To give my DS baby jar food??

[HeadOverMills]

He's 12 months and can handle "normal food" now....however he won't eat it. Will actually take it out of his mouth.

He will only eat jarred from the shop, with a dessert (fruit purée) mixed in.

Do I just go with it??

For my ds I'd say it was a visual thing... the jars were the first thing I fed him as I didn't have a blender/anything to purée finely with to start with. But when I tried to introduce solids and then tried to make my own purée he just didn't like it! I remember doing all sorts of different things, fruit and veg. Even tried pureeing mash and a bit of ham. Nowt worked, but I was sick of wasting it so I froze it and thought maybe I'll chuck it in soup at some point... then I thought hmm... I'll heat one up and use one of his jars from earlier.
He ate it! And every attempt for the next 3 months was successful if I used a jar (unsuccessful if I didn't!). Life changing. Hopefully it's the same for you. For the first few attempts stick with something that tastes like/closest resembles his most common jar meal.

sourpatchkid you must have been reading, or at least reading way to much into my responses. I was not the arsey one, and I didn't disbelieve either. She was actually really rude, and started out that way.
Keep going with it? No, I answered questions she threw at me quite simply.

Hiding thread.

You didn't pause to consider that even if you hadn't intended to be rude - you sounded so to me (and I presume her) but don't reflect on it. Go ahead and hide the thread instead

Op don't worry about the baby food in a jar. Is your baby healthy, happy, thriving? If yes, then don't worry you and baby are doing fine. Oh, and what an adorable little character in deciding he wants to eat out a jar. You'll probably look back at that fondly one day. Motheroflittledragon my dd went through food phases as well. NerrSnerr and YourWanMajella it's very stressful when you're child won't eat to the point of affecting their health. I can completely empathize with you. I also wish people would stop saying 'don't worry your child won't starve themselves' Before I was a parent I worked as a qualified early childhood educator and I was trained to respond to parents concerns about their child's fussy eating with that exact sentiment. It is only now as a parent and what I now know from experience that that sentiment is completely inadequate and inaccurate. Some baby's and children will starve themselves to death and we don't want parents doubting their concerns for their child with a blanket statement like 'don't worry no child will starve themselves' or shaming a parent into ignoring their own instincts by comparing them to yourself or others. NerrSnerr, you're right about getting whatever your child will eat into them. Better a tummy full of jarred food or toast or chips or fruit puree then nothing. YourWanMajella good on you for responding to CrampItUp the way you did. It was so obviously a judgey bit of mum shaming trolling comment. CrampItUps I was just trying to ask a genuine question LOL. Really?

Sourpatchkid well said. I agree with you 100%

I don't know why you're so angry with me. In my experience, no I haven't known a little kid to starve themselves, sorry but I haven't

Which is why you should have apologised for saying it doesnt happen when it was pointed out to you, rather than continue to insist you were right when you are so patently wrong.

Do you know how insulting it is to say such crap to parents who have the opposite, very difficult experience? Do you know how many smug idiots will tell you that you're just doing it wrong, while your child is failing to grow and getting sicker?
You were rude to start with and failed to acknowledge your error, instead repeating it again.

I totally get YourWanMajella’s response, I wish I had the confidence to reply like that and in real life I continue to lie about ds and food because of judgey “he will eat when he’s hungry!” comments.
I need to start just saying “actually he won’t, he will die”

I woud hide the jars and give some finger food at some meals. Children need different textures to help exercise their mouths ready for talking. I would also give less and less sweet stuff as it is addictive and distorts the taste buds. But I wouldn't panic over it... Just take small steps towards these changes over a few weeks.

My friends daughter would only eat what she liked, which was minimal, and there is no persuading her to eat anything else. She would rather go all day with no food than eat something she didn’t want. When she was at primary school the head frequently called my friend in to
discuss the problem. They tried giving her school dinners thinking that she would be too hungry to go without, but no luck. She would then fall asleep in the afternoon as no energy left, or feel so ill she couldn’t work. In the end she took cereal and milk to school.

We have tried various methods to get her to eat and she is having none of it. Even at the age of 12 when she has understanding of how her body works etc. She still has a very limited diet.

It’s all very well telling parents not to worry as they will eat when hungry, but sadly it isn’t always that easy....

He decides when he's had enough/wants more, what he likes/what he doesn't

Just like OP's son has decided he likes baby food from jars. Not all babies want to subscribe to baby led weaning.

Although, I suppose it's still baby led weaning. Just leading in a jar direction rather than a finger food direction.

