"Lil Guy Formula/infant Food Issue PART 2" - Leola,PA

Independance is a great thing feed him real food it sounds like that is what he wants. He is old enough to eat most adult food except cut up small and let him do it himself. Place a little at a time on the tray so he won't shove too much in and choke. Try strawberries, grapes cut into quarters, stem carrots till soft and slice or buy canned sliced and cut up, cook green beans till very soft and cut up. Also pull chicken into small pieces and chop with a knife or any other meat. He may just want to do it himself.

Biggest thing feed him in a yucky shirt or no shirt at all, it can get very messy but they love it.

Our son started pushing away all of the pureed food when he was ready to feed himself and move on to diced & crushed stuff.

Could be he's just ready for more "big boy" food & frustrated with the mushy stuff. You might want to try the diced Graduates & Table Time fruits & veggies if you need to use jarred food. There isn't too much variety, but it's a nice start and good if you need quick & easy stuff. Microwaving whole fresh sweet potatoes and dicing them so he can pick up himself could help bring that veggie back into his diet. Also, chopping anything you're having for dinner (with the exception of foods not appropriate for his age) into small pieces so he can feed himself & try new things.

We've found if our little guy has some stuff he can feed himself at every meal he's more apt to take the stuff he can't feed himself (like cereal & yogert).

Good luck!

I had this same issue with my daughter was 8 months old and figured out how to feed herself. I brought it up to my pedi at the 9 month appt, and she suggested that I let her hold a spoon to play with the food, and while she was distracted, I could feed her myself. this worked great! it also taught her how to use the spoon at a very young age... so that was an added bonus!

I made my own baby food, so I didn't have the issue of stage 2 and stage 3, but I also belong to a message board that goes by the month you were due/baby was born, and a lot of the babies seemed to have issues with stage 3. just a thought!

Just that. Finger foods. You can take sweet potatoes and potatoes and carrots and boil them till they are soft. They can be in strips or cirles. Differnet shapes. Just keep doing what you are doing. They also have the puffs.

They just grow up way to fast.

pasta, pear slices, canned peas or carrots or potatoes, firm tofu (right from the package), tomato pie; he's a big boy now; have fun seeing what he likes

It sounds like youre filling him up on other stuff.

Hey Christina,

As you know, they will go through phases and it doesn't stop there. From what you wrote, it seams that he wants to feed himself. Rather than giving him stage 2 food which is smooth and more than likely you are feeding him, try giving him stage 3 or even what you are eating and let him feed himself. You said that he likes sweet potato, bake a sweet potato, add a pat of butter and dice it up and let him do it. He is building his independence and maybe by him not taking the stage 2 foods, is his way of telling you that he rather try feeding himself. Regarding food ideas, that is your call. What I did with my son, is I would give him everything that we ate, so he had a vast variety. He also did not have any teeth at 10 months, but I made sure the bits were small enough for him to gum the food. Good luck.

K.