Transition from Baby Food.

Has he ever been diagnosed with Dysphagia?
Dysphagia is a problem with swallowing.... or with certain textures....
I would really consider this.... it not being always in conjunction with Reflux.

Also, there is something called "Food Neophobia" in kids.
Which is informative.

all the best,
Susan

Is your child on reflux meds?
as far as food, I had trouble with my son transitioning to table food. He would gag on a lot of things and he doesn't have reflux. It takes patience but he will learn to eat. Neither one of my kids ever and still don't eat mashed potatoes...it's the texture. Try eggs, bland chicken, bananas, sliced apples, biscuits, etc...just let him use his hands for now...you can introduce forks and spoons a little later. Even though he keeps spitting it out and pushing away the food, keep giving it to him. He will get the hint sooner or later.Good Luck

You know, my 9 month old spits out everything! I finally figured out that it wasn't that he didn't want it, because he did, it was just that if it wasn't in the cheek pocket to start with, he has trouble manuvering his tongue to get it chewed (especially banana and mashed potato- it kind of sticks to the roof of his mouth!) and it sort of just slides out!

I, at the moment, puree everything to chunky baby food consistency, put some on his plate to 'play' with and feed him first with the spoon, just enought to take the edge of the hunger. Then, when I'm done, he plays with the food and some of it eventually ends up in his mouth. For us, the solids actually HELP with the reflux because it holds down better. I will say that sometimes the chunky food coming back up might not be pleasent so that may be part of the rejection.

My son had reflux as an infant as well as difficulty swallowing. He was actually put on thickened liquids when he was 5 months old because we learned he was aspirating - inhaling liquids into his lungs. When we started to introduce him to baby food, he would gag on everything. At 16 months, he started losing weight and finally people started to take me serious that something was wrong. We started working w/ a feeding therapist through First Steps. It is believed that my son has had difficulty coordinating movements in his mouth and learned early on that eating is painful (related to painful reflux) which has lead to an honest to goodness fear of foods.

If something similar is going on with you son, you need help. My sons' issues are very difficult for most people to understand - we have family members who insist he will eat if he gets hungry enough. I can promise you he won't. I offered him an M&M a few months ago and he screamed and threw it off the table.

I have two suggestions... First check out http://www.popsiclecenter.org/index.asp. It is a very user friendly website started by parents of children w/ a feeding disorder (my son does have a medically diagnosed feeding disorder). Secondly, I would seek an OT/Feeding evaluation at your local children's hospital.

Hang in there... My son's eating continues to be a daily challenge for me. My joke used to be if the food was just right, all factors inside were just right, and the wind was blowing just right outside, then my son would eat. It has been a very long journey, but he is starting to eat and I do have hope he will eat "normal" one of these days! Feel free to email if you have any other questions..

It's a little hard to suggest without knowing how he handles the chunky baby food (step 3 meals with meat I think). Does he like that? I had made my own food, so I just gradually made it less & less soupy until it was just what we ate. What are his favorite baby foods? If applesauce for example, then have you tried small chunks of dried apples? If cherries or peaches, then have you tried yogurt with small pieces of the fruit in it? Cooked peas and carrot chunks are usually fairly soft foods that the consistency isn't too far off from baby food. Small pieces of pasta can be good texture too.

My eldest had reflux as a babe, the meds never did much, but we controlled it by changing formulas. She was better on soy when she was doing just formula, but the reflux started back up again when she started solids. This was fixed simply by switching her back to milk formula. She outgrew the reflux as she started eating people food. I know others aren't so lucky, but you may need to get that looked at more, and maybe speak with a nutrionist to help with food choice ideas that might help.

I had the opposite problem with my youngest, she hated baby food & went straight from the bottle to solids. I started mixing small portions of yogurt or aplesauce with her food, gradually putting more sauce than food until now she will eat applesauce and yogurt which had been unheard of for her. Could you try the opposite?

How has he done with the large teething biscuits or toast? They can be messy, but some kids do better eating solids after getting used to those first.

I have alway heard just to introduce healthy foods to babies/toddlers at every meal, eat well yourself, and they will pick up good habits and variety soon enough. I recall my nephew as a babe eating only graham crackers...nothing else - for days! He's 9 now and eats a good variety of foods.
I guess too, maybe your son is just not ready yet. There is no precise timeline when they have to start eating solids, just when they are ready. Just like walking; some at 9 months, some at 16 months. Some kids lose their first tooth at 4, some not until they're 6 or 7. It should be okay to let him start solids when he is ready.

How old is your LO? My LO also is a reflux baby, though he's much much better and off meds now (he's 13 mo). Starting at 6 months, I tried offering baby food, but he refused. It wasn't until about 8.5-9 months that he started eating food, which just happened to be when his relfux got better. He went straight to table food, and skipped baby food altogether.

Have you talked to his dr? If he's over 1 year, I would be a little concerned about an oral aversion, caused by reflux. Is the reflux controlled? I have some great websites for you to check out:
www.refluxrebels.com
www.marci-kids.com

Oh, and my LO much prefers to feed himself. He will let me feed him some things, but mostly he wants to do it himself.

And also, hazelwood is known to help with reflux pains. However, my LO wears an amber teething necklace that I'm 99% sure is the reason his reflux suddenly got better (within 2 weeks of wearing it he was med free and has only had minor flare ups since...if I forget to put it back on him after his bath his reflux gets bad again). Here's a great site to read more about hazelwood and amber, and their healing properties. I promise I'm not crazy, I was a skeptic until I tried it. It really does work (and helps with teething, and other pains, too:)
www.inspiredbyfinn.com

Message me if you have other questions. I'll be happy to help how I can.

My daughter had bad reflux since birth too. Meds didn't help her at all because hers turned out to be all allergy related (although the allergy tests didn't indicate that, watching what I/she ate did). The docs wanted to keep her on reflux meds anyway, which I now regret doing, because it may have contributed to further allergies....by reducing the stomach acid, which means food's not broken down properly before getting to the intestines. There is something called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. It's an allergic response and can't be distinguished from reflux except by upper GI, but difficulty swallowing and throwing up are some of it's symptoms. You might look that up, but maybe he's just got a problem with texture. Did you gradually transition him to chunkier food?

Bummer. My son was slow to transition to table food as well. He didn't have the reflux issue but he did gag very easily and was not into any "real" food I put on his tray. My only real advice, which isn't all that great, is keep trying. I had been making my son's baby food in small batches thinking that I shouldn't have to keep it up much longer and then he never fed himself so one day I said screw it and made a TON to last me awhile and wouldn't you know, he started eating food, just to spite me I think! ;) He will slowly figure it out and will become more inclined to try things. Just keep offering it to him even if he doesn't eat it or throws it on the floor. The more times he sees it the more he will begin to reaize that's how it's done! I think boys are slower at this in general anyway, just from what I've seen. If he's still not feeding himself by 18 months, I would talk to your ped., but until that, keep at it, Mama!