One of my sisters is a nurse and has a 6 year old. She told me that there is a window from age 9 to 12 months in which babies should be fed finger foods. If this window passes, and baby is still on milk or purees, they will have difficulty with - and tend to gag on – solid foods when they are introduced. So when my son was nearing 10 months and kept refusing finger foods, I started to worry a little.
The first thing I introduced to my son was Cheerios since it has very little sugar or sodium, has some whole grain and can melt in a baby's mouth. I had also heard many parents swear by Cheerios as treats to keep babies and kids calm for trips and outings. My son refused every time I offered him Cheerios. Then, I tried original Goldfish crackers. As soon as I placed a goldfish cracker on his tray, he took it right away and gobbled on it – he had two teeth at the time. I gave him a few more and he ate them with no problem!
I was so happy my baby started to eat finger foods before he reached 10 months – we made it just before the window had closed! The next day, I phased out the crackers and introduced Cheerios. He was much more receptive to the Cheerios and soon became pretty much addicted to them. They were wonderful! Whenever I had to cook or wash dishes, I gave him a handful of Cheerios on his tray or snack cup and he just helped himself.
I found I had to use the old "bait and switch" trick to get my son to try many foods. First I would try to give him something that I knew was an easy sell. Once I knew he liked it, I'd switch it with something similar in texture or look but either different or healthier.
For example, when initially introduced mashed potatoes to my son, he tried a little bit from the spoon but pushed it out with his tongue. I think he was not used to the thick consistency. But I knew that he loved light cream cheese on low-salt crackers, so I spread his crackers with the mashed potato. He ate it up! I could tell that he was probably thinking, "Hum…there's something different about this cream cheese…" but it got him to give it a try and discover he also liked it.
For the longest time, my son kept refusing meat. Even when offered meat purees, he did not like it. The only meat he had was sliced organic deli turkey meat that had been cut up into small squares. Then last week, my husband and I got some curry goat take out. It was very tender so, I thought I'd offer a small piece to my son. For some reason, he grabbed it right away and ate it. Then he wanted more and more! I had to stop feeding him after he had eaten 3 good sized chunks, otherwise he would have kept eating. The next day, I made beef stew and he chowed down on the beef. A few days later at the mall, I gave him some meat from my Chubby Chicken strip from A&W. He couldn't get enough of that! Then I made chicken cacciatore at home and he loved it.
I think the trick is to keep offering foods to your baby and find out which types of tastes and textures they are ready for at the time. Offer foods that are along the same lines as what they like and expand from there.
I still feed my son purees of fruit and vegetables as the texture of most fruit and vegetable is still too crunchy and challenging for my son. Also, purees are much denser than say, cut up fruits and vegetables, so with a few tablespoons of purees, I know my son is getting a lot of good stuff.
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