Follow Up

My oldest son had a really hard time transitioning to table food as well. We used a baby food grinder for a LONG time. I have a good friend who is a family doctor and her son didn't get his first tooth until he was 13 months old! He ate baby food for a LONG time and it never phased them. I remember him turning 2 and had difficulties eating little pieces of an apple because he was such a late table food eater. Now he is almost 4 and has no problems. My advice, is don't force him if he's not ready. Continue to introduce him to food with some texture to get him familiar with it, and maybe one day he will eat it!
One thing though, is I wouldn't be afraid to mention this problem with your pediatrition on his one year well baby check, just to make sure that it isn't something that could be a medicial problem. I doubt it is, but it's always good to be aware.

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Dear Jill,
My advice would be to offer a few different things like a handful of Cheerios or a couple of crackers or something and leave it. Meaning you stand up and walk a little way away and let him experience his food. You are close enough to step in if he starts choking but not close enough to do it for him. If your goal is to teach him independence now, you may need to just do it. I didn't do that with my first and he lived on Cheerios and juice for months. He is still very stubborn about food (he's 7). With my two after that I was much more relaxed about mess, about the food, about the whole thing. My third one (almost 18 mos) is still enjoying the experience; we just scoot a little further away, put on a big bib (with ties) and enjoy our meal.
Some children need to suffer a little to try something. I don't know much about the bottle thing but from my experience with sippy cups and such...hand it to him and leave him to it. If he is hungry enough, he'll drink/eat. If he is a healthy boy then not eating three squares for a couple of days won't hurt him in the least and he'll have gained a huge dose of self-confidence having accomplished something on his own. Hope this makes sense! Good luck
A.

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Jill,

Relax! What's the rush? Let him eat baby food.:)

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Hi Jill. I don't have any specific advice about this, but I do *highly* recommend the book "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter. She is a dietician who specializes in feeding issues from infancy through childhood, and she gives lots of great advice in this book. I got the book when my twin boys were just a few months old and her advice really helped me manage various feeding issues and challenges. Now, at the age of 2, my boys are great eaters who enjoy a variety of food.

On the issue of holding his own bottle or sippy, that's something you probably just need to give him time on. Some babies start doing that much earlier or later, depending on temperament. One of my boys started at 11 months and the other was almost 14 months before he would ever hold his own. He just liked being held and fed, I think. Now I miss those days!

Good luck!

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Hi Jill,

Congratulations on your baby! My son is 10 months old today and is still on baby food. I am starting to give him the Gerber 3 foods that have little pieces of pasta, carrots, etc. but I watch him closely as he only has 4 teeth and a lot of this tends to accumulate between his gums. I give him about 1/3 of a jar of the #3 and then the rest of his meal is still #2. The doctor asked on my last visit how he was doing with finger foods and as I hadn't started that yet I bought some teething cookies and cherrios. He'll gum about 1/2 the cookie before it either melts away or he looses interest. He mostly plays with the cherrios. I think the doctor is more concerned with the hand coordination than with him eating more solid food. This is my first child so my word isn't gospel but until he has more teeth to handle larger pieces of food I'm keeping him on baby food.

My son does not hold his bottle either. He will once in a while, more for my husband than me. I love that I have an "excuse" to take the 10 minutes or so to sit down with him and hold him while he drinks. He goes to daycare and they advertise that they will never "prop" a bottle for a baby but always hold the bottle for them. Sad that they have to advertise this and it isn't the norm for all daycare centers.

BTW: Our house isn't spic and span clean. A friend says we spoil my son by having either myself or my husband playing with my son 75 % of the time he is awake BUT, everyone also comments on how much he smiles, how happy and laid back he is. He doesn't cry when we leave him at daycare or with a sitter.

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Gerber Fruit puffs. A little sugar is the only downfall to them, but it helps. Even if he just plays with them, he'll figure it out.

Or just place globs of baby food on the tray and let him go to it. It's messy and you'll have to follow up with regular spoon feeding...but it works. That whole check everything out via fist helps.

Don't worry about it yet-- you have time. My son never held his own bottle. At 12 mos we switched to sippy cups, which I still held in the am and before bed-- it was comforting to both of us. Enjoy that time...it will be gone so fast.

Try, applesauce, cooked plain pasta, bananas,etc. Brendan didn't really get into the table food until 18mos.

