Can't Get 8 Mo to Eat Lumpy Solids

Updated on May 06, 2008
L.C. asks from Saint Peters, MO
16 answers

A couple of months ago, I tried to give my daughter (then 6-1/2 mo) some lumpy solid food. She gagged on it and I thought she was choking and it scared me so bad that I haven't tried giving her anything other than the jarred fruits/veggies since. The passed few days, we've been trying to give her steamed veggies, pasta, mashed potatoes, peaches and other soft, solid food. She gags every single time and refuses to eat it. Even if I try to 'hide' the food in her pureed food, she refuses to eat it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this transition??
Also, she still gets bottles throughout the day. When do we switch to mostly bottles to mostly solid foods??

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L.R.

answers from Wichita on

My one year old did exactly the same thing about that age. She would gag on just about everything and I thought she was choking. After some time, (a couple months) she did better and now she takes food just fine. I would just wait her out and give her the really soft foods until she's ready. As for the bottles, I would think she should still need them regularly. Good luck.

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M.G.

answers from Kansas City on

L., Give her time, they all out grow the gaging. There is no set time for her to transition, you need to follow her a little on this.

M.

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J.N.

answers from St. Louis on

I was really late at giving my kids solid foods, so I'm not an expert on that part. Plus my kids were preemies, so I'm not sure when I started. But when my son was 13 or 14 months old he started gagging on food and throwing up. At first the doctor gave him a diagnosis of "swallowing disfunction" so we could have someone come to the house and work with him to figure out what was going on. They thought maybe his tongue was not able to control the food in his mouth and it was causing him to throw up. It wasn't until a few months later and we had long discontinued working with the lady. My son had an OT (occupational therapy) evaluation and we found out he had "sensory integration disorder." Basically, different textures set him off. For him it was mushy textures. So he threw up noddly type foods, threw up when he saw a banana (and previously ate them pureed), threw up when he put his hands in shaving cream or finger paints. We had an awesome OT that started us on a "brushing program" and it worked wonders for him. He would still gag occasionally and still doesn't eat bananas, but he has stopped throwing up and can tolerate touching finger paints (but not really the inside of pumpkins) and he eats noddle dishes no problem, but they aren't his favorite. He is now 7 1/2 years old. Good luck figuring out what your issue might be. Everyone is different so this may not be what you guys have, but I thought I would pass along the info. Email me if you need any more info.

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V.C.

answers from St. Louis on

Just keep trying. Keep giving her variety. Try some cheerios too - it was the first real solid we tried. By 9 1/2 m. we had him on all table food. Just don't give up!! As far as the switch - just keep adding more foods. My 1 yr old still drinks about 20 oz of milk per day - this was recommended by my pediatrician.

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H.H.

answers from Kansas City on

You keep feeding them formula until they are a year old. The eating solids before a year old is just to introduce them to learning how to eat with a spoon so it's not a requirement that they eat solids, it's more a learning experience. I fed my babies with the stage 2 baby foods until they had enough teeth to eat more chunky foods. I never did buy the stage 3 or graduates foods. At a year old they just started eating what we were eating, I bought a cheap food chopper which was around 6.00 at wal-mart and chopped up their meats with that and other chunkier foods but most of the food they just ate with us and had their milk or juice in between in their sippy cups as they were off the bottle at 12 months.

At 8 months your baby may not be ready for lumpy foods.

Their eating schedule pretty much went like this until they were off of formula.

1st feeding...6 ounce bottle when they woke up in the morning
2nd feeding...4 ounce cup of formula and infant cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of fruit and added a little water to mix it.

3rd feeding (usually lunch time)... 1/2 jar of veggies, 1/2 jar of fruit. 4 ounce cup of formula.

4th feeding... 6 ounce bottle

5th feeding...(dinner time) 1/2 jar of baby food (usually a chicken noodle mixture or something like that) 1/2 jar of veggies, 1/2 jar of fruit. 4 ounce cup of formula. I always used a 3 section plate for feeding them their food. I didn't feed them out of the jar because I knew they weren't eating the whole jar.

last feeding before they went to bed... 6 ounce bottle

They slept through the night between 6-8 weeks and started feeding them this schedule at 5-6 months until they started eating most of our food with us. Introduced cereal at 4 months, and the cup around 4 months at meal time. Sometimes they would get juice in a sippy cup between meals.

