from puree to lumpy food . please help

[scottishmumto1]

my dd is 8 months and i am starting to panic when i should be feeding her lumpy food. i have tried her on bits and sometimes she gags and then is sick. and th ebits are tiny lumps. she is currently on puree veg and fruit. may be i am thinking too soon and should not start lumpy food yet. i have tried her on a couple of th e7moths plus jar food. one of veg lasagne, and she gagged on it and the whole lot came back up.
i have been looking on net for a book to help me, but cant find anything.
i would love it if you's could give me some help as i am starting to really worry now. thanks

[compo]

don't worry just yet. My ds is 13 months and still prefers pureed food. He does have bread sticks, or a bit of bread to hold and will eat bits of things but if I want to make sure he eats a lot I still puree it's just so much easier and at least he's still getting his 5 a day that way

[charleepeters]

my ds did the same and still does occasionally but i give him finger foods bits of cut up toast baby biscuits and he seems to have got used to swallowing lumps like i say he still does it ocassionally but hes got alot better he now has 7 month jars with little lumps in. i think its just a case of persisting.

[Katemum]

The seven month jars are a problem to a lot of babies and it can be well beyond 7 months before they can cope with them I believe. Have you tried things like toast, to start with mine spent more time sucking than chewing but they all get the hang of it eventually. I found that the best thing i could do when they looked like they were struggling was not to panic, hard I know!, give her a second and you may find she is actually able to sort herself out or a pat on the back while talking calmly to her. If she sees you panic she may pick up on this.
Also when you puree each time leave it a little lumpier so the change is gradual. HTH.

[vicdubya]

I don't think you should worry yet!

My Ds was a bit like that around 7-8 months, but I think I just kept trying things now & again & making his homemade food a little lumpier gradually. Plus introducing finger foods really helped, although for a while he would still only eat the 4+ jars type consistency, yet wolf down a rice cake!!

I think eventually he got the hang around 9-10 months.

He is 13 months and I still use the hand blender for anything with meat in it (except mince) because he's still not very good with that but he will eat everything else roughly mashed.

Don;t worry, he will cope with it eventually!

[vicdubya]

Oops sorry meant she!

[chipmonkey]

I had this problem and my lovely GP said
"But he's only got two little teeth! How can he chew?" This was true! I think some babies take to lumpier food more easily than others. I would say, change to mashed food rather than chopped for the time being. If you use jars I found mixing the 7 months jars with the 4 month jars made things easier. But obviously not egg custard with Lasagne!

[scottishmumto1]

hi, she is usually ok with toast. i keep watching house of tiny tearaways and with th e2 and half year olds on there that still eat puree. i am scared that will be me.

[scottishmumto1]

hi, she is usually ok with toast. i keep watching house of tiny tearaways and with th e2 and half year olds on there that still eat puree. i am scared that will be me.

[saadia]

Same with both my dss, now 13 mths and 3yrs. Ds2 is still mainly on pureed food as I, like compo, want to make sure he eats enough, but I do try and give him bits of things that I'm eating just to start off the chewing habit.

Btw, ds2 is actually much better than ds1 who was constantly throwing up food with lumps till he was about 18mths. He now happily chews away though so that's why I'm not too worried about ds2.

[Katemum]

If she is ok with toast then you have got off to a good start, calm down and let her take things at her own pace. Offer her a variety of finger foods alongside her purees just to give her practice.