7 Month Old Refusing Baby Food

hey L. we have a lot in common I have a 12 11 and 8 and a 1 yr old and similar food issues the same thing happened with my youngest. she will eat the gerber graduate meals and also the meat sticks mac and cheese. then sometimes if i have leftovers from the night before she will eat that..... she loves bannas, cheese and cut up apple. you could also make grilled cheese..... good luck K.

Hi! I had the same problem with my son...and I'm not a great cook, so I too was looking for easy fixes! For breakfast/lunch, I often give my son whole grain waffles, pancakes, toast, and bananas. Grilled cheese is easy as well. Gerber also makes jarred carrots, apples peaches etc that are for toddlers/babies to pick up with their hands, but they are easy because they are already diced! Good luck!

Why are you worried? This is wonderful! I never used jarred baby food. I simply mashed up what we were eating or cut it into tiny pieces. It's so much easier- not to mention cheaper. It allows baby to get used to the tastes of the foods that your family eats. It makes life easier in the long run too- my girls eat a wide and varied diet and are never afraid to try new foods. I think that getting them used to real food right from the start was the key.
I think your daughter is just smarter than the average kid! Would you want to eat that bland mushy baby food?? Not me!
I never had to feed my daughters either. I put the food right on their plates and let them have at it. They loved putting the tiny bits into their mouths- and it was so much nicer to sit and eat with them then to have to feed them first.
Don't worry- your daughter seems to know what's good for her! If it's good for the rest of your family- why can't she eat it?
-S.
After reading the responses of others, I have to ask.. why are you buying the Gerber graduates and other "toddler foods" ? They are the same foods as what you are eating- but they come in smaller portions with more preservatives. Just cook some pasta instead of buying Gerber's pasta pickups- buy frozen mixed veggies (they are already chopped too) instead of those expensive and tiny jars. These are much cheaper options and healthier too! Don't cook separate food for your baby and the rest of the family. Just chop what you are eating into tiny pieces!

My how lucky you are! You can save on all that expensive baby food in jars, which in most cases are full of junk anyway.

Try saving some of the previous nights meal as left overs for your baby's lunch, or prepare fast, soft foods such as pasta (assini de pepe I think it is called, is tiny & good), avocado, cottage cheese, apple sauce, frozen mixed veggies smashed up ect. I think she is too young for eggs so don't try that one yet, but scrambled eggs make a great fast lunch which my kids always liked for lunch.

My girlfriend had the same issue w/ her little girl, she bought an interesting contraption which looked kind of like a pascifier w/ a sm. mesh bag where the "nipple" should be. She put cooked foods in the mesh bag part and her baby gummed on it and only small pieces that could not choke her came through the mesh which she ate...talk to your pediatriction to see if this would be ok. I have seen them in the specialty baby catalogs.

Good Morning,
My second son, now 2, did exactly the same thing. He was great eating the baby food and then realized we were eating somthing better. If she can do it, keep offering her little pieces of what you are having. For lunch, try cut up grilled cheese, baby yogurt with cereal in it or some leftovers from your night before. I alway tried to save some homeade meatballs for him for lunch because they are so soft and easy to reheat. (also try making some of the little pastas to go with it). We switched to stage 3 foods early on and he seemed to eat some of those as well, which were good for when we were not at home. My third son, now 7 months is heading in that exact same direction. He want to hold a sippy cup and eat a slice of pizza!
We'll just take it slow and give him lots of things to try. Again, he loves meatballs...and I make them with extra breadcrumbs and milk to make them softer...the whole family loves them that way and they are easier for the little guys to eat. Good luck and have fun with it.

Give her table food then, if she is eating thats fine. Its a texture thing - she is probably bored with baby food. It happens - most kids go through it at her age. I bought a mini blender/ grinder and would just grind up the food I cooked that night and then I would feed it to my daughter. A short while after - she again accepted stage 2 & 3 foods for breakfast lunch and snacks. But at dinner it was table food only. I also bought those mesh bags and gave her real fruit instead of baby food fruits.

