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inamra
member
Am I the only person who has this issue with solids?
inamra
member
There's sort of two parts to this, so I'll split it up by topic...
(1) Purees - how do you manage the post-meal mess? We only do purees at night before his bath b/c he makes such a HUGE mess when he eats purees (food in his nose, eyes, hair, ears, everything he touches, etc). He self-feeds with a spoon if I scoop the food into the spoon for him, but sometimes I feed him to avoid the mess but it's only very slightly less messy because he's always grabbing at the spoon and its contents (then transferring it all over his face immediately) regardless of whether he's self-feeding or not. So I've give him dry puffs for his other meal (he only eats 2/day right now), but he ends up really constipated because of them, so I'm looking for a better solution...
(2) Dried fruit - ummmm, are we not supposed to feed him dried fruit until he's able to chew with his teeth (he barely has 1/2 a tooth right now)? I tried raisins/dried little apple pieces as a solution to #1 (I cut them up really small) and he loved them but then half an hour later, I found them all bunched up in his mouth so I took them out. It seemed like he was working on them the whole time but it just wasn't going anywhere. Due to lack of teeth, he wasn't able to break them down any further but I think the texture and the non-pureed feel of it makes him not want to swallow it?? Maybe he was waiting for it to melt in his mouth like the puffs? Or maybe he's just using it as "gum" and just wanted to enjoy chewing them?
Sept 2008 Wedding | May 2010 & Mar 2012 Babies
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Re: Am I the only person who has this issue with solids?
1 - Have you tried any finger foods yet? We transitioned at about 8 months and OMG! Still a mess but it's soooo much easier to clean up (not to mention that feeding them table food is a lot less work than making purees). Even if he doesn't have many teeth right now, you can still give him some finger foods - you'd be surprised what those little gums can do! You can start off with something that's still relatively squishy - like cubes of baked sweet potato or steamed peas - and proceed from there if you want to give it a try. This is a good source for ideas and recipes.
2 - We haven't done any dried fruit yet - I think it's still too early. I've read anything from it being OK to give raisins at 1 year old to needing to wait until the child is 3 or 4. I'm assuming if you soaked them or cooked them into oatmeal and got them all squishy, they'd be fine to give now. As a side note, I've heard that dried fruit generally has added sugar - not sure if that's a concern for you or not (some people also don't like the preservatives added to them - again, don't know if that's something that bugs you or not).
1. Ditto the finger foods.
2. We've been giving Libby seedless dried plums (prunes) whole since she was 9 months old. She had a few teeth but many just sucked on them until they fell apart into little pieces. There was always evidence in her diaper, but she LOVES those prunes! Recently, we've introduced raisins and craisins. She doesn't love them as much as prunes though.
At the end of the day, learning to eat is messy...I've found that firmer finger foods are actually WAY less messy than mushy things like yogurt, oatmeal, cottage cheese, etc. We still offer her those items in the mornings but we just plan on a big clean up before changing her out of her PJs and into her clothes for the day. She gets her bath after dinner.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
Ohhh. Heh. I feel stupid =P We've only done puffs/dry cereal for finger foods. I never really diced cooked fruits/veggies...just never thought of it esp with the idea of dusting it =P Instead, I'd do that with naturally squishy foods, like avocados and bananas but since bananas cause even more constipation, I was looking for other ideas. Thanks so much for the link! I'm gonna start trying all those things! If you can't tell, B is a bit behind on solids, thanks to me =/
How long would that take--for her to work on them until they fell apart? Half an hour? An hour? Part of me is wondering if B was even really working on it, or just letting it sit in his mouth.
Very true. So I guess we're not the only ones who avoid mushy foods when going out. I just wanted to double check =P
Don't be silly! We've only tried teaching them how to use spoons like twice (I guess I just feel too lazy to push ahead with it right now) so you're way ahead of us there lol! And one thing about waiting to start the finger foods is that he'll probably pick it up almost instantly because he'll be really ready to do it, you know? So it's all good.
That link I gave you is really good for ideas - the food introduction chart is on the conservative side (most other sites recommend the introduction of certain foods about a month sooner than that one does) but it's a good thing if you're worried about allergies or any other kind of reaction.
Heh, if we're taking the boys somewhere, I'll either intentionally feed them "clean" food (like cheese cubes, shredded chicken, peas, etc.) instead of messy food (like pasta with sauce or bananas since they tend to mash those around a lot). You gotta do what you can!
We've been doing primarily finger foods since about 10 months, so no more messy purees. We would spoon feed him the purees and let him self-feed some kind of finger food (anything soft or steamed, diced up) when we were doing them though. Just got him a baby spoon... gotta give that a try!
Have you tried freeze dried fruit? They are pretty expensive, but he can bite them and they'll melt in his mouth. We use those as on-the-go snacks now. If I give him non-soft fruit at home, like apples, I try to steam them a little so they're softer and easier to chew/gum.
She takes about 15 minutes for one prune. She just sucks the heck out of it until it breaks off in little pieces that she swallows. Even though she has 8 teeth, she still does this and isn't actually biting it.
Definitely! We don't eat out a lot but when we do, I like to give her less messy foods...typically things off my plate like veggies, meat or eggs and bread. She's not a big eater...maybe 1-2 tablespoons of food total during the meal, so it's easy to find stuff off one of our plates to give her.
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Yup, the dried apples I was talking about is freeze--dried. But he just lets them sit in his mouth forever. So I think maybe I need to try the steaming route...
Steaming is good, baking is good (I sprinkle a little cinnamon on the chunks) and you can grate raw apple as well.
Like pp said, at 10 mo, you can def introduce more finger foods... I used to thicken the purees with rice cereal or something else to avoid the mess. I also would feed Miss A myself a lot and only give her a "pratice" spoon. Now she will only feed herself, but now she's onto less messy foods (tonight she had mac n cheese, carrot sticks and a slice of american cheese)
As for the dried fruit.. I only just last weekend gave her raisins! She LOVED them! But she now has 11 teeth and could chew them. I still watched her like a hawk! We gave her dried apricots a couple months ago and she LOVES them too! So, yeah, wait a little while longer on that, until he's older and has more teeth! But he'll love em when you do!
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
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Ditto this - which is prob why he can't use a spoon yet, but it's ok, I don't mind feeding him applesauce and yogurt, etc since he eats mostly finger foods. I second the peas and steamed sweet potatoes - he thought those were cool b/c they looked like big people food and he could eat them too.
oh yes, I forgot about Alexa's mommy's idea of the practice spoon - he always had one of those (and still does) on his tray while eating. He's much better about forks now though - if I stab something, he'll put it in his mouth with the fork & eat it (as opposed to taking it OFF the fork and putting it in his mouth with his fingers, like he used to do.).
How about some well cooked small pasta? or cut into small pieces? LO loves the elbows and wagon wheel shapes.