Baby refusing "lumpy" food

[Marianne]

Hi,

My 7.5 month old son is refusing to eat food with lumps in it. It's a bit difficult to explain but basically he has problems eating anything that isn't smooth.

We started giving him porridge made from corn flour and rice flour (completely smooth) when he was 6 months and mashed (blended) vegetables from 7 months (this is the typical way of introducing solids in Denmark).

Now that I'm trying to give him oatmeal and mashed vegetables that have lumps/bits in it he is refusing, meaning I still have to blend everything.

Also yesterday I put a meatball (no spices) in the blender with the vegetables, he completely refused to eat any of it and was in tears over it. This was probably bc of the new taste..

I didn't have this with my oldest, as far as I remember he went straight from riceflour etc. to eating oatmeal, mashed potatoes, more coarse food and meat.

Do any of you have experienced this and can give me some advice? Should we "starve" him to see if that helps, keep offering it and giving him blended food for the rest of that meal or just keep blending everything for longer and be patient or what?

Help, I don't want to serve my son porridge for the rest of his life ;-)

Thank you SO much for any advice!
Marianne

[Krisztina Gaal]

Hi Marianne,

I think just be patient and try it in a week or so again. My daughter started to eat solid (smooth ones) only at 8 months. Every child is different.

Does he pushes the food back out with his tongue? That would be a sign he is not ready. Or does he gags on it?

Don't "starve" him! You would want him to have positive feeling about food; so just go with the flow and blend everything very well for another while. Try to give him fruit/vegetable juices to stimulate taste.

He is still very young :)

Good luck!

 

Krisztina

---

From: Marianne <mbyg...@hotmail.com>
To: budape...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 11:41 AM
Subject: [budapestmoms] Baby refusing "lumpy" food

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[Bibi Ebel]

Hi Marianne, 
 
Looks like you lil one knows what he wants and importantly what he does not.  I have two children, too, and I try very hard not to get into the pattern of comparing them in a sense of their habits and trends.  Each child is an individual, tiny, but individual.  To give you an example, my oldest daughter loved and still loves bananas, and my baby daughter cannot stand even smell of this fruit.  
 
I am no paediatrian or dietologist, but in my opinion forcing food on little children, especially babies, is not a particularly good way to go.  In the life of a child, any child, food intake is often the only thing that the child can control.  We tell them what to do, when to sleep, what to wear, but they choose what to eat or not to eat.  Plus, imagine if you eat your pasta aldente, but everyday you are being served overcooked macaroni.  We all have our tastes. :))
 
What I am trying to say is that if your child is not ready for lumpy food, then he is not ready for lumpy food.  And he is only 7.5 months old, so serving him ideally mashed foods will not be for a long time.  There are very few 18 year olders who prefer porridge over meatballs :)
 
Talking about tears over food and refusals.  I usually try serving the food that my children reject at least twice - you never know if they wouldn't take it next time.  No pushing, though.  If they refuse twice, than I try to avoid this type of meal for several days.  And then try again.  Children's minds work in mysterious ways, so what they hate one minute maybe something they love the other.  Or not.  Also, I usually introduced new flavours like meat, e.g., in very small quantities mixed or mashed with more familiar food.  I increase the quantity over the course of several days, but it's a gradual thing, so my daughters got used to new things without much drama.
 
So, I would try again, and if not, try to tailor baby's meals around what he is most comfortable with.   
Good luck!
 
Bibi
 

> Subject: [budapestmoms] Baby refusing "lumpy" food

> From: mbyg...@hotmail.com
> Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:41:38 +0200
> To: budape...@googlegroups.com

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[Ferencz Orsolya]

Hi Marianne,

I can second what Krisztina says. My daughter started to eat smooth purees when she was 6 months old but only fruits. I could not give her anything lumpy because she was pushing it out with her tongue and was gagging so I just kept trying. The breakthrough for us was a piece of bread and all of a sudden she eats the same things as we do (with certain boundaries). She never ate baby food, she needs the flavors.

So just be patient, your baby will come round. Just keep on breastfeeding, do not starve him. Just keep trying, but do not force him to eat anything.

Hope it will work out soon!

Orsi

---

From: Krisztina Gaal <kriszt...@yahoo.com>
To: "budape...@googlegroups.com" <budape...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [budapestmoms] Baby refusing "lumpy" food

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[Pturai]

Dear Marianne,

You wont dont worry.
Mine was the same.
You have 2 wazys to go, either wait, and have lots of patience,until around 3 years,which I did as I did not know the other way.
The other way is to take him/her to a specal place, where they do this special developing exercises, there he will get some massage around the mouth, and in a couple of weeks you can forget about it.
I am not sure exactly where to go, but I can ask from other mothers,who had the same problem,
PATRICIA

Marianne <mbyg...@hotmail.com> írta:

>Hi,
>
>My 7.5 month old son is refusing to eat food with lumps in it. It's a bit difficult to explain but basically he has problems eating anything that isn't smooth.
>
>We started giving him porridge made from corn flour and rice flour (completely smooth) when he was 6 months and mashed (blended) vegetables from 7 months (this is the typical way of introducing solids in Denmark).
>
>Now that I'm trying to give him oatmeal and mashed vegetables that have lumps/bits in it he is refusing, meaning I still have to blend everything.
>
>Also yesterday I put a meatball (no spices) in the blender with the vegetables, he completely refused to eat any of it and was in tears over it. This was probably bc of the new taste..
>
>I didn't have this with my oldest, as far as I remember he went straight from riceflour etc. to eating oatmeal, mashed potatoes, more coarse food and meat.
>
>Do any of you have experienced this and can give me some advice? Should we "starve" him to see if that helps, keep offering it and giving him blended food for the rest of that meal or just keep blending everything for longer and be patient or what?
>
>Help, I don't want to serve my son porridge for the rest of his life ;-)
>
>Thank you SO much for any advice!
>Marianne
>
>--
>You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Budapest Moms" group.
>To post to this group, send email to budape...@googlegroups.com.

[Emy Alketa Varga]

I dont know about massage( i wish i had known)  but my 3 kids were totally diffrent ( and still are ) when  the food was introduced. Dont compare and dont be discouraged. I would not give him at this stage food with lumps, he might not be ready for it. just my opinion 

[Marianne]

Thanks, girls :-)
But, would you believe, this weekend his dad (who at the moment is travelling during the week) managed to get him to eat oatmeal (made from oatbran) that wasn't blended and today blended vegetables WITH a blended meatball.

Ha, ha..Typical that dad just steps in and then there's no problem ;-)

Anyway, I'm just going to be patient and let him do his thing at HIS own pace. Again, thanks for taking your time to give me some advice :-)

Marianne

[Szilvia Tomori]

Marianne,
This is great news;)! It is typical though..you work on it but daddy just walks in and takes the trophy:))!
My two year old did the same when she was your son's age. Totally refused lumpy food. So I asked her pediatrician about it and he just told me not to give it to her, she might not even want it at all. I tried it once a week with no success until she was ready for finger food. So she totally skipped the lumpy phase..went from completely blended to diced veggies and cheerios. So I guess with some of the it's normal:).
Good luck:))
Silvia

Sent from my iPad

[Marianne]

Thanks, Szilvia. Nice to hear your story, I was actually thinking the same, that he might skip the lumpy fase. We'll see :-)

Marianne