9 month old picky eater

amother

OP ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 6:22 am

I really feel he needs to transition to more food, he's growing fast and doesn't seem satisfied enough by nursing and all common wisdom says he should be eating more by now. Developmentally he's been grabbing for food since 4 months and he loves to eat. But only limited foods and I think he really needs more variety.

He loves chunks of baked sweet potato and gobbles as much as I give him, so I can see that he has the appetite and the readiness. He just doesn't like most of what I offer.

I know you're supposed to keep offering and hope they get used to things but it seems to be going the opposite way. He used to eat gefilte fish and now he pushes it away and cries. Same for broccoli. Eggs he never loved but now he has a tantrum if I try it at all. He'll eat Cheerios but I consider that more of a fun snack than an actual food group. Meatballs are on and off - twice (not in a row) he loved it and three times he rejected it. Each time one of the rejects was from the same batch as the one he liked!

Help, I'm out of ideas! And I want to stay as healthy as possible and not just keep shoving Cheerios at him.

Bonus points for finger foods because I get overwhelmed having to sit and feed him all the time. He eats applesauce and yogurt (usually) and oatmeal (sometimes) and baby jars (so expensive! And mostly the orange ones and I already worry he's going to turn orange from all the sweet potatoes) but it's really hard to keep up with a hungry baby who loves to eat and needs to be spoon fed. With finger foods at least I can eat alongside him and get a little self care.

He's also still not great at chewing. He's able to eat pieces of things but gags more than I'd like. Not sure what's normal at this age.

amother

Cerulean ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 6:28 am

French toast
Oven fries
Boiled parsnip sticks
Thin Slices of Melon
Potato kugel
Gefilte fish
Pancakes
Waffles
Burgers
Chopped liver
Avocado either slices or mashed
Frozen strawberries thawed
Watermelon
Chunk of beef
Very soft chicken
Banana
Smoothie
Nut butter
Hummus
Guacamole
Steamed Pear
Steamed apple
Roasted broccoli
String bean
Roasted cauliflower
Chicken burgers
Roasted or Steamed zuchinni
Salmon

amother

↑ OP ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 6:42 am

Thanks for the ideas!

Isn't there anything that he can feed himself that doesn't require lots of prep?! I bet he'd like kugel but it's such a pain, I don't usually make any.

He stopped accepting broccoli and gefilte fish.

He ate a little chicken from shabbos, it's done with by Monday, I guess I can make more chicken for him but it feels like a lot of effort for something that will mostly get rejected (I tried last week. I guess it didn't come out the same as Shabbos.)

Waffles and pancakes don't seem like healthy foods to me.

Nut butter and hummus need to go on something... Which he doesn't eat.

Rejected banana. Only allowed a tiny taste of salmon.

Fruit I think we have under control, I'm just worried that he's not getting other food groups.

Gonna try your other ideas 🙏

amother

↑ Cerulean ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 7:08 am

amother OP wrote:

I think nutrient dense and appropriate for 9month old eating skills and not purees is going to involve some amount of prep.

I make almond flour waffles and pancakes from a mix, they're healthy. Sweetened with a bit of maple syrup, add blueberries or chocolate chips. You can also look up blender pancakes made from just egg, banana and oats, or egg banana and cassava/buckwheat/quinoa/chickpea flour

He can eat peanut butter or hummus off a spoon. He can even feed himself if you preload the spoon for him!

Have you tried purees in pouches for him to self feed? It's not the greatest skill wise, but ok in a pinch. You can buy organic or make your own

Cholent is another great food for this age

amother

↑ OP ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 8:58 am

Thank you amother! I'm going to look up almond flour pancakes, that sounds good for all of us. I'm told that plain peanut butter is a choking hazard.

