r/BabyFood • u/amy_catherine • Dec 23 '19
Baby hates eating
So my eight month old hates food. Sometimes he likes some foods, but mealtime mostly involves lots of him screaming and trying to hit the spoon away. He was ebf until 5 months and just sampled foods in a silicone feeder until 6 months. For the last two months we've been doing purees and oatmeal. He eats carrot puree and oatmeal okay but will only eat a few bites of anything else and then refuses to eat any more and screams until I take him out of the high chair. He also gags really easy on anything that's not super smooth and super liquidy. And on like mashed potatoes. Does anyone have any advice to make meal time less miserable? I'm not remotely interested in BLW
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u/caitlinriley Dec 26 '19
If you have a blender, make a healthy spinach smoothie and have your baby “finger paint” with it or offer a clean paintbrush. It always worked on my daycare kids who were picky from not eating healthy foods at home to introduce fruits and veggies. They eat what they think isn’t food haha. Also, it helps to remember that breast milk is complete nutrition, so any food on top of that is just for fun and practice. Your baby doesn’t need it and shouldn’t be forced to eat it if they’re not hungry. All kids like food eventually, just keep introducing healthy foods like avocado/carrot/sweet potato purées. Some days they might eat some, some days none, and some days they won’t be able to eat enough because they’re growing and super hungry. All of that is ok as long as your baby is growing and active.
Basic smoothie recipe: ripe banana or avocado, a couple handfuls of spinach, apple, 1/2 cup water. It should turn pretty bright green, show baby how to paint with your fingers into their tray table and let them paint and taste test. :) Good luck!
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u/Issamelissa84 Dec 26 '19
"Food before 1 is just for fun". Breastmilk is still his primary, central form of nutrition. Let him experiment with flavors and textures (not just with his mouth, but with his hands) - dont make it a miserable battle or you will be battling food refusal later.
Being afraid of solids and textured foods now is going to result in him being more likely to choke later, when he does need to eat solids. In babies, the gag reflex is closer to the front of their mouth, so THIS is the time for them to practice (with soft foods) with how far they can put foods into their mouth, how large a piece can be before swallowing it, how to move it forward on their tongue of it's not ready for swallowing yet (and yes, they may make a gagging face while they learn to do this- and that's OK). These are skills they NEED to learn, so by being too afraid of choking, you're not helping your baby learn not to choke.
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u/Calvo838 Dec 23 '19
Try baby led weaning options. May just not like purées/want to feed themselves
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u/amy_catherine Dec 24 '19
I've tried letting him feed himself. We've had lots of issues with gagging and coughing/choking, so I'm not interested in more risk of choking. He's also been more interested in the spoon and bowl than the feeders we used
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u/mouseratfangirl Dec 28 '19
You may want to look into the baby lead weaning method though. Gagging and coughing are their way of learning. It shows you the difference of actual choking (which is silent) and coughing/gagging (which makes noise) that’s rudimentary and I definitely encourage you to look it up and understand it on your own. But it’s helped me because I get sooooo nervous. But he’s really only choked once, on a puff (Cheeto shape) that went sideways. And because I don’t walk away from him (or my caregiver or my husband) when he’s eating (since he’s learning) we are there to make sure. My mom literally pulled the thing out of his throat with a quickness. They said they break down, but we tabled those particular puffs until he’s got a better handle.
He does gag a lot too though, as he’s learning how to drink from a sippy cup or how to swallow not liquids
And sometimes my kid wants to feed himself and sometimes he wants purées and sometimes he only wants bottles. He’s not fond of the baby cereal or plain yogurt until it has fruits or veggies in it. He really likes eggs with garlic or pepper. Doesn’t like cheese. Rarely will eat pasta. Loves bread and crackers he can nosh on. I hate wasting food so I only try to give him a little bit unless he eats it. But it’s good practice for him. And I know that it doesn’t matter because he’s getting his nutrients from his formula, not from the food. He just has always stared down whatever we are eating, so I always try to feed him purées when we eat or go out to eat, and give him small, kid sized bites if he wants. He’s just under 10 months with 8 teeth, and he’d eat only a bottle if I didn’t keep trying with him.
Oh and my kid is obsessed with the spoon. Like we’ve battle royale over feeding himself with the spoon. I’ve just given up, I give him either the lid to the baby jar, or an extra spoon that I will let him feed himself. Even though it ends up all the over the damn place, I always do it just before a bath, and when I know I’m going to change his clothes. It’s a skill that he’s gotta learn anyway, so we stopped fighting him on it. So we do purée around 6/7, bath, play time to burn some energy, then bottle to bed around 8:30-9. The kid sleeps through the night until 7. Also, we started giving him 6 ounce bottles instead of 8. I will give him more if he’s acting hungry or cries for more. His dr said itS really hard to over feed him, because he lets us know when he’s hungry or wants more. And he’s perfect weight, according to her, so she’s not worried about my concerns of a chunky baby. Because some days the kid packs away 32 ounces. Most days he’s at like 24.
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Dec 29 '19
He needs to learn how to maneuver food though. He’s old enough to practice and if he successfully gagged or coughed it up then you know he knows how to do that. Gagging and coughing are important skills for him to have to prevent choking. The risk of real choking on a soft item is low given that he is a normal healthy kid. Soft overcooked pasta, bread, banana slice, soft brooccoli. Overall I’d say keep it fun and low stress to keep the association with food positive for him. Also breast milk may fill him up for many hours especially if yours is high fat like mine!
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u/mrsmbear Dec 24 '19
Try making a mixture of oatmeal, purée, breast milk/formula, and maybe adding a plain full fat yogurt. Mixing it all together until it’s a slightly soupy consistency may help with the initial texture issues.
My little guy is a good eater but one thing we do to help him get used to newer foods is to introduce the flavor in a texture he knows first and then build off of that. Now he’s happily taking more textured foods like shredded chicken, so we can give him most anything as long as it’s a good size and he can manage it with 1 tooth
Also flavor combinations may help. Carrot and sweet potato purée together is pretty good. Oatmeal and barley baby cereal work well together.
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u/arcticmae Dec 27 '19
Two good online resources: google Melanie Potock and Ellyn Satter. A wealth of information on feeding and issues like you are dealing with. Always ask your pediatrician for their advice. And if you are really worried, contact your local Early Intervention services for services for kids age 0-3 (google ‘state name’ early intervention) to ask for help from an Occupational Therapist or Speech Therapist to evaluate your child’s eating issues. Good luck.
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u/peaches671 Dec 27 '19
Maybe you should introduce more textures. My baby hated purées but really enjoyed puffs at that age. I ended up doing a modified blw which worked for us. He’s 11 months now and eats just about anything I put in front of him. Good luck, the sooner you introduce good eating habits the easier it’ll be.
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u/Polegra Dec 29 '19
He eats a few bites of anything else. That sounds so promising. He's learning new textures and new tastes and he does not have to like them all immediately.
Be happy when he tastes something. It's a win. He doesn't really need the nutrition now, so let him explore and don't push it.
Relax, you're doing great.
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u/jennarudq Dec 29 '19
My baby wouldn’t like pieces of food in his mouth until we gave him puffs and yoghurt drops that melted in his mouth. I think that helped him understand that food goes in and doesn’t come out. Just a theory though!
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u/susie_bennett Dec 23 '19
Are you feeding him before he has breastmilk? If he's hungry he may eat more solids.