13 months and refusing textured foods

[Java]

DH in convinced that we're going to be pureeing Kael's food until he's 10 years old! We might as well just give him a straw to eat dinner with.

I've been trying to introduce more textured foods like chicken pieces, toast, pasta, rice basically anything bigger than puree style and Kael has just been refusing it. He's eaten Mac n' Cheese before so I KNOW he's capable of eating lumpy stuff. In fact, he's eaten all the above mentioned foods before and now he won't.

Earlier he would eat toast strips, pancakes, cheese bits but he's been refusing them all for weeks now. He not only spits out all his food, he'll also stick his hand into his mouth and PULL whatever's left in there, out! Then he'll scrape his tongue against his teeth to make it extra clean!! ARGHHH!!!!

I've been increasing the texture in his foods but he'll spit that out too! Even the soft stuff like tofu and canned fruits are refused. What else can I do?

[ellies mom]

Doesn't that suck? I'm totally having problems with DD also. She'll eat Easy Mac and cheerios. She chews on her food for a while and them pushes it out of her mouth. I made chicken in a cheese sauce the other day and she sucked all the cheese off and then pushed the chicken out. She'll take some pureed stuff but she is picky about that too. Anyhow, hopefully it's a phase. Sorry no help, just empathy.

[COElizabeth]

I'd just keep giving him pureed food if that is what he prefers, and keep offering the textures enough so you know when he gets interested in those. At a year old the only non-puree that DS would eat regularly was cheerios, but within a few more months he had given up the jars completely, without my doing anything other than offering things. I never forced him to try the finger foods at all - he just started preferring them on his own around 14 or 15 months. Some kids just take a little longer to transition to finger foods, and the pediatrician was not at all concerned about it. He said he's seen two-year-olds still eating from jars! That, he said, is unusual, but I don't think it's so unusual for a one-year-old.

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04