Hi,

My almost 8 month old sounds very similar to your little one. I started cereal/food early too, at 4 months and now she is eating crackers and other table food. She seems to not want me to feed her as much. I find that if I offer her table food first (like to keep her busy while I finish dinner) she then will not eat her baby food. So now I giver her the baby food first and afterwards offer her the finger foods. For lunch I am having good luck with the baby yogurt which is really easy to prepare and she likes. (I think some doctors say no to any dairy before 1 year but mine is ok with her having yogurt and cheese.). She loves crackers and small peices of mozzarella, (I just cut up the string cheese). So I am trying to mix the easier baby food and table food that she'd rather eat. Another trick I heard is to make little balls of the baby cereal with or without fruit and veggies and then they can pick it up and feed themselves. Messy but she'll eat it that way.

I think your baby is totally normal.

Hi L.,

Stay away from things that are sticky like peanut butter, popcorn etc (those are potential chokers). Whatever you give her cut it into tiny little pieces, so she can swallow effectively.

Try Grilled Cheese in tiny itty bitty pieces.

Just be sure to ask yourself before giving her anything "Is this easy to swallow or hard?"

Good luck to you!!

Hahaha...

This sounds so familiar! My youngest did the same thing to me. I'm sure it's partly seeing the older sibling(s) and wanting to be like them. My daughter wouldn't ever sit in a highchair either. I remember it being tricky at that age due to lack of a lot of teeth. Don't drive yourself crazy. Tiny pieces of squishy avacado or banana. Canned peas or carrots (cut). My daughter loved Yobaby yogurt or a mini bagel with a little cream cheese she could teethe on.

Good Luck!

Howdy! My son (who is now 3) did the same thing. He couldn't wait to eat. We started him on solids at 4 mo. and by the time he was 7-8 months he wanted nothing to do with babyfood. If he was anywhere near table food, he would try to take it and feed himself! What worked for us was some of the Gerber Graduate food--pasta pickups mainly. I would also try to have something in the fridge that I could heat up quickly, like rice and beans, pasta noodles and even veggies--peas, corn, green beans, and cooked carrots cut up in small pieces. English muffin pizzas also worked; you can make them ahead of time and freeze them until you're ready to cook them. Until he had the dexterity with his hands to get all the food in his mouth he did drink 4-5 bottles a day and by the time he was 11 mo. he had the eating thing down. Good luck with it!

That's great - I would just feed her leftovers during the day, the only problem I know is feeding them table food with too much salt/sugar and avoiding honey up until a year - after that my understanding is anything goes (new research even says avoiding nuts, etc doesn't seem to really prevent allergies later in life). I also second the advice Brittany G gave.

Hi Laurie,
Yup... my youngest (now 25 yrs with a little girl of her own) was a hefty one.. she weighed in at 10lbs 9oz at birth and was hungry from day one. I started her on cereal at 2 weeks..she was just starving... nursed her too til 4mos. She ate everything we did by 8 or 9 mos. So go for it... Oh, btw, she's just beautiful, tall, athletic..so don't worry about it. And her little girl was born at over 9lbs and loves to eat too. So, have fun. I have photos of her chomping on an apple..happy as can be. Brings back memories.
L.

Hi L., All my kids did that. My youngest just turned 1 today, and he started insisting on table food about 5 months. I just made sure to watch him so he chewed it all the way, and didn't choke. Mine all loved PB&J and Mac and Cheese, Ramen, toast, crackers w/ cheese. I also like to give a fun lunch, simple yet good and healthy. I would cut up an apple, put a slice of balogna, a slice of cheese, and a tbs. of peanut butter on a plate, and let them eat what they wanted of it. You could always add more or take some away if they didn't like something. I added grapes, cottage cheese, and a few other things as they got bigger appetites. I hope this helps.

C.

YES! it is fine that she eating table foods....I have 4 also and my 2nd born was eating mostly table foods by 8 months. It actually makes it easier. I can't remember when my 4th started on table foods but I think it was right about the same time too. The only thing I would keep hany is the babyfood fruits...they tend to bind up once they start eating whole foods. GL

I like easy to make stuff too. I fed my toddlers kidney beans, black beans, banannas, apple-sauce, yogurt, guacomole, avacado, peaches, plums, melons, eggs, etc.

