9 months old rejecting solids

[allycat]

I stared Quan on semi solids when he was about 6 months old. He has been enjoying his cereal and porridge untill recently. Its getting difficult to get him to finish his food these days. He still enjoys his fruit puree and occassional yogurt, perhaps the portion is smaller?

Anyone has the same problem and how do you get over this?

TIA

 

[megtan]

Hi allycat,
My boy coming to 10 months, seems to be more fussy with solids now. Yesterday evening, I cooked mee sua with chicken & veg stock, added tofu & veg puree. He took 1 mouth and simply refused to eat anymore! No choice gave him cereal with EBM, avocado and apple puree which he was ok and finished all, probably coz he like BM and avocado. He has eaten mee sua a few times before and was ok, don't know why suddenly don't like.
He seems to be more keen in my food than his food these days. Sometimes, I pretend to scoop from mine to give him and he was taken in ;p Yep, he also seems to be taking lesser portion now... try to coax him into finishing unless he really don't want then no choice.
I think he may want variety? I think I'll try to vary his food more often now.

 

[allycat]

I have been holding back introducing baby pasta and noodle stuff (like mee sua) as I was afraid he might get choked as he only has 2 teeth. Perhaps I'll try giving him something different tomorrow. Just wondering how to cook them :S

 

[meiteoh]

Actually, Quan doesn't need teeth in order to chew. He can gum soft pasta and noodles perfectly well and introducing such food items will help him strengthen his jaw muscles as well as help him learn and practice handling chunkier foods. I started Eva on teething rusks when she had NO teeth and then on pasta, omelettes, puffs when she only had two bottom teeth. My mum too at first was very VERY worried and paranoid but I told her that it's good for her and besides, it's not as if I leave Eva alone when she's eating. She has gagged a few times before (because these pieces are too big to swallow) but never choked and since she was 9-10 mths old, she'd remove them from her mouth, tear into smaller bites or bite and chew them again.

If you take a step back and adopt his diet for three months non-stop, wouldn't you get bored of eating and take longer to finish your food? Try to offer variety in the form of texture and shape (puffs, finger foods, omelettes/pancakes) and taste (introduce new flavours like onion, garlic, leeks, etc).

As for cooking baby pasta, just cook pasta until it's super soft and you can mix in some veg puree as a sauce. Pasta doesn't have to be served with tomato or meat - Italians eat pasta in things like pesto, veg stew, soup (minestrone) and even with just cheese and herbs.

 

[megtan]

I have been holding back introducing baby pasta and noodle stuff (like mee sua) as I was afraid he might get choked as he only has 2 teeth. Perhaps I'll try giving him something different tomorrow. Just wondering how to cook them :S

I intro-ed him baby pasta since 8 month and he loves it. Use the Bellamy brown rice pasta stars which is very small so no problem. Boil in water until very soft. Grate some mozzarella cheese (block type with salt content less than 680g per 100g). Once pasta is cooked, drain and mix with the grated cheese. Then add in mashed potato + puree veg like cauliflower or zucchini/courgette. Recently tried the Annabel Karmel brand of pasta star, quite nice too.

As for mee sua, I cook using chicken/veg stock until very soft and cut into bite size streads using spoon/scissors, then add mashed veg like carrot + tofu etc. For my son I have to cut the mee sua really small coz I think he hates the stringy bit that's why rejected it. Maybe gradually lor.

I also gave him Graduate Puffs, Happy Baby Puffs and Happy Baby yogurt melts which he absolutely loves!!!

Go slowly... I have been teaching my son to chew for 2+ months already. He still prefers to swallow. There were a few times when I gave him food more texture and he gagged then vomit out everything after I feed finish

 

[meiteoh]

ally, if you're worried about choking, what I suggest would be to go slow. You can start by first making the purees smooth but slightly thicker and then a bit lumpy but same thickness. Gradually, you increase the thickness or the texture to incorporate the baby pasta. At the same time, can give him those hard teething rusks if you're afraid he'll choke. One good thing is that it'll introduce some variety in his diet.

 

[snowbear]

I had the same experience too! My girl oso rejected everything she used to eat at about 9mths so I had to experiment with different types of food. Eventually she went back to eating but had changed preferences. More about my experience here.

 

[megtan]

I had the same experience too! My girl also rejected everything she used to eat at about 9mths so I had to experiment with different types of food. Eventually she went back to eating but had changed preferences. More about my experience here.

Hi snowbear,

Read your blog, thanks for sharing the experience For macaroni shells, which type did you use? The ones eaten by adults?

Nowadays, I resorted to feeding him using different spoons (metal, plastic, silicone) and even fork and chopsticks which surprisingly works!