I know this is really terrible to say but thank god, I thought I was the only one with that problem. My son is going to be three in january and I am having the same problem with him. he was actually taken off of baby food at two years. He started eating crackers and I figured I better take him off now while he is at least eating some sort of table food. If I didn't I thought for sure that I was going to be sending him to kidnergarten with baby food jars. He finally eats chicken nuggets but thats all he eats. Ohh and fries, but i'm talking nutritious foods chicken nuggets is it. He acts like he is afraid of new foods. He screams and says no when ever I try to offer him something. Even chocolate cake or ice cream wont work. Hes never had a PB&J sandwich never any mac and cheese either. The doctor says just don't feed him what he will eat, when he gets hungry he will eat it. Well he doesnt know my son he will starve his self. He'll drink anything but he won't eat anything. I bet your son was also the type of baby that never really chewed on things like board books or soft toys of plastic toys cause my son doesn't either. I'm at a loss as to how to get my son to try new foods. I guess i'll have to wait until I can bargain with him. eat ten new foods and you get a toy. It may be silly but I figured at least he might try something new and like it. I really son;t know how I got him to start eating the chicken nuggets but I might suggest that you start putting table food mashed up in the baby food jars if you feed him from the jars. I tried it and it didn't work but my son was to old to trick him at the time I tried it. Sorry I couldn't help more but it is comforting to know that my son isn't the only extremely picky eater.
C.

I just went through some of this with my daughter! She is also in the 90th percentile for height and weight, but she didn't even like the textures of the stage 3 foods. I just kept giving them to her, and eventually she adjusted. My doctor suggested just going straight to table food, but she didn't like that either. I did both the table food and baby food until she got used to it, and also mixed stage 2 with stage 3 type foods, and then stage 3 with table foods. I suggest mixing "real" food in with the baby food, and gradually make it less liquidy. I did that, and it worked. Also, try finger foods like the Gerber puffs, Cheerios, or dehydrated fruit pieces-Gerber or Parent's Choice make them (my daughter loves them all), or the biter biscuits or toast. All of these foods will encourage him to feed himself. Canned fruit or fresh bananas would also be good choices- you can always cut them up very small or mash them up a little. For breakfast you could try giving him oatmeal cereal (real stuff or mixed with baby oatmeal cereal) with small pieces of canned fruit. Try to put a few pieces of food on his tray and walk away, as someone else mentioned. Once he realizes how good the new food tastes, he'll be more willing to eat it and feed himself. Don't worry too much about it- I didn't start my daughter on table food until 9 months, and she's just over 11 months and no longer has any problems.

My daughter also did not like to hold her bottle. The way I solved this was to give her a couple swallows (holding it for her), and then take it out of her mouth, holding the bottle right in front of her for her to grab it. She definitely wanted that bottle, so those hands popped up and she held it herself. As time went on she held it longer and longer until she had held it the whole time, and now no longer needs a taste "tease". The sippy cup is still a challenge for her- she likes to chew on the soft ones (Nuby), and some are too hard to suck on with the valve but make a humongous mess without the valve (Playtex). My neighbor suggested the Toss and Go sippy cups, and my daughter has had the most success with them. They don't pour out like niagara falls, but you don't have to suck like crazy to get a drop out, either. I think The First Years has some other cups with a similar valveless non-disposable sippy- see their website.

I started substituting one bottle for a sippy to help her get used to it, and I will continue to sub one out as time goes on. I'll leave the bedtime one for last. Are you still holding him when he drinks his bottle? If you are, I'd suggest trying to get him to hold the bottle when you are holding him, and if he still won't hold it, then put him in the highchair, do the taste test, and if he still doesn't want to hold it, put it down in front of him and walk away. He'll start to realize that the only way he's going to get that bottle is to hold it himself. You will probably have to hold it for part of the feedings to begin with, but it will get less and less, until he drinks the whole thing down without even setting it down! At this point, you may want to offer a sippy cup occasionally to introduce him to it, putting diluted juice in it. If he only gets juice from a sippy cup, he'll be more interested in it. He'll probably need help holding it, though, which is fine.

He will probably be resistant to these ideas at first, but keep trying, and he'll come around. Don't worry- he'll get it. Good luck!

What's the rush let your little guy be a baby. Mine ate baby food until 18months. It's a texture thing.