At a year old I would give them juice in a sippy cup sometimes instead of milk for their lunch and dinner meal. When they weren't drinking formula anymore, you just increase their food servings at meal times and give them milk in between meals if they act hungry or thirsty. I also added in a snack time or 2 after they were a year old. Cheerios or other cereals or crackers work well for snacktime.

My kids got off the bottle real easy, maybe by having them use the sippy cup early helped so they didn't always associate formula as having to be in a bottle everytime. They only fussed the first night then were done with it and accepted the cup just fine. My 3rd child kept throwing his bottle out of his crib at about 10 months and several of them cracked from him throwing them so he went to the cup before 12 months because at that point I wasn't going to buy anymore bottles and he was fine with the sippy cup.

If your child has a pacifier, you want to wean them from that first. The longer they have that the harder it will be. Newborns have a need to suck on a pacifier or their fingers a lot but as they grow older that isn't so much a need anymore and just becomes a habit. My 1st only had his for 3 months because he had a one of a kind pacifier and it rotted and wasn't able to find another one like it so he wouldn't take any other types so was off of his at 3 months. 2nd child had colic for 5 1/2 months but weaned her by 9 months-- she fussed a few nights but was fine after that. 3rd one was weaned from the pacifier at 5 months. He didn't seem to desire to have it so we just quit giving it to him. He didn't fuss at all about losing it.

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D.S.

answers from Kansas City on

I had that same problem with my daughter when she was around that age. I can tell you from experience that it problem is either she is picky, or she is just not liking the texture. For My daughter it was both. Your not going to like the solution though. I was so afraid she was not eating, and yet the smooth baby food was just not enough for her. She was having to eat way to many jars! The solution: She will eat it when she is finally hungry enough. She still needs the bottles unfortuanately, but don't give as much. Also Start with really good tasting items. But she first has to be Hungry enough. Plain and Simple children never starve themselves. It's a battle of wills beleive it or not, yes, even at this age! Trust me, I'm speaking from experience.
My daughter is now 14 and she was the most difficult child as far as what she would eat.

Good Luck, Stay Strong
D.

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T.N.

answers from Kansas City on

Don't worry about pushing her. If she's still getting enough nutrition it doesn't matter too much yet if she's getting it from solid foods. Mostly what you want to do is make sure you're giving her a lot of tastes so that as she can eat solids, she won't be shocked at how different they are.

This is a really great chart I found online. You might like having it as a reference:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solidfood8to10montholdba...

Also, there's a great book called Super Baby Foods that has guidelines, recipes and everything! It's awesome.

Hope that helps!

T.

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C.R.

answers from St. Louis on

Maybe your baby isn't ready yet. Just wait another month and try again.

One problem that a friend was dealing with was that her daughter wouldn't take solids of any kind and after she was about 15 months old they realized that she was "tongue-tied" and had to have a little surgery to loosed her tongue so she can eat. All is well.
C.

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S.B.

answers from Stationed Overseas on

This same thing also happened to me with my daughter. We had to take her to Children's Mercy in Kansas City to have tests done because she would choke on the littlest noodle piece or carrot in the stage 2 or 3 foods. They came up with nothing. So they sent us to a speech therapist in Wichita. It turned out that my daughter just didn't know how to move the food around in her mouth and didn't know how to chew. The woman taught me how to get her used to the food being in her mouth.
You need to switch sides of the mouth with each bite. Shove it all the way over to her cheek. I kept doing it in the middle, so my daughter was just swallowing it right away. The speech therapist did the first couple of bites and I was already amazed at what my daughter was eating and not choking on. Just keep switching sides and she'll get it.
The therapist also said that rice is one of the worst things you can give to a baby because it gets stuck in their sinuses in the back of their throats. That was another one for me. I didn't understand why my daughter was choking on one little grain of rice. That's the reason.
Also, she said that breastfed babies are more likely to have this, because they don't use their chewing muscles like bottle fed babies do. Babies can chew and bite a bottle nipple, but they can't bite a Mom's nipple.
Good Luck, and I hope this helps :)

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M.K.

answers from Kansas City on

Eight months old is a little young for most babies to be trying to eat lumpy solid foods. If you are tired of buying jar food, just take what you are having for dinner (if baby isn't allergic!) and put it through the processor. I am doing this for the meats (chicken, turkey, ground beef) because I can't stand the smell of jarred baby meat! As for the bottle, it doesn't have to be a bottle, but she should get breast milk or formula until her first birthday. I would give her a regular bottle at bottle time, and a sippy cup, just to learn and play with, at meal times.