By the way, anyone knows how many egg yolks can babies take per week? I just served him steamed egg custard (mixed with some puree veg) and he quite like it. Thinking of omelette as well...

 

[snowbear]

Hi snowbear,

Read your blog, thanks for sharing the experience For macaroni shells, which type did you use? The ones eaten by adults?

Nowadays, I resorted to feeding him using different spoons (metal, plastic, silicone) and even fork and chopsticks which surprisingly works!

By the way, anyone knows how many egg yolks can babies take per week? I just served him steamed egg custard (mixed with some puree veg) and he quite like it. Thinking of omelette as well...

Yup... and also the organic veggie ones available at organic stores.

Yes, sometimes just changing the bowl/spoon works too...

I read in a HPB pamphlet regarding feeding babies and it said it's ok to feed one egg yolk a day... the cholesterol is needed for their brain development

 

[allycat]

Tried giving Quan brown rice pasta. He doesnt like it n we're back to porridge again. Haiz...

On egg yolk, need to remember the 4 days rule. Quan is also starting today.

 

[megtan]

I understand how u feel. My son also like that recently & he would spit out his food. Sometimes I really exasperated trying to feed him.
Probably more potato & less pasta stars to start with? I use 2 cubes potato 2 cubes veg purée & about 10-15g pasta stars cooked until almost mashy.
Since my son likes potato, sometimes I just mix with veg, fruit & beans as a meal which covers carbo, fibre, vitamins, protein.
Have u tried adding Chinese yam huai san into porridge before, apparently makes porridge very smooth & nice.

 

[meiteoh]

According to Super Baby Food, recommended amount for egg yolk is once every two days.

Hm, maybe can add a little bit of pasta to a lot of veg puree as meg suggested. That way, it just looks like slightly lumpy puree.

Don't give up though. We have a house rule - just because you don't like it, it doesn't mean you won't eat it. My hubby was the one who came up with it and told me to enforce me (hai, me become bad person). So as a result, I am very firm with Eva. She has to finish at least half a bowl of whatever I prepare for her, even though she doesn't like it. The first couple of times, she would wail and wail and of course I was tempted to give in but I stuck to my guns. I won't force her. Just sit there and look at her and say "No, you still have to eat a bit." After a while she gave up and begrudgingly eat it. She didn't finish everything - about half a bowl and that's okay by me. I'd give her favourite fruits after that particular meal. The next time I gave the same thing, she ate almost everything!

 

[megtan]

mabel, I guess I will have to slowly instill this rule to my son, now he just won't listen and would cry/throw tantrum.

allycat, how much is Quan eating per meal now? I have a tendency to worry :07:
Good days, Kaiyi can eat about 5 cubes of food per meal (about 150g), bad days, just 3 cubes (90g). Before 9 months, he used to be able to eat 6-8 cubes.

How about snowbear and mabel? Roughly how much solids per meal your babies eat when they were 9-10 months old?

 

[meiteoh]

Eva was taking three meals a day when she was 9 mths old. Each serving of fruit, meat and veg plus grain was about 2 tbsp. Minimal intake a day was four servings of fruit/veg, three servings of protein (meat), three servings of grain (rice, wheat, etc) and two servings of dairy (yogurt, cheese). Can refer to wholesomebabyfood.com for more info on serving side under their 8-10 mth guidelines. Milk wise, she was drinking about 12-16 oz during the day and latch on once at night and once before I send her to the bbsitter in the mornings.

 

[allycat]

Quan is currently taking only 1 meal of porridge (with fish/veg, meat/veg, or 2-3 variety of veg), 1 serving (2-3 cubes) of fruits and 1 serving of yogurt. Milk wise, he is also taking about 12-16oz during the day, latch to sleep and around 2-3am.

 

[megtan]

Well, Kaiyi is currently eating much lesser... hopefully just a phase, will try to give him more small meals.

By the way, I have one stupid question which has been on my mind for a long time. You know those baby cereal like Healthy Times is quite flaky. 1 tbsp of dry cereal when mixed with water or milk becomes much lesser than 1 tbsp. So to get 1 tbsp is before or after adding liquid?

 

[allycat]

I think its before the milk. I'm also giving Quan HT cereal for breaskfast, about 5 spoons (those that came along with FM) of cereal with 50ml EBM.

I realise the turnover of HT products at NTUC White Sands is really fast and I usually have to buy a few boxes at one go. Not sure if its because they dont stock up or its really that popular.

 

[megtan]

Thanks!

Yah, I also realise HT cereals sell out very fast! It seems to be more popular than Bellamy or other brands.