month and he still won't eat chunky foods. Mine won't even eat cheerios. If I give him anything chuncky he will begin to gag on it and then throw it up, you have no idea how sick I am of cleaning up after that. I wish I had so great advice for you but nothing I do seems to work, I figure it will just happen in time. I just wanted you to know that I feel your pain and if you figure out some trick please let me know.
Good Luck!

I wouldn't worry so much if I was you. As long as your lil one is eating his fruits and vegies(even though its mush) that's the most important thing. He will get sick of the mush in a few months and surprise you by his 12+months...no worries

So stay with soft food for awhile and continue to introduce food that grown ups eat. Every child is different,it is easy to become fustrated at this but he has a whole lifetime of eating all kinds of foods.

hi C.,
i think you don't really need to worry, my daughter (13,5 months) just recently started excepting chunky & textured foods, i had to pure everything very smoothly before, she still does not like a lot of textures. just try it once in a while and try not to push it, you baby will be ok with it eventually and probably soon, he's human after all.

My daughter is 10 months and we went through the same thing, she was just not ready and now we skipped stage 3 foods, they do taste nasty, went to gerber graduates and Reg. food we eat for dinner, started out by putting a few small pieces on the tray for her , she played with it at first then in no time she is feeding herself and loving the food at the same time..It will work out in time....She also loves the Gerber Puffs....They taste good and they Melt in your mouth....Hope this helps a bit....Good Luck....

Dont sweat it. My daughter is 3 years old - she lived on ravioli, cereal and hot dogs for a loooong time. then one day - she started eationg and eating - and eating - almost anything. now she eats all her veggies and even fish, I never have to fix a seperate plate for her. I found that by not pushing the food, it wasnt a "big deal". when she was ready, it was easy - sibce there was no negative associations. Of course- if she didnt eat her food, she didnt get any "junk food" like cookies - she was only allowed to have fruit a dn stuff.... so dont push the foods, but dont substitute with junk either. your baby is so young - give him time.

good luck.

Ali

Hi~
My friend had this problem with her daughter. Her pedi referred her to the Birth to 3 program. They came out to her house with an OT, PT, Social Worker, Ed. Consult, and a Birth to 3 Teacher and did observations (it was free of charge). Long story short, she had a Sensory Intergration Disorder. She had to use some different types of brushes to 'de-sensitize' her and exercises to get her muscles stronger and more toned. Maybe check with your pedi or you can call your local Birth to 3 program yourself for a consult. Good Luck!
:o) R.

Hi, I have an 11 month old daughter. She had a problem at 1st with the chunky foods too. Still from time to time she seems to gag on the food, but i've noticed that it's if she's either done eating, or the chunck is a little too big for her liking (not too big to swallow though). It seems to be a preference. what kind of fruits and vegi's do you feed him? are they all baby food? because my daughter won't touch baby vegi's, or the chunky baby fruits, i started giving her all the vegi's that i eat, just throw it in a food processor....or mush with a spoon or fork. to be totally honest with you, the baby food (especially the veggie's) don't taste good at all! and for some reason, they put the chunks of fruits in juices, and it doesn't taste all that good either...just try it for yourself, i'm sure you wouldn't want it. so i would suggest trying what you eat. by 9-10 months, my daughter's dr. told us to feed her everything we eat. if you still have a problem (which you shouldn't) by mashing your own veggies try to give him oatmeal....the kind that we would eat, like quaker, it's chunkier then the baby oatmeal....but not too much chunkier. and after that goes well, start on the oatmeals with fruit chunks in them. i've also noticed that even if my daughter likes something, she won't eat it unless i'm eating it too (and she can tell when i "pretend" to eat). so i guess, just try giving him what your eating, and mush it yourself, and as you find things that he'll eat, just mush them a little less every time, until your just cutting into small pieces/chunks. that should work. good luck!

Hi. I had that problem with my daughter when she was that age too, but she wouldn't want to eat anything. All she wanted was to nurse. But she gradually started eating at around 1 year and soon to follow with the chunky stuff. I would just mash our food up though. I rarely bought baby food. I found, like some other moms, that it just doesn't taste good. So, I thought, what is better than freshly made mashed carrots or potatos. Cooked frozen peas are also great. Just about anything that you eat, just mash it right up. One thing our pediatrician had told us, was to limit anything acidic, like spaghetti, to once a week. It might upset their stomach if they have it more often. I also, like some of the other moms, soon found that they will eat eventually, when they are ready :) I hope that this helps. Good luck!