My daughter just turned 1 a couple weeks ago and just this weekend started using a sippy cup. She would only hold her bottle periodically. Try some table food that he can try and put in his mouth on his own. Even if it does start to get a little messy. My daughter doesn't always want me to put the food in her mouth and will take it out of my hands to put in her hands. Something will click eventually.

we had a hard time with our daughter. we just kept giving her the option after we fed her 1/2 jar of baby food. she is still a picky eater (she's 22 months now). one day, she simply stopped eating baby food. i suggest giving him some table food in addition to his baby food. maybe he wont try it for a while, but its there and one day he'll get curious enough to try it!

i have no advice on the baby bottle though. my daughter held her own very early. i did still snuggle with her at night when she had her bottle, but i enjoyed being able to put her in high chair and give her her bottle and i could get dinner ready. we didnt transition to a sippy cup until 1 year and it was a rough transition. i finally went to putting milk in the sippy cup and formula in the bottle and she eventally went for the sippy cup. good luck!

My reaction to "my 10 month old son will not transition to table food" is: why the rush - 10 months is really young, let him show you the pace that's right for him!

For the first year of life, longer if your child doesn't have any/many teeth or has food allergies, the *primary* source of nutrition, by design, should be breastmilk (and if that's not available, then formula). Table food, baby purees, etc. - all of that's just like "fun extras" and NOT something to worry about your son eating "enough of."

And the bottle? Again, 10 months is YOUNG, and it's not recommended for babies to hold their own bottles anyway - it's the adult's job to feed the baby in a nurturing, loving way, preferably in arms at the breast or in arms with the adult holding the bottle.

Trust me when I say that these first months of his long life will be such a tiny percentage of your overall parenting experience - why on earth would you want to rush through them? Your little guy is a baby - please let him be one! Cuddle him, baby him, nurture and nourish him in arms, let him go at his own pace with food, relax! There is no rush, no race. Plus, babies who are cautious with food (even after giving them at least 10 opportunities to try it - that means, make it available to them for tasting) often have a good reason - many of these babies either simply don't have enough teeth and won't be interested in solids until they do, OR they have a sensitive system with some food sensitivities/allergies that they're trying to outgrow before taking in a wider range of foods.

Here's a great site that has some wonderful information on delaying solids:
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

I know what you mean. I have a 2-year old that is a very fussy eater because I kept him on baby food too long. I believe it is a texture thing.
I just asked his doctor today how to get him to eat new foods. She said to just give him a meal with at least one thing he likes. The rest he will eventually try on his own. She said not to make eating such an ordeal. Let him eat what he wants off his plate and be done with it. Don't reward him if he eats well and don't scold him if he doesn't. She also told me not to stress out about it. They will eventually eat. She said there was a study done on kids eating habits. The kids that ate best were the ones that were left alone to eat their food. No urging them to eat this and try that, no forcing them to eat stuff, and no bribing them with treats if they eat their meal. Eventually they'll get curious and want to try new things. I'm hoping this works for us. I'm starting this method today!
Good luck to you!

Your son is obviously not happy about table food, so don't rush him. My friend breastfed her children exclusively for 12 months and only then began to introduce other food. I did the same for 9 months. If he won't hold his own bottle (and I'm a little surprised you expect him to) then hold it for him. He must like the comfort of being cuddled and fed. Make it special. It will only last a very short time longer. Let him be a baby while he actually is one. Best wishes!

HI Jill-
My now 13 month old was not thrilled about table food at first either. I started her out with easy stuff like cheerios, peas, kix. She was reluctant at first but now loves them. She feeds them to herself she won't eat them if I try to put them in her mouth for her. She to this day still doesn't like meats.
She also took forever to hold her own bottle (about 10 mos) She also had trouble with the sippy cup. Don't sweat it, he'll catch on. My daughter did everything a little slower than my boy did.

I have a 9 1/2 month year old....I think all the advice is great so the only thing i have to add (if u don't already know is) Gerber also makes finger puffs ( similiar to cheerios but dissolve a little faster) i broke really small at first and would give her 5 at a time in her high chair to get used to and play with and try to feed herself. Just let him explore for awhile.

Hi Jill,

Have you tried using a baby food grinder? If not, maybe that would work. They really grind the food into a fine texture. Good Luck!