Baffled by my 1 yr old's feeding (long)

My son will be 1 in 1 week and has been taking solid foods very well since 3 1/2 mos old. He is 22 lbs and in the 95%-ile for height and weight, walking since 9 months old and very active. I am hoping someone has advice. DS seems to be having some solid food issues. He is up to about 6 oz of pureed foods per meal, 3X per day and one snack, plus 4 bottles of formula 6 to 7 oz each. I usually give him stage 3 food in jars, yoghurts with cereal or pureed/ mashed fruits and veggies with pastina and fish or finely shredded meat mixed in. For the last few weeks, I've been mixing table food into his purees to gradually increase the texture. One issue is he gags sometimes on the carrot or pasta pieces in the Stage 3 jars, which are pretty soft. It's made me a little wary of giving him only "table" food which I presume will be less processed and therefore firmer than that in the jars. He's thrown up 3 times in the last month from gagging. Not a lot, I know, but scary when it happened anyway. Seems to me he just swallows anything by spoon, without chewing.

Just to confuse the heck out of me on the other hand, he chows down fairly easily self feeding well on firm or crispy finger foods- crackers, baby cookies, puffs, freeze dried fruit, even the occasional whole grain chip when I'm eating them, yet he REFUSES to eat soft finger foods AT ALL. I've tried peas, pieces of banana, strawberries, cheese, pasta, vegetables.....no luck. All he does is squeeze them very hard, then smear them all over the table. I even tried rolling small banana chunks in crushed Oatios thinking the dry texture would encourage him to eat it. No success. He won't even let me put the soft chunks in his mouth. I'm so frustrated that he seems only to want to eat "by hand" what I think are empty calories. You would think soft things would be easier for him to eat on his own and he certainly knows how to chew, he just won't chew when being spoon fed, and won't put soft finger food into his mouth.

To make it worse, for the last two days, he's refused to be fed by spoon, taking only his formula and finger foods, but again, only the dry, firm kinds, which obviously lack the best nutrition. I'm hoping the nanny will have better luck today while I'm at work but if not, I'm thinking he may be more interested in self feeding rather than being fed. Problem is I am not sure how to get him to eat more nutritious finger foods like vegs and fruit, and also how to transition to more "big people" food. I would really love any advice/tips anyone might have.

Stage 3 baby food is pretty useless IMO b/c of the chunks in it - it doesn't train a child to eat table foods, it just confuses them b/c the action of swallowing a puree vs. chewing table food is different, and the Stage 3 tries to make them do both at the same time.

I would just move him more toward table foods at this point and away from purees/baby food altogether. I would also encourage him to self-feed at each meal instead of feeding him too.

I wouldn't worry that he only wants crunchy things right now - keep offering a variety of textures but let him pick and choose what to eat. At his age he really should be taking charge of his own eating habits and it will take him time to figure it out.

I have a similar toddler here - would be very interested in the replies. as to self feeding and allowing him to eat what he wants, well he just keeps eating crackers (sweet and salted) if I allowed it and that just keeps going on, and I can't have him eat this way. there was a time when I did allow it and it was tough to get him back to eating other things. I know that he likes fruit but doesn't like the texture when it's in pieces, but relishes it when I feed him the puree.

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Originally Posted by sunshineandme

I have a similar toddler here - would be very interested in the replies. as to self feeding and allowing him to eat what he wants, well he just keeps eating crackers (sweet and salted) if I allowed it and that just keeps going on, and I can't have him eat this way. there was a time when I did allow it and it was tough to get him back to eating other things. I know that he likes fruit but doesn't like the texture when it's in pieces, but relishes it when I feed him the puree.

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If you don't offer crackers then that's not a food option for them. Why not offer what you're eating at each meal? A sample menu could look like this (picking one or two options for each meal):

Breakfast: Egg, waffle, banana or yogurt
Lunch: Cubes of cheese, lunch meat, leftovers from last night, a sandwich, sliced carrots
Dinner: Whatever you're making (chili, spaghetti, vegetables, etc...)

For snacks, you can give pieces of fruit or applesauce or yogurt or graham crackers or cheerios.

The whole purpose of starting solids is for learning how to eat regular food, so staying stuck on purees is not a good. If your child is continuously exposed to regular food and textures on their plate each meal, they will start tasting and eating them (unless there is a developmental delay at play).

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Originally Posted by Katigre

The whole purpose of starting solids is for learning how to eat regular food, so staying stuck on purees is not a good. If your child is continuously exposed to regular food and textures on their plate each meal, they will start tasting and eating them (unless there is a developmental delay at play).

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It is true that exposing hm to foods is important, however my DS is the same way...he is experimenting with a variety of foods but cannot feed himself enough/fast enough to get everything he wants right now. He is very active and cannot survive on a few finger foods at each meal. So for now I am still feeding him some purees, and giving less purees and more table foods as the days go by. If he had his way, he would eat cheerios and puffs all the time!