What do I eat - things he doesn't like or can't eat mostly.
Yesterday: protein nut bar - garbage plus choking hazard.
Chicken soup - he ate the veggies. That's the last of the leftover chicken soup, not making more until erev shabbos.
Sloppy joes with pasta - he gags and chokes on pasta. Last night he ate some of the meat, last time I tried (same batch! This was leftovers!) he refused it.
Broccoli - he stopped liking.
Day before yesterday:
Cheerios with milk, he had some Cheerios too.
Scrambled egg in a pita - he refuses to eat eggs, ate a few tiny bits of pita.
Salad - he would choke on.
Trying to remember what else but you get the idea. Maybe that was the day we had leftover shabbos chicken, which he liked a little, and sweet potatoes which he liked a lot?

For lunch today I'm having eggs in pita again. For supper I'm thinking shnitzel which probably isn't soft enough but I'll try feeding him little pieces, with string beans which I think is too stringy for someone without teeth, and maybe rice which is also too piecey for him (he gags and chokes on piecey things.)

Basically feeding the baby the same food as the big people works occasionally but not most of the time. I have heard this is a cornerstone of baby led weaning but I just don't get it because this baby has been asking for food for months but eats so little of what we eat.

The refusal to eat eggs and fish is very inconvenient. I guess he likes to make me work.

amother

↑ Cerulean

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:06 am

You can dilute the peanut butter with a little breastmilk to make it less sticky and offer drinks to help wash it down. Solid starts app does not consider it a choking hazard.

Avocado and hummus are great nutrient dense foods

My baby loves gnawing on Cucumber spears

If he doesn't go for scrambled eggs, maybe try some mashed with a little avocado, breastmilk, olive oil or water . I've done just egg yolk and breastmilk as well because my baby does best with very thin purees.

Make an extra potato kugel when you make for shabbos so you have it during the week. Or maybe try the dr praegers potato littles. Or alexia potato puffs

amother

↑ OP ↓

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:22 am

Oh, peas are a good idea! I don't usually buy them because the older kids don't like but it's easy enough to try.

I really never make potato kugel but I think this week I will, if he likes it that will be a good addition to the menu and it's not THAT hard.

Thanks for getting my brain going. I just felt so stuck when he started refusing things. Never had this before. I had a picky preschooler but that was a phase.

↑ tichellady

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:43 pm

I wonder if he’s picking up on your stress about this. Eating is supposed to be fun for him and it’s ok if he doesn’t eat much right now. Some other ideas that are easy: raw tofu, rinsed canned chickpeas, steamed baby carrots with cinnamon, little pieces of cheddar cheese or mozzarella. I used to make little egg muffins with veggies inside and freeze them

amother

↑ OP

Wed, May 22 2024, 10:02 pm

I'm actually very chill and only started to stress once he was refusing so many foods that I had to start racking my brain to think what to send to the sitter each day.

Tonight I made shnitzel and tried to cook it soft enough to serve him pieces. Then my older kids were unexpectedly hungrier than usual and gobbled it all up before I could even see if he liked it, let alone put some aside for tomorrow. I patchke with shnitzel about as often as I do kugel, probably less, so much for that idea.

We also had cubed potatoes in his honor, which he vehemently rejected.

And string beans which I offered him, and he seemed to enjoy very much, but nearly choked twice even though I cooked them pretty soft.

I have a veggie soup going overnight in the slow cooker because he's enjoyed veggie soup before. But I've never tried slow cooking it so I just pray it comes out normal. I just don't have time to cook soup on workdays.

Egg muffins sound like a great idea to me but he's been very iffy on eggs. I keep trying though because sometimes he eats a little.

Filing the new ideas in mind. Meanwhile hoping the soup comes out for tomorrow.

I think maybe he's just hitting the terrible twos terribly early. He used to be pretty good natured and now he's so stubborn. The way he screams and swats me away if I try to give him food he doesn't prefer is intense.

Oh speaking of which he's turning down oatmeal now too. I hope it was just a one off because that's been one of my reliable easy safe foods. Banging head