Hello mamas,
I have a question that I hope some of you can help me with. My nine almost ten month old is typically a great eater. I make my own purees for him and he typically eats great. For the last week, he has barely touched any food by spoon. He will take one or two bites and then there is nothing I can do to get him to take another one. I have made new purees that I know he likes....and nothing. He isn't sick. He might be teething, but he ate through other teething bouts. He will still take a bottle, but I feel like exclusively feeding him formula is kind of a step back. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Maybe it's time to give him a little more fun in his food. Soft finger foods are tolerable at this age. Chunks of scrambled eggs, puff cracker things, cheerios, etc. He does not need teeth to eat he can gum the foods. I am sure others will have more suggestions on finger foods. It's been awhile and I am drawing a blank. Oh fruit cut up in small pieces - bananas, strawberries, kiwi. No grapes yet.
Food at this age is a purely learning experience. It's not about nutrition.
Check out Baby Led Weaning. It was around this age that my daughter also stopped wanting the purees. We started feeding her softer, finger-shaped peices of what we were eating (or what we had around the house) and she went hog-wild. She's an incredible eater, now.
I am going to totally disagree with you. You can take it for what it's worth to you.
He is only 9 months old.
He is probably starving for nutrition and that is why he is craving the bottle.
Formula has every nutrient he needs, baby food does not. You are doing better than they do since you are cooking it yourself but truly, how many vitamins are you adding, how are you getting the DHA into the food you are fixing, how much are you adding so this child will be getting the super high concentrations of the nutrients he needs?
He needs his formula, he needs you to cut way down on the food and allow him to have his needs met. He needs you to understand that any "food" at this age is only for learning to chew and swallow in preparation for when he is closer to a year and about to wean off formula.
So, please, when you say you are taking a step back, you are actually taking a step forward. He needs the formula much much more than food that does not have the nutrients his body is craving.
They will go through growth spurt phases where they don't eat and the next week they will be ravenous and back to normal. Don't sweat it unless in another week or two he's not back to normal. His body will tell him when he needs to eat and he will eat. Just keep giving him his normal foods and let him eat what he wants. Not a good time to try to change anything. These growth spurt cycles will drive you nuts - a week of not eating, then eating like crazy, then the next thing you know there clothes/shoes don't fit anymore. :-) 9 months is one of the major growth spurt timelines and my kids always stop eating around the time of the spurt. Is he sleeping more? My kids will sleep a ton and not eat. Then will go on to be ravenous and sleep little afterward.
I'm going to be a bit in the middle of your other two responses. First off, don't worry about going back to formula primarily. That IS all he needs at this point. Keep offering the food like normal (perhaps in very small amounts so you don't end up wasting if he doesn't want much). I would guess he'll pick up on eating again when he wants to. I wouldn't give him finger foods if he hasn't had them yet, he needs to master the purees and soft foods first. You could try cereal made with formula or milk (if he's had it) if you really want him to have to eat something with a spoon. It'd at least taste like what he's getting in the bottles. My 10 month old gets pureed or finger foods twice a day and nurses normally 4 times a day. If he doesn't feel like eating food, he nurses more. Fine with me, fine with him! Don't worry!
