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??

Why not make your own food and put it in a jar? There's some sort of security in the jar , who knows what goes on in a baby's mind?

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

Purest bollocks. ALL babies like sweet foods, they are literally born that way. Have you ever tasted breast milk? It's incredibly sweet! Much sweeter than fruit jars.
If babies liking sweet things was the cause of obesity and T2 diabetes then every human who ever lived would be both.

The issue isn't the baby liking sweet things. Of course all babies like sweet things. The issue is encouraging a sweet tooth as the baby gets older. This isn't a new born being EBF it's a one year old who needs to be given a healthy diet. Sadly so many of our children grow up with an excess of sugar and develop a dependency on things being sweetened. Obesity and T2 levels have never been higher even amongst young ones.

Keep offering finger foods but don't worry if he doesn't eat them yet. My son didn't eat them till he was nearly two.
I would gradually reduce the amount of sweet puree you are adding to the jar and then try mixing him some of your own food gradually thickening the texture. Whenever you are eating always put a portion out for him.

Give him purée/jars until he's ready. Offer bits of finger food to chew on. I don't get the fuss over baby led weaning, at this age it's easier for them to digest purée. As long as he's getting enough nutrients and shows an interest in finger food (even just playing with it or smelling it) there's nothing to worry about. Mine ate mainly Ella pouches and crackers until she was 18 months!

That's terrible advice @HeadOverMills, does your health visitor have any children?

Instead of using a spoon, would you be up for dipping something into the jar, toast or breadstick for example, and using that as a spoon? Might get him used to a new texture and he might fancy biting it.

@YourWanMajella I have no experience of my child starving themselves, I was the child that did that. To be honest it's still a possibility if I was dumped somewhere with nothing that I usually eat. Therapy has helped a lot but it's very hard to overcome the reflex to vomit if I don't like something. Was your issue caused by autism or similar as well or is it just one of those things?

Go with what he eats. Keep offering food. I found. My daughter eat most off our plates

We did this with our first who only liked smooth stuff and Ella’s kitchen or so we thought. My doctor sister pointed out that it’s not real tasting food - it has a funny processed taste and texture and all of them are very sweet with sweet veg and fruit so no wonder she preferred it to cheesy mash with fish in that we were eating.

She remains fussy. She has a ridiculous sweet tooth. She is loathe to try new stuff. She is a work in progress and much better now at8 (Because we can reason and don’t allow her to food avoid) but I blame her early years of sweet palate and lack of real food flavour and texture.

Little one ate what we ate mashed up. Didn’t have time to do otherwise amd by then we had a fab nanny who taught us a lot about how kids can work the system! She also liked eating real food from very young, so gnawing on broccoli, though which helped. Her palate and natural diet now is much more healthy and she’d choose a banana over cake. Is it connected to their early diets? Who knows!

Jars are great if our and about but shouldn’t be his complete diet just like you wouldn’t only eat ready meals (which is what jars are). I’d keep them for convenient lunches on the move and liteslly just mash what you eat and mix with milk if necessary and persevere. He will not starve but if he thinks the alternative Is a nice sweet smooth jar he’ll hold out. Kids are clever.

I’ve learned to ignore food waste forbthe greater good. Every meal out pieces of softly cooked veg and then fruit on front of him too and let him explore it (not throw it around obvs). Give him his own spoon too. Make it fun. And don’t worry if he inky eats a bit or nothing. I still serve my kids stuff they don’t officially like because they can’t only eat their favourite foods every day, that’s not healthy or real life.

Good luck!!

One of mine was weaned in jars at 16 weeks ( along long time ago) and are pretty much nothing else for a long time. The others are a varied diet. The jar one has much the healthiest diet now and is the least fussy. So I’d go with it for now.

Buy a hand blender, blend up whatever you're having and stick it in a washed out jar. Each week, blend a little less so it's super lumpy, then start off by using a bowl with a spoonful in. Always offer that to him first, then the jar. Increase the amount in the bowl until he's hardly getting anything from the jar.
(Can you tell I've had to do this?!)

For those saying he'll eat when he's hungry, he really might not. Turns out my 18 month old has ASD. He didn't eat solid food for an entire week whilst we battled. The above method worked though!

Is he due to go to nursery? He might eat differently there.

DS always used to want spoon-feeding for his main meals (he would eat pieces of cheese or bread himself). At nursery they have to feed themselves, and now he doesn’t want me to spoon-feed him at all (which is bloody annoying when he has soup or we are out and I don’t actually want to shower the cafe in half-chewed food).

There were a couple of weeks where he wasn’t eating anything at nursery (we gave him breakfast and tea so we knew he wasn’t starving). But he got used to eating differently at nursery than he does at home.

Could your DS be fed by somebody else, in a different environment for a couple of weeks? Maybe your mum or sister? Just try to break some of the associations with jars and mealtimes.

He's been able to handle 'normal' food for months, nothing magically happens at age 1. You just need to be more careful with salt before 1.

I wouldn't be happy with a one year old exclusively eating from jars and think it could easily lead to higher chances of having a fussy eater.

I would start giving