DS Doesn't "Get" Finger Foods

patchen30

DS is 9 1/2 months old...he's been eating purees since 6 months but they're still very smooth...he gags and makes horrible faces whenever I try to give him textured purees. 

My pedi's office recommends going straight to table foods rather than stage 2/3 (i.e. textured/lumpy) jarred foods.  So far I've given DS Cherrios, puffs, veerryy small pieces of blueberries, chicken, fish, avocado, banana, zucchini, squash...he has eaten NONE of it!  He'll pick up the pieces and squish them between his fingers but if he gets any in his mouth (if I put it there or if he does), he gags it up. 

What do I do?  Keep trying?  It's been a few weeks.  

nikki2246

Yes, keep trying. Sooner or later he will learn that he has to eat. Try something dry like waffles or plain toast.  Give him small pieces and let him take then and put them in his mouth.  My DD didn't eat anything mushy or with butter..but she started on waffled and toast and now eats a lot.

brewcitybride

Keep trying! He'll get it! I've never seen a two year old eating only purees:)

DawnJM25

I agree- keep trying.  If he keeps getting exposed to it eventually he'll get it.  Honestly, I stuck with dried foods until my LO got it to save myself the cleanup!  She LOVES cheerios, also pancakes, waffles, bread, etc.  She also loves things like beans and peas that aren't too messy.  My LO hated purees- she would swat the spoon away.  She does like yogurt- that's the only thing she'll take off a spoon. 

Sunshine05

I just keep trying every now and then.  I finally got her to eat some stage 3 fruit with chunks and thought "yes, victory!" until she started spitting out the chunks and only swallowing the pureed part.  Seriously, kid?!  lol  Daycare says the same thing, we just keep trying until she gets it. 

preggersin2011

have you tried a harder table food ? LO doesn't care for the squishier ones sometimes. What about a large pieces of toast with cream cheese, or some broccoli. My LO did better with larger pieces of food that she had to gnaw on and chew of pieces. What about chopping something up and doing that instead of a stage 2 or 3?

buskey2011

my son squeezes the life out of food and sometimes makes his mouth. its all about finding what lo will eat. my son didn't do the 2 1/2 stage or 3. pasta is one of his faves. with my son we did waffle first and we made it in pieces he could grasp and gum. my aon doesn't like tiny pieces try giving strips of toast or waffle.

nycbride0707

My DD doesn't either-she will occasionally eat something if I feed it to her, but she doesn't get the whole 'food goes in the mouth' thing. But, she doesn't put anything (including toys!) in her mouth, so it sort of makes sense to me. She's also a big gagger, but I do try to give her something 'real' at least once a day, even if it makes her mad. I'm hoping its a stage, and it won't turn into a 'thing,' although I kind of think it might be. At her 8 month appt the pedi wasn't concerned, and I bet he won't be at her 10 month, but I definitely am

jenb_99

My son didn't like/get textured foods until I gave up trying to put them in his mouth for him and instead just put them on his tray for him to play with. Eventually he figured it out.

I recommend letting your LO gnaw on pizza crusts for practice. Yes, bread is technically junk food, but pizza crust is hard and chewy enough that LO can suck and scrape off little bits at a time and won't choke or gag on any big pieces. It's not as messy as crackers or teething biscuits either, and it's not slippery-slimy like fruit.

DH and I saved all the crusts from one pizza and I put them into a freezer bag. I'd give him one every evening for about a week, and after that he was ready to play with and eat other finger foods.

beautiflaw

DD did the exact same thing!! She does it now when she doesn't like something. When she doesn't like a food or is getting tired of sitting in her high chair she will stick her tongue out of her mouth as far as it will go, which (we think) activates her gag reflex.

So I started just gradually doing chunkier and chunkier foods. We started out by not thinning out her baby oatmeal as much and mixing it with some of her purees and that seemed to help. Our pedi said to go straight to table foods as well but it just didn't work for us no matter what we did and we ended up doing stage 2 and 3 foods instead.

She just doesn't really like finger foods. She loves her puffs and mum mums and teething biscuits, but anything that's sticky or soggy or wet in any way she won't pick up and eat. She squishes it and tries to get it off her hands by scraping it on the edge of her highchair. She is a dainty princess I guess. lol. Anytime we try to do it for her she will gag on it. So we are going to try letting her feed herself with utensils and until she can do that we're going to keep doing stage 3 foods. She really, really loves them so its not so bad.

Rdautenhahn

I'm so glad you posted this! My son is 11 months and he will eat table foods he just does not know how to self feed. Crackers, puffs, nothing. I appreciate the responses, they will help us too!