I find that the steamer is my best friend with my 9 month old son. He started around 5 months wanting to eat table food. I steam sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas, chicken, fish.... just about anything. It makes the food so soft, but it still has the substance and flavor that they are looking for. It is very quick and easy. And easy to clean up. A friend gave me her old baby jars, so I store the food in the jars in the refrigerator of freezer. Hope this helps.

I had the same issue with both of my kids. They started out eating cereal but after a week or so of baby food, decided they would rather have what we were having. I guess the one issue with that is that our food can sometimes be a bit more "complex" and thus it ends up being difficult following the "introduce one food at a time" strategy. The other problem with these advanced eaters is that they dont' have as many teeth or as much control with their tongue, so gagging can be a problem. What we did was to let them eat what we were to a degree. Cutting things up into small enough pieces and also offering things they could gnaw on- like well cooked carrots, broccoli anything mushy is good. also my baby loves tofu and avocado two foods she can eat by herself. my kids also love soup- which you can beef up with rice or small pasta that makes it easy for baby to eat.
Good luck- be thankful you don't have to spend much money on baby food this time around!

No problem here, just give her real food if she's ready for it and seems to prefer it.

One thing that has worked for us is serving left overs from the night before for lunch (we make a little extra each night just for this purpose) , and warming them up in the toaster oven or microwave.

I don't know if you have a Trader Joe's near you, but if you do ,we have found it an excellent source of healthy, easy to prepare food for lunches.

Let's see, good , quick ideas for lunch - you want a balance of protein, veggies, carbs, and fruits.

Try soy hot dogs sliced into thin strips, barilla protein pasta, edamame, and diced chicken, for protein. Your baby is still too young for eggs, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, and nuts, which can cause allergies.

She can have most veggies- try sliced avacado, baked sweet potato, organic frozen mixed veggies, steamed baby carrots, and dried veggies - like "just peas".

Rice, rice cakes, cheerios, and quinoa (also high in protein and quick to make), are good grains and carbohydrates. You should still avoid wheat as much as possible, because it is a known allergen.

You want to avoid citrus fruits and strawberries at this point, but try sliced banana, sliced apple or pear with the skin removed, and chunks of fresh melon ( watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, etc.).

Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you need more particulars - this is an area I have a lot of experience and information in. L. S.

Hi L.,
Yup that sounds normal. My son did this a about 9months so yours must have a more mature palite...lol. Anyway I would go to give him babyfood and he would start to spit it everywhere.So slowly I started with finger foods and now hes a happy camper and will not alow me to feed him anything:)
K.

My daughter did the same thing. She's now 10 months and eating or trying everything I give her, which is usually everything I'm eating. (sometimes even cake :) ) I think it is a good thing to just give her table food, that's what you eventually want her to be on, anyway. I buy canned low sodium veggies. they're nice and soft, no hassle to feed them. My 2 y.o. even eats them as a snack with her. grilled cheese, refried beans on a whole wheat tortilla, toast with applesauce or yogurt spread on, 'healthy' mac n cheese, if it is in you budget gerber makes those graduates meals. the filled ravioli is good, i use my cheese shredder a lot for raw carrot, cucumber, apple, etc. Have fun.

L.,
I never thought I would make my own baby food but one night we had some garlic mashed potatoes and baby carrotts left over. I decided to puree them (separately) in my food processor. Then I spooned single servings into a mini muffin tin and froze them. I have been giving our little Albert (8 months old) 1 of each to eat with his babyfood dinners (e.g. chicken/rice or mac/cheese) and he gobbles it down...loves it. The fact is that this was really easy to do. I would suggest pureeing your left overs (even the meatloaf)...this way it's easier and everyone is happy. Also the nurse at my pediatricians office said that we should be feeding our children the same types of things we would be eating at each meal. She suggested cereal and fruit for breakfast; meat and veggies for lunch; meat and fruit for dinner. I hope this helps. Gina