9 Month Old Food Issues

Hi! My son had similar issues, except he would gag and then throw up with just about anything that wasn't formula- and sometimes that too. Anyway, at 12 months we started taking him to a speech therapist- one that dealt with pediatric feeding issues. He's not 2 and worked with therapists for about a year and is now doing great!! He doesn't necessarily have the same acceptance to new foods that other kids his age have, but he is growing again and is no longer in jeapordy of having a feeding tube or throwing up his food- he's learned to chew. So, if your daughter is having trouble with textures, that's not such a strange thing- and there's help out there. Look into a speech therapist that does pediatric feeding (somtimes occupational therapists do this as well)- they are few and far between but they are out there. You'll need to check with your insurance to see what they will cover and may need a referral from your ped. for "failure to thrive" feeding issues. Your ped. may tell you it's ok to wait until your daughter is one since she is actually getting all of the nutritional value from the formula. Once she switches to milk it's very important to have her nutrition met from food since the milk doesn't have everything that she needs. That's where we really had trouble- my son wouldn't and still doesn't drink milk. You can also check with your county to see what programs they have for infants. I'm in Prince William and they have an infant program for 0-3 where they help with any issues that they child may have. We were able to get services through them for speech therapy when we had trouble with our insurance. I know Fairfax has a program as well. The great thing with that is that they come to you- so you don't have to pack up food, spare clothes, booster seat, etc. to take them to a specialist. Plus you have a greater range of what you can show them since you can pull out just about any type of food that they may come up with to try out. The other thing that we did with my son- on the reccomendation of our therapist was to use a vibrating teether before he ate. It helps to "wake up" the jaw muscles and made it easier for him to eat. Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions that I can help with- or want to know more about what we went through. It will get better- I promise!! Just hang in there!

I am a firm believer in they'll eat what you eat. Feed her at the table when you eat and let her try things on your plate. Squish it up with a fork. Don't make a big deal about her eating or she'll fight you just to get a rise out of you. She will eat if she's hungry. Try to get her to try some real food right before you give her a bottle. I have a 20 month old who is a great eater. I eat dinner at the same time she does because I don't think anyone likes to eat alone and I know no one likes to eat with other people who arn't eating staring at them.

She loves all beans, hates mac n cheese. I don't force anything on her. I just have to be careful Daddy doesn't let her graze all day on cheerios and goldfish.

Before you know she'll be taking your fork out of your hand.

Good Luck!

Hi A.,

Since your daughter is having formula cheeses and yogurts should be fine for her to eat. They are all dairy based products. You still should NOT give her eggs, nuts, and I personally am choosing to hold off on refined sugar - my son is almost a year.

Some foods that may work well to start are the banana puffs and sweet potato puffs that you can get in the baby food isle. At about 9 months she should be able to feed them to herself and they then dissolve to mush so that they are easy for the children to start to learn to eat. Once she gets good at eating those without gagging move her up to cheerios. They do break down surprisingly quickly in a baby's mouth and hands so they are great first foods. Once my son was good at eating cheerios we started to step it up to other table foods, peas, mac n cheese, cut up spaghetti. Around 10 month you can start introducing meats to their diet too. Obviously ground up meat is the easiest for them to eat.

Although every child develops at their own rate. My son was really good with eating and swallowing food. The coordination in your daughter's mouth may still be developing and when she is ready for more texture she will start eating those banana puffs on her own.

Hi

My son was the same with the baby food with a few lumps but would pick up finger food no problem. I would suggest moving on from jarred foods now and giving her what you eat , for example if you have made lasagne take off some and blend it with the hand blender and add a little water so that is mixes up better. Offer her fruits like strawberries , pieces of banana , slices of kiwi on the tray of her high chair so she can practice picking them up and getting them in her mouth , also pieces of cheese are good. My 10 month old really likes ritz crackers & breadsticks , these are good as they mush up quite easily once they are wet from being in the mouth. Also bits of cooked pasta you could put on her tray for her.
Yogurts are fine at 9 months old , you can buy yobaby in lot's of different flavours. I wouldn't let her suck on a popsicle just yet , only because if she is being a bit fussy with foods then you don't want to encourage her sweet tooth otherwise you will have a battle on your hands , once she is eating the foods you want her to then of course they can have a little treat here and there. You could also try giving her less formula as this may be why she isn't eating too well , she may be full , either try cutting out 1 of the bottles(I'd suggest the lunch time one) and give her some toast or a yogurt instead and if she still seems hungry afterwards then offer her some of the formula , or if you don't want to cut a bottle out yet then decrease the amount of them , make 4 or 5oz bottles instead.

Good luck & don't worry , babies won't starve themselves they just need a little help sometimes!