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G.M.

answers from Lawrence on

You're getting good advice here. I agree with Sara (I think it was her...) who mentioned that the lumpy with puree is confusing. I've worked with children with true feeding problems, and it's made me wish there was no such thing as Stage 3 foods (that puree with chunks in it)! Way too hard for children.

You can relax a bit, and ease her into it. You definitely have time. She may not be quite ready, actually, and you don't want to turn her off of eating. Maybe try the same foods she's getting as baby foods, but try to make them yourself & just don't make them quite as runny as her baby food is now...so they're still smooth, not chunky, but a little heartier. That may help. I really would discourage hiding them in the other food...it's not a preference or taste thing so much as a texture thing, which isn't helped by hiding them, if that makes sense.

You can start transitioning her to a cup anytime. I recommend straw cups as opposed to sippy cups...they don't do any damage to their mouths, etc, and straws are something anyone can use anytime. It's often a very natural transition from the bottle to a straw cup. By one year is a nice time not to have bottles anymore.

Good luck with this!!
G.

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A.S.

answers from Topeka on

My daughter did the same thing. She is know 11 months old. I have discovered that it is a safety thing her - her body is protecting itself from choking. My daughter only has 2 bottom and 2 top teeth, so I figured that if she doesn't have enough teeth to chew, I shouldn't expect her to :-) When she was 8 mos old she only had the 2 bottom teeth and she gagged on EVERYTHING. Now that she has the 2 toppers, her gag reflex is slowing down a bit. Just give it time, she won't gag on things forever, and when she gets more teeth her body will be even more ready for lumpier foods.
As far as when to transition - trust your instincts. Try a little bit of lumpier foods every once in awhile. Relax, and let her body decide when it wants to eat lumpier foods. Maybe give her finger foods sometimes and when she doesn't gag you can start giving her more.
And as for the bottles - After all my reading I've learned that it is a very personal decision between mother and baby when to wean from the bottle. Some babies (like mine) nurse/bottlefeed and get all their nutrition from it well past a year. Lizzie eats meals with us and picks at her food. During the day I offer her small healthy snacks and she eats a bite or two. Just keep offering her meals and snacks and bottles throughout the day and again, follow your instincts. You'll know when she is ready for more food and less bottle.

God bless!
A.

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G.B.

answers from Kansas City on

I'm going through the exact same thing with my son. I've had some success with turkey/rice/vegetables baby food. I give him very small amounts, about half of a baby-spoonful, and he does okay with it. Any more and he gags. I also try to keep a sippy cup of water handy so his mouth doesn't get too dry and make the gagging worse. I figure I'll just take his cues and when he's ready to move on to more lumpy foods, we will. Good luck!

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S.J.

answers from St. Louis on

My son did the exact same thing. The doc told me that the gagging was nothing to worry about as long as he is not choking. It is most likely the new texture that she doesn't care for. My son never did take the lumpy baby food. I think it was because since it was baby food he thought it would be smooth and creamy and when he got to the chunks of food it threw him off. He went straight from baby food to solids. Also with the bottle, my son took his last bottle before he went to bed on his first birthday. The next day we got rid of the bottle and started solid food (real solid food not baby food) and the sippy cup. It was really easy for us, but I hear that not all babies are as easy to take the bottle away. Good luck!

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M.V.

answers from St. Louis on

Our pediatrician always told us that food is really just fluff for kids--that up until they are 1 year old--they really are getting all they need from formula/breastmilk. We introduce food to babies so that they will how to eat "real" food. Lots of kids have trouble with texture--while it may be something to pursue medically--I would think it is just a matter of your daughter not liking the texture in her mouth. Presenting foods over and over is usually how kids overcome this--Is she interested in what you all are eating? Pureeing different table foods might be a good way to at least introduce her to the taste of food--as baby food tastes nothing like the real thing. You could also try gradually thickening it with rice cereal. What about also trying foods that would dissolve, to introduce that type of texture--i.e. cheerios, gerber veggie puffs were always a big hit with my kids...Good luck!

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G.N.

answers from St. Louis on

Get the STage 2 Gerber baby food. If its not in your budget then try putting the food you want her to eat in the blender.

As for the switching wait until she is a year and you can start giving her whole milk and try to put it in a sippycup (Nuby).

My son was drinking from a sippy at 6mths old. He was strictly breastfed but I would give him water from time to time in a sippy to get him used to the sippy, he never drank from a bottle, unless he was being fed by daddy.

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