My one-year-old is resisting mealtime, snacks, and food in general. He's hardly eaten anything for the past couple of weeks, and I need some advice! He has been refusing to eat from a spoon - if we manage to totally distract him with toys in his highchair, we can get a few bites down. He's even resisting foods he used to love, like yogurt. We try letting him eat finger foods, but he is not good enough at self-feeding to eat anything close to a full meal. He usually packs the food in his mouth without swallowing, causing him to choke or end up spitting it out. He also has a very sensitive gag reflex. He has six teeth but he can't seem to get the hang of chewing and swallowing. Any advice would be appreciated!
Just do what Jen said.
Add little pieces of avocado, pieces of peach, pear, plum, nectarine, etc,
little pieces of cheese, grapes cut in half,
not all at the same time.
little pieces of banana for sure,
cooked carrots, cooked sweet potatoes, cooked squash.
No more spoons.
For now.
My lil dude will be one this month and the thing I was seeing was he was getting bored. So I am starting to branch out more and more on the food(I am more on the conservative side, but he wants it all!!) Anyway, I would just start with some soft bread or something like that. I would give him one little piece and he would look at it, pick it up and eat it. I did the same with the puffs, just one puff to start, he would eat it and I would put down another puff. Tedious I know, but I would just put his highchair beside me while cooking or whatever and lean over to dispense the puff etc. During that time, I was still doing stage two baby food and breastmilk for his nourishment. Just introducing the texture. Then after he was good with handling one puff at a time and yelling for more, I put down a small handful, he did great. He was feeling more independent and made him more excited about eating in general. After I was feeling good with puffs and bready things, I branched out to cheerios, I tried the one at a time but he was having none of that! I had to give him small handful and just walk a little away, but he did good. Once I saw that he could do cheerios no prob I was more open to introduce more things. Today he ate half a grilled cheese, a whole small banana and some dananino yogurt for lunch and he fed himself! Well except for the yogurt. But like with the sandwich, I put out like five little bites and let him do that and the put out more. He is going to be one next week and I have yet to do veggies or fruit other than banana or pasta. But he is on the bullet train now, so it won't be any time before he is eating almost everything. I personally wait on meat until they get a bit older, but that's just me. So I would say don't worry about taking it slow, start with breads, maybe bake a sweet potato and give him some, just little things you can think of that aren't hard to eat, you know small chunks of banana, fresh things that have new and interesting textures. Oh and what I do with stage three baby food is add a dab of real butter, a pinch of salt and pop it in the microwave a few seconds. Whoa!! What a difference. Once they realize there are other flavors in the world, bland, cold baby food is a no go :D Good luck, transitioning is challenging, but great, bc baby food is so expensive!!
What I learned during Pediatrics in nursing school is this: children only eat about a tablespoon of food times their age during any one meal. So, if your child is one, one tablespoon of food is about all he will eat. That is why it is so important to offer frequent snacks. Parents tend to over-feed. A child's stomach is about as big as their fist; think how small your child's tiny fist is! Your baby is not going to starve, trust me! What you should do is chop up finger foods and put just a tiny bit on his high chair. It has been proven that if you put a lot of food in front of a baby or child, it looks too overwhelming and they won't eat. But if you put a little bit in front of them, they will devour it. So try this; if he eats it all, put a little bit more on there. When he is done, don't force him to keep eating, this will become a battle and you will lose. Good luck!
babies can gum food, even if there are no teeth. My daughter is starting to fight the spoon, slap it away (and make a huge mess!), pull her bib up, just causing a huge ruckus. I find it helps to have some finger foods out for her to self feed, and I sneak in more on the spoon. Breakfast, she fights the cereal (she loves her cereal, I put fruit and yogurt in it) so I try to get as much in as I can, but also dice up bits of a baby cereal bar, and give her the puffs too. Lunch, I give more cereal (depending on how much she ate at breakfast) with a hard boiled egg and fruit, all mixed up, smooth. I give her avocado bits and cheese bits to self feed while I again sneak in the spoon. She loves watered grape juice so I give her 3 ounces after she eats, then bf. a snack after her nap, is usually fruit, puffs, cheese, kind of whatever, I try to do sampler plates when she eats for variety, then dinner, again some cereal with fruit, peas, carrots/ squash/ or sweet potatoes, a fruit for dessert, plus some of our food, which is really what she wants. She loves chopped up spaghetti. I always watch to see whats in her mouth to make sure she doesnt stuff up like a hamster, and keep whats available limited on the highchair to 3-5 bites, less if its cheese or chicken, more if its avocado or bananas. Keep him busy and interested, and allow him his independence. Good luck, I know it can get frusterating!
Have you tried the baby food that is in bags? I think it is new, but not sure. My 19 month old loves them and when she goes through a time when she doesn't want to eat I give her one of those and she loves it. Not sure why, but she does. Good luck!!!
At one year, it is still okay that he is getting most of his calories from milk. I would relax on the food. Offer it and see what he will eat. Are you still feeding baby food, new foods? You may be showing some of your tension in his not wanting to eat.
i went through the same thing with my 1 yr old she stopped eatting and I talked to ped. and was told she may cut back a .lot on the food mainly because she isnt going to sit still long enough to eat so we found she loves mash potatoes and grits i no they are startchy but she eats them and block all the rooms off live to just the living room and let her run around and eat as she wants a bite its about the only way she will eat now hope this helps
Maybe for now several small meals or a few really long ones :) Sounds like we really likes the finger foods. Eat with him and model chewing/mashing your food. Have a serving plate near you and his own little plate (or the high chair try in front of him). Have small bite size pieces ready and just put one or two at a time in front of him. Don't give him more until you're sure he swallowed. Some thoughts on soft yummy things:
-fruit chunks (banana, orange pear just about anything)
-veggie chunks that are super soft maybe with some seasoning (avocado, carrots, squash potato, peas)
-cheese!
-noodles(cheesy or buttery or plain or with sauce or herbs)
-bread (can soak in a puree or let him dip it himself, can spread a little butter on it maybe jam)