Hi A.! 9-month-olds can definitely have full-fat yogurt and cheese. Both of my kids have loved the Yo-Baby yogurts and cut-up cheese cubes. I've heard other people have had success with shredded cheese, too. If she likes fruit purees, you might try mashing up bananas--go really smooth at first and then work your way toward a chunkier consistency. At this point, she should be able to feed herself small bites of ripe banana. My 10-month-old also really likes small bites of ripe avocado (again--you could begin by mushing up for her and then work your way to chunkier). Both of my kids have also really liked scraped out apples and pears--just quarter the fruit and remove the tough part and seeds, then using the tip of a spoon, make thin scrapes (it will be slightly more texture than applesauce) that they can pick up and feed themselves. I also put out cheerios, whole-wheat toast, whole-wheat bagels (there are no food allergies in my family, and we've been cleared to do wheat). Crumbled up hard-boiled egg yolks are good, too, and we also do bite size soft veggies. I'd definitely keep trying to work on the finger foods and texture so the aversions don't become too entrenched.

Yes you can giver her yogurt and cheese. YoBaby yogurt is much lower in sugar than any other I have found. My daughter is also 9 mo. and loves it. Look into a baby food cookbook author named Annabel Karmel. She has been the most helpful in actually telling me what I can give my DD. We have hit a stage of wanting to be independent so I have found that giving her small things she can feed herself have solved a lot of arguments. Small pieces of chicken, turkey, squash, sweet potatoes, cheese, cut up grapes, banana, lightly cooked pears and apples, avocado. She may feel more adventurous about the texture if you aren't feeding it to her. Good luck.

Hi A..My name is W. and I'm 55 years old today!Kids are finicky about food and my advice is don't give up.My pediatrician told me to introduce all adult foods to my son at about 9 mos but leave out seasonings and spices.Pastas(mac and cheese especially),scrambled eggs,yogurt,applesauce,cooked veggies chopped up very fine,baby cereal all worked well for me.Also baby cereal with formula added was a good supplement.Anything soft and mushy.Slowly add different foods and encourage finger foods.They seem to be interested when they can "play" with their food.My son started on whole milk when he was about your baby's age but also had about 4 oz of formula everyday.I guess it all worked well because my son is now 22 and eats everything in sight.Hang in there and just keep trying different things.

A.,
My oldest son had the exact same issue. He only ate stage 2 baby food until after he was a year old. Then he transistioned right to table food. He would also gag on the Gerber puffs as well or even his baby cereal if I made it too thick. At 3 1/2 he still has texture issues and spits out certain foods depending on the texture. For instance he won't even try things like cottage cheese or bananas that are really ripe. I would recommend that you just hang tight with the stage 2 (stage 3 fruits are the same as stage 2 in just a bigger jar) and wait until she is ready. Just offer her things with a little more texture every once in awhile. Good luck!

start with pureed vegatables, and stop feeding the cereal in the bottle let her try food let her play with it a little

she will eat it when she is hungary.

A great book that I used to introduce foods is, "Super Baby Foods". It tells you how to make your own purrees, that taste better than the jarred food, and the different foods to introduce at different months.
Now they go into making your own yougurt and oatmeal, I buy Yo Baby yougurt and used to do Gerber DHA Rice Cereal and Oatmeal.

Hi,
My son did something very similar to this when he was the same age. He would gag and sometimes throw up if he had too much texture, even with the little puffs and cheerios that melt in the mouth. I think some kids just don't know how to chew or move chunkier food around the mouth appropriately. At this point, food is just practice for when they are older and actually need the nutrition from it. I wouldn't worry. When my son was 11 months old, he all of sudden wanted to move on to solids when he had teeth and knew how to use them. He was able to transition to essentially eating the same things we did by the time he was a year old and moved off of formula. We were feeding pureed baby food up to 11-12 months. At 9 months, they can transition to yogurt and cheese because the proteins in cow's milk are changed as they become cheese and yogurt, so no worries about developing a milk allergy. My son loved yogurt. I would buy the unflavored, organic, whole milk yogurt and mix in pureed fruit and a little suger to sweeten it. You could then add more texture by adding a little cereal each time (same with the pureed fruit). Then we varied the baby food by adding in veggies and meat. You could try to start adding veggies to her diet by mixing them into the fruits she likes. We did the same thing with meat too. Then just make them chunkier. This is a long process, but you have a few months to make the transition.
Good luck,
E.

There is a great website called wholesomebabyfood.com, it gives great advice on which foods to introduce and at what age. If you have the time, stop the jarred baby food and make some of your own. She will get used to the texture and taste even if some food will end up in the trash can a few times. I would hold off on the popsicles, if she likes fruit that is all the sweet she needs or you can try making your own popsicles with 100% fruit juice.

For my second child (currently 9 months), I decided to get a book on feeding. This has helped a lot. I don't have to wonder if I am doing the "right thing." Anyway, I got Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. You can always borrow some books from the library too.