So Baby Handy is not loving the solids eating. We were doing good for a while, but I think he's sick of purees, so we're trying to move away from them. I thought he might like to eat what we're eating so we gave him some of our black bean and corn mixture. He had a complete meltdown mid-meal. I don't think he liked how the black beans were sticking to the roof of his mouth.
Patience is not a virtue he possesses when waiting for food. We've been trying to leave him in his high chair for as little time as possible.
I just am at a loss on how to make mealtimes a happy experience. He seems to only like sweet stuff. But I can't just give him fruits. I do think we need to move away from the purees and find some other stuff for him to eat. I thought finger foods would be the answer, but after his black bean melt down, I'm not so sure.
Ideas? Thoughts? Experiences? Book recs?
Re: Mealtime Meltdowns: Need help...
Try not to let one bad experience throw you off. The best advice I got regarding solids was "just keep trying". Their whims can change daily and throw in stuff like teething and you just never know what's going on.
When we moved to finger food, I just looked up some of the recs from Wholesome Baby food and tried to incorporate them in to our meals. Sweet potato and roasted potatoes were big hits (and still are). Eventually, we just started giving him whatever we were eating that didn't require molars to chew.
I like to think that C is a pretty good eater, as far as toddlers go. He will at least try whatever we give him. I like to think it's from giving him a fairly big variety of foods, feeding him what we eat and sitting down as a family. He still goes through phases where he just. won't. touch. vegetables or something, but it's generally pretty short lived.
Can you do the fruits as finger foods, since he's already motivated to eat sweets but this will get him practicing eating more normal foods, but then go back to purees for the veggies if he won't eat them?
Ditto MrsPhil not to be too worried after one thing. There are plenty of things T just won't try or doesn't like for one reason or another, but other things she's loved. She loved green bean puree, but didn't like the texture of whole green beans (I think the skin was too tough to chew through for her taste). Keep trying with different foods and try not to get too worried about any particular failure.
Ditto pps with just keep trying and changing things up. DS1 did NOT take to solids (and cow's milk) well AT ALL. Mealtimes were a nightmare--screaming, crying, throwing, etc. I swear I thought he'd never get the hang of it and would go off to college with bottles of breastmilk--ha!
He did not really take to cow's milk until 14-15 months and he wasn't regularly eating solids well until around that time too. I don't say that to make you think your LO will take that long but to say that it's OK if it takes awhile. DS1 is a good eater--it just took him awhile to get there.
We can't make kids eat (pee/poop or sleep). All we can do is keep offering and trying different things/ways. Tastes change daily in those early times so just keep at it and know that it will get better. I think that's the theme of the board lately--it will get better!
M has gone through several love/hate phases with purees and table food. Now I offer him a puree and some table food for each meal. Sometimes he eats the entire bowl of puree, and other times he doesn't touch it. Sometimes he enjoys his table food, but other times he just throws it on the floor. He rarely eats veggies except for the orange ones (sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots). I just roll with it. I figure he still gets most of his nutrition from BM.
try to put some foods he likes (fruit) for him to grab while you spoon feed him what you want him to eat. Does he eat YoBaby yogurt, it's sweet enough for him to like it and has a ton of good ingredients and fats.
as others said, just keep trying, taste buds change often and sometimes you have to offer a food a dozen or more times before the LO will take it
He loves YoBaby yogurt and any other kind of yogurt. We usually give it to our DCP to give to him to make her job easier.
Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like his issues are fairly normal. I just need to develop some patience...
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
No specific advice, but I am reminded of Dory in Nemo - "Just keep swimming, swimming swimming, just keep swimming..." Just keep trying!!
Just keep trying. Feeding a kid requires a ton of patience day in and day out. They like one thing one day and not the next, they seeem to only like one thing for a while, but suddenly switch, they go on food strikes, they go on food binges. It's craziness.
Hang in there!