XP: how to "graduate" my little eater...
kris_kelsey
member
My daughter is 9 months and not the best eater in the world, and never has been. She was diagnosed with milk/soy protein intolerance (plus a few other foods possibly) when she was 2 weeks old. I eventually switched her to neocate, a hypoallergenic formula. She was a terrible breastfeeder and was functionally terrible at getting milk out of my breasts (and this is coming from me, a lactation counselor plus another IBCLC) and she also struggles a bit with aspiration of reflux and bottles. Her suck swallow is uncoordinated at times but not bad enough to involve further work up per her pedi GI. She got purees starting at 6 months and has done well with those. I have been giving her rice puffs and mum mums for about a month but she still chokes on them once every day or two. She tries to swallow them before they have dissolved and that is the issue. She is good at picking foods up and putting them in her mouth and chewing a little but just not chewing/dissolving enough. I don't want to keep her on purees so long that she can't tolerate other textures.
Anyone have this issue? I can't decide if I should wait for her to become more ready, or if there is some other easy to eat food that I should be trying.
As a side note, she is also not quite crawling yet. she can push herself backwards and roll around, but no forward movement.
Re: XP: how to "graduate" my little eater...
Our DS has had an issue with textures. We typically puree what we have at meal times and gives it to him. He only recently began doing well with slightly chunkier foods and puffs.
I would offer him the equivalent of level 2 purees but he would gag and cry because he wanted to eat but was having difficulty. I would wait for a few days (maybe 2) and try again. I wanted to space it out far enough that he didn't become frustrated with eating but I also wanted him to practice. This went on for about three weeks. He is finally getting the hang of it.
I'm not sure if it helps but it seemed to work for us. Good luck.
He makes a lot of mess and probably only actually eats 1/4 of what is on his tray.. he wears the rest or it ends up on his high chair or floor.. but he is trying. the other thing you might try if you have a reclining seat is to make sure it's upright and if they start to gag just lean them forward and make num num chewing motions and noises... we've bypassed a few gaggorama moments that way.
Also monkey see monkey do helps... he copied daddy eating a cookie the first time he ate a baby cookie without gagging.
Our lil guy hasn't thrown up at all in the last few weeks .. you'll get there it's totally normal.
PP have given great advice. I think at 9 months it's common to not be quite ready for table foods... definitely give her some time. In a couple months, if she is still having issues, I would push for a referral to a specialist. Even if she doesn't technically qualify, it would give me peace of mind that I'm doing everything I can to facilitate her transition. The specialist can go over what your DD eats/how she eats it, etc and offer suggestions, etc.
Some foods that you may want to offer are avocado, banana, super soft steamed/roasted carrots, yogurt, cottage cheese, and applesauce. All "table food", but not a lot of texture/chunks, etc. Good luck!