Help! My almost 1 year old barely has any teeth and hates purees.

Jen&Len

DD only has her bottom 2 teeth.  She hates purees but doesn't have enough teeth to eat most table foods.  She actually really loves table food...she'll put it in her mouth and gum the food, but we have to give everything to her in teeny tiny pieces since she can't chew anything.  I'm not sure what to do once we wean her onto cow's milk in a few weeks.  I'm not sure she would be getting enough food from those tiny pieces since she starts to get antsy partway through and never finishes it all.

The only soft food she'll eat is yogurt.  I've tried mixing stuff in, but she can tell the difference and will spit it out.

Do I keep her on toddler formula until a few more teeth sprout?  Any other tricks out there to get food into her?  (ugh....I can't believe i have TWO picky eaters now).

frenziedmomma

DS was 1 year old before he got his first tooth. It's hard when they can't chew and they always want what you are eating.  DS loved table food so we just cut things in very small pieces or cooked them until they were soft enough for him. Some of the things that work for him were:

soft fruits and veggie (ripe peaches, bananas, watermelon, avocado)

pasta (tiny stars, called pastene i think) with butter - overcook it a bit to make soft

puffs/cheerios

soft cheeses (baby belle makes some)

 

ncbelle

Babies actually chew with their gums - so as long as you aren't giving her things that need tearing (like tough meat) then she can eat it.  C ate table foods only from 6 months (no teeth) and had no trouble.

Roasted veggies are a good place to start ;-)

amberdl28

Babies use their gums to chew up the feed. They dont get their molars for awhile and we dont chew with our front teeth, we chew with the molars. The front teeth are to rip or tear the food so as long as you give her soft little pieces of food she will do good, My neice didnt have any teeth until she was 14 months old and she could eat table food before 12 months.

Stacyc625

Kids dont need teeth to eat food. Molars are the only teeth they use to tear food. gums are for everything else.

both of my kids were on full table food by 9 months- and neither one had teeth before they turned 1. just offer the table food and follow baby's lead. you can help with a spoon but encourage self feeding. Chase was on full table food by 6 months- he hated purees. Gisele was on full table food by 9 months when she was done with purees and went on a spoon strike.

LillyGrrl

First off, I wouldn't worry too much about feeding your child solids before a year.  Most of baby's nutrition should still come from BF or formula at this age. 

However, you might want to take a look at the book Baby-Led Weaning: Helping Your Baby Learn to Love Good Food by Gill Rapley. You don't have to feed your kid purees just because she doesn't have teeth.  My kid has been eating everything from chicken legs to pork loin since she was 6 months old- not pureed, and in some cases not even cut up (actually the method is that you start with completely whole foods that a child can grasp without a problem, like chicken pieces or broccoli with the stem on).  Physiology actually dictates what they will and will not put in their mouth.  A pincher grasp doesn't develop until around 9months which means a child doing BLW won't put a small piece of food in his/her mouth until he/she can pick it up, by that time they have the ability to eat it. Choking hazards are minimal.  In fact my kid never choked on food she fed herself.  The only choking happened when i cut her food up for her.  Yeah, learned my lesson there.

I think, even if you don't do BLW, the book will help you to understand the physiology behind eating for young children.

 

emberlee3

Let her gum stuff.  They can chew pretty well even without teeth.  You can check if food is ok by putting it in your mouth and trying to "chew" it with your tongue.  If you can smoosh it with just your tongue, your LO will be able to gum it.

momtoRaegan041008

My daughter only had her 2 bottom teeth at her first birthday.  At 10 months we started her on table food.  Teeny tiny pieces.  I would buy fruit and veggies and slice it in chunks and then freeze it and just pull out what we needed.  My daughter had a milk intolerance and would puke whenever we gave her the Gerber meal baby food.  So we had to do something.  We still gave our daughter purees for quite some time and I would say probably untl she was a year and half along with the tiny pieces of table food.  My daughter was never into cereal either.  Bananas were really easy to keep and for her to eat, dry cereal, the small goldfish, etc.