Feeding 8 Month Old - Holland,MI

I wouldn't be alarmed that he isn't feeding himself yet, he is still very young. The Gerber Puffs are a great first finger food...I used them with both of my little ones. Maybe put some on his tray in front of him and see what he does with them. When he is ready, he will eat them. As far as what to feed him, do you plan on cooking or feeding him food from a jar? If you are interested in cooking, there is a great website (www.wholesomebabyfood.com) that gives food charts for each age range, sample menus, and recipes.

Hi K., My son is just 10 days older than yours! He doesn't have teeth and is in the 75th percentile for weight, hence he eats a lot. In addition to 24 oz of formula a day, he has yogurt mixed with oatmeal and a few cheerios for breakfast. Sometimes he can get them in his mouth, sometimes not. Lunch is a pureed veggie and fruit, and sometimes those puffs as a snack. He doesn't always get those in his mouth either. Dinner is a pureed meat and applesauce, sometimes with oatmeal mixed in. If the finger food is in front of him, he'll always reach for it but it doesn't always make it in his mouth. When you eat dinner, try to give him some of that too. We've done taco meat, brocoli, peas- those were a little big, and shredded cheese which we ended up having to feed to him. It's okay he's not getting the food, every thing is different and there's no rush. I think just trying new things every now & then is important.
As far as spit up, what kind of formula are you using? At 3 months we switched my son to enfamil gentleease and his spit up is almost non-existent.

If he's not initiating self feeding he's not ready for any kind of food IMO.

Babies eat when they are ready and it's not uncommon for babies to not eat solids until after their 1st b-day. Breastmilk or Formula is all the nutrition your baby needs in the first year.

Oh and I had one kid who was/is unable to digest rice so he would spit it back up regardless, and when he got older and was eating whole rice it would come out whole the other end!

www.wholesomebabyfood.com

They have schedules, how to make foods, recipes, etc.

i stuck to mainly jarred baby food for the 'meals' and then snacks would do finger foods...my daughter loved fruit!! very similar to another response:

breakfast: bottle w/ oatmeal, cereal, or cream of wheat

snack: very small pieces of bananas, watermelon, cantelope, cheerios, gerber snacks things, yogurt (some dr's say no dairy until after a year...but mine said it was fine - actually prescribed it to us when she had diarreah!!)

lunch: bottle w/ jar veggies

snack: same as above

dinner: jar of veggies and small pieces of what we were having...such as bits of mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, soft cheese...my dr. did say no meat until after 1 yr (but all my friends gave their kids meat before that)

bedtime: bottle

i found so many contradicting opinions about dairy and meat...ask your doctor what they think...i did dairy before 1...but no meat...the main nutrition is the bottle - everything else is just practice!

The fact that he's not feeding himself yet is no big deal. My baby girl is 11 months old and what I did at 8 months is - I let her "play" with the gerber puff for a bit, she was transfer it back and forth from one hand to the other. Then I would put one in her mouth. She eventually got the hang of it.

As for what to feed him... I started finger food a bit later than most people - I give them to her regularly now, but I didn't give them to her regularly until about 9-10 months. Here's the schedule I did for her at 8 months.

Breakfast: 6oz bottle of formula and Oatmeal (mixed with some of the formula)

Lunch: 6oz bottle of formula and 1 jar of fruit

Snack: some water in a sippy and a few Cheerios or Puffs

Dinner: Sippy with water and a splash of juice and 1 jar of veggie and 1/2 jar of meat.

Bedtime: 7oz bottle of formula

Hope this helps!
J.

Hi K..

First, don't stress. Breastmilk or formula should be the primary source of calories for children for the first year. Solid foods are really just 'practice' until then... getting them used to tastes and textures and such. We didn't do alot of purees, mainly because they don't NEED it and second I though it better to introduce finger table foods so the NORMAL taste and texture would be familiar.

So, keep offering some finger foods.... soft cooked veggies, O's cereal, some of your dinner, etc... You can also think about plain yoghurt about 9 months of age and such.

Also, don't worry if at 1 year baby still isn't super interested in solids. It's ok. Every kid is different. As long as he is growing and meeting major milestones ... all is well.

Hi K.-
My daughter was born 1-12-08 ;) at 6 months i started solids. I make all of my food at home with one of those processors I bought at babies'r'us. She eats fruits and veggies and i just let her try chicken. Of course everything is mashed up. As for the puffs I tried them too it took her a good week to understand that she has to pick them up and put them in her mouth. Eventually she got it :) sometimes they make it to her mouth and others times they don't. I would not worry they are still such babies it is crazy how time goes by so quick with little ones.
Good luck
A.

My son had Reflux when he was born. I had to take him to CHOC hospital and he is on medication like Reglan. I also have him on Enfamil Gentle ease with Oatmeal 1 tablespoon of oatmeal per 2 ounces.
I also feed him snacks like Graham Crackers with no Honey he loves them they mash easly in his mouth and also Ritz crackers are the same. He also loves the puffs from Gerber but he perfers the Graham Crackers. I make his food at home because he is on a strict diet and cannot eat certain foods. No apple juice but can have pear juice if he is constipated and no prune juice or prunes because it makes him too gasy and also upsets his stomach. Just think no citrus food and things that diegest quickly. No bananas at all very h*** o* their little tummy for babies with reflux. He loves pears mashed with blueberries. And if he is teething I freeze chunks of cantelope, watermelon, blueberries and give it too him in a baby mesh feeder. He is a pretty happy baby besides all his problems. Oh and nooooo Meat for babies with Reflux it really irritates their tummies :) Try tofu mixed with fruit or vegies my son loves tofu. LOL... I also but cinnamon with alot of his fruit and it is really good for them especially if they have a cold:) You can also take blueberries and boil them make a juice out of it mix it with some water and they love it for colds as well. Since our little ones with reflux cannot have broth of any kind this works well for me and my GI doctor at Choc suggested it for me as well. But make sure your little one can handle blueberries first:) And if they have teeth brush them afterwards or they will be blue for a couple of days and dont be alarmed they look like a smurf for a couple of hours after blueberries:) I also invested in a couple of plastic bibs which he wears for a couple of hours for spit up since I can wipe it off:) My son will eventually have to get sugery for this but we have to wait till he is over a year :) Hope this helps also look up the websit wholesomefoods.com it gives you dos and donts on what to give a baby with reflux. Oh and my son can tolerate plain soy yogurt its easy to digest and no regular plain yogurt because its alot harder for his tummy to digest :)

I don't think it is unusual for him to NOT be interested. He is still so young. You can offer him finger food, pick up a few yourself and feed yourself. He will mimic EVERYTHING you do. At this age, he really doesn't need to eat anything but formula/breastmilk. Put some finger food...banana, cheerios, whatever..in front of him. He'll figure it out.

It's kind of a keep trying thing. He'll get it eventually. As far as what to feed, I usually started with cereal and worked through the veggie line first and then the fruits if you haven't done so already. Cheerios are great finger food as well. My kids were on a normal schedule of the three meals by this age. Do what works for your son though.

8 months old? No he isn't ready for feeding himself. It's barely over a half year since birth.

It's up to you to feed him. Maybe his system isn't quite ready for cereals.

Address the reflux. He's spitting up. When my stomach does that I manipulate it back down into place. How adults do that is too rough on babies, tho. I would find an alternative practitioner who does stomach manipulation. With a baby it'd very likely be like a tummy tickle. But consult an alternative person.

hi K., feeding finger foods also depends on how many teeth your child had at this age. if he doesn't have any, then you are limited to softer foods such as avocado, cottage cheese,yogurt, canned peaches/pears (in lite syrup), cooked peas, cooked beans (there's a whole variety out there), etc. gerber makes snacks like the "puffs" and "yogurt melts" in additon to the teething toasts. my child had almost 8 teeth by 8 months and was eating like a champ but some don't get teeth til age 1. i would say "yes" to your question about his attempting to self feed... he should be trying but it will be very trial/error as the coordination takes time to develop. encourage him at every meal... if he's still on formula/breast milk then remember that's his main source of nutrition at least until age 1 if not longer... everything else is just to get him introduced to flavors/ textures/ etc. remember not to try too many new things at once!

If you look at the Gerber website you can get sample menus for you child based on milestone (sitter, crawler, etc.) and breast fed or formula fed.

http://www.gerber.com/Nutrition_Feeding/SHSH_Menu_Index.aspx

I too had a son with reflux.. he still spits up and he is 15 months...

I assume your son is eating baby cereal, fruits and veggies.. have you started the mixed food dinners...

After you do the mixed dinners for a while then you can try the 3rd food baby food... The fruits and veggies in the 3rd foods are almost exactly like the 2nd foods... the 3rd food dinners have small soft pieces.. small carrots noodles..

You can also add small pieces of noodles or rice to a 2nd foods dinner...

There is not set time for finger food..if the child is not ready - you put in on the tray and he will not eat it.. or he will choke on it..

kraft cheese crumbles are great - the are sold in bags next to the shredded cheese-- canned veggies are soft and easy to eat. canned fruit is good. - peaches are slippery so do pears first..

Hi K.,

I am a Wellness Educator and I have numerous files on kids health, including meal ideas, serving sizes, shopping lists, etc. Please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to share them with you.

In health, D. ###-###-####

Timing for self feeding really depends on the child. By 8 mos my daughter (now 10 mos) was almost completely self feeding and rushing "baby" food. My son took longer. Start introducing simple easy to pick up foods and increase what you give him as he starts to get the hang of it.

My son is 10 months old and is just now getting interested with feeding himself finger foods (peas, cherrios, baby goldfish, banana, etc). It definately took him a while to understand the chewing instead of just trying to swallow a cherrio for example. He seems to be more willing to feed himself after I give him a couple of spoonfuls of cereal, 2nd foods or yobaby yogurt (yogurt is his abosolute favorite thing and has really helped his digestive system). Keep offering the finger food and one day you'll be surprised and he'll pop it into his mouth. Oh, and I have found that my son didn't like Zwiebeck toast but instead enjoyed the biter biscuits. The larger size helped with the accuracy of making it to his mouth instead of his eye or cheek. My babysitter also gave me one of those mesh food holders that you cut a piece of fresh fruit and place in. Your baby then can hold it and suck/mash on the fruit without the risk of choking because the solid stays inside the mesh.