Food Struggles...HELP

lolson33

My 8 month old daughter has always seemed to be a great eater when it came to baby food.  She has been eating baby food since 4.5 months and so far hasn't seemed to dislike anything.  I make her food myself instead of feeding commercial baby food.  We started feeding her once a day and slowly worked our way up to three times a day.  Up until a week ago she ate about 3 cubes of food, usually 2 cubes of fruit/vegetable and 1 cube of grain (oatmeal, barley, or rice).  She has also been eating some finger foods for about a month.

So here's where I need some help.  1) Within the last week she has started to refuse most of her baby food.  She would either eat a spoonful or two and then refuse, or refuse before tasting any of it.  I have tried feeding her less (mostly so that I'm not wasting as much food) and I have also tried feeding her the fruit/vegetable and grain separately (previously I was mixing it all together) to see if there was something specific she was starting to dislike.  She has seemed more interested in the food I am eating...so I have been feeding her some of my food, but I just don't think it's enough to satisfy her hunger.

2)  She does great with the crunchier finger foods, such as puffs, cheerios, crackers, and toast...but she is still having trouble with the softer finger foods.  She either has trouble picking them up because they are wet/sticky (i.e. banana, apples, pears) or she picks them up and then just squishes them in her fingers instead of eating it. 

So I guess what I am looking for is any suggestions on how to get her to eat more...and how to continue to work toward eating a wide variety of finger foods.

Thanks!
Lisa

TeacherVicky

She's maybe over purees. I would stick to actual foods. 

I generally put huge chunks of whatever it is I'm feeding on DD's tray. This way, she can easily pick it up. I now give her whole pieces of banana (I'll break the banana up in 3-4 chunks), but before I would slice down the middle to make "fries". I use this "fry" shape with most foods.