My dd2 has one meal per day. She grazes over breakfast and lunch and then will bizarely eat a full healthy dinner. She has so much energy i tell myself not to worry too much. She was a pouch baby. I ended up having to order the pouches online to fill with my own food just so she'd eat!

I wish I had the confidence to reply like that

IME it takes years and a lot of shit that you;ve put up with. One day you just snap and after that you are just done with their bollocks, no more.

Seriously, don't stress. He's not going to be eating jarred food forever.
And frankly no matter what you do they will decide at some point what they like and don't like.

DS1 was a pain in the ass to wean. Ella's kitchen food all the way, I swore by it. He's 6 now and eats pretty much whatever you put in front of him, including broccoli, cauliflower, carrots etc. grand.

DS2 ate everything in sight as a weaning baby, literally everything. "Nailed it" I thought. He can now spot a piece of onion in a spaghetti bolognese at 50 paces and I have to hide anything green in his food.

It really doesn't matter what you do, just relax and go with the flow. Start mixing in a little less sweet stuff and a little more veg and he'll be fine!

Just to chime in for the doubters who don't believe little children will starve themselves...

YourWanMajella - we have also been there - and my attitude was the same. The "Oh he'll eat when he's hungry" bs drove me bananas.

Three year old DS got tonsillitis badly and for almost a year would refuse to eat anything except fucking pot noodles and even those were a battle - we were lucky if he ate some of those twice a week. We had to put him back onto sippy cups with formula. He would gag and vomit at any other food.We went to psychologists, dieticians and had weekly GP check ups. He also ended up hospitalised.. After that , something clicked and he gradually added food back into his diet - starting with orange juice annd croissants. It was a horror show. My entire life revolved around getting him to eat.
He was fussy for years but is now pretty good(14)

And for the OP - try to stop putting the sweet stuff in the jars with his food. That's making an association for him that all food should be sweet. Initially still offer puree but not mixed with other food from the jar. Separate out the dessert.
Feed him other things you make/blend and put in the jars. Carrot and sweet potato (cooked carrot is sweet) could be worth a try and stick it in the jar.
Make your own purees but with non processed sugars or flavours - like rapadura sugar/maple syrup/or vanilla .

Not all babies want to subscribe to baby led weaning.

It's nothing to do with BLW. Standard weaning (which I also did, I did not do BLW) is pretty clear that they should be eating a mostly normal diet with chunks of food by 12mo.

Baby food jars not unhealthy in any way, but they have a "jarred food" taste and texture (they are milled to be ultrasmooth, far smoother than you can do at home, and are heated in a particular way to make them last, which gives them a slightly caramelized flavor. They are also often very sweet, due to having a lot of apple and other very sweet ingredients).

The problem is that if a baby is hooked on these and won't eat normal food, it is not really preparing them for eating family meals and can encourage very fussy tendencies. The fact that the OP's baby not only wants only jarred food but also insists on extra fruit puree mixed in suggest that they may have got into a "thing" of expecting everything to taste sweet.

If a baby ate nothing else at 12mo, I would be tempted to go cold turkey and put some pressure on to eat other things, and if that did not work, I would consider consulting a specialist, as severe issues with lumps and textures sometimes indicates sensory or swallowing issues.

(For what it's worth, I'm not sure it's worth getting side-tracked into a discussion about "actually some kids will starve themselves etc." Yes, of course there are some kids with particular issues who really will starve themselves if they are not offered a very limited diet, but the large majority of 12mos who will only eat sweetened jars are just being picky, and yes, they absolutely will broaden their palates if some gentle pressure is applied. The first response should be to start cutting down on the sweet smooth foods. Sensory issues should be considered only if eating issues are very persistent and go on and on.)

The jar food is all mixed with fruit already, they contain a lot of sugar. I would try reducing these by mixing some savoury food and gradually increasing the ratio of proper food to the jar stuff.

The sugar is a real issue. Encouraging such a sweet tooth at such a young age is paving the way for all kinds of health problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes. For his future health sake please wean him off the sugar.

He's got a sweet tooth due to changing him from normal formula to prescribed, I was advised by HV to put a drop of Vanilla Essence in.

Then when he refused his savoury foods, I was advised to mix in fruit purée.

OP, that's understandable. Perhaps gradually weaning him off the fruit purees by mixing in less and less would be a good approach.

Yes I'd wean him off too.

The most important thing is that you’re getting food into him one way or another. After spoon feeding leave some finger foods for him to play with like fingers of toast with nut butter, grated cheese and baby crisps, mini pancakes etc.

Oh and like other posters recommend wean him off the fruit addition and try get him used to having fruit sepearate frlm savoury. You can gradually thicken the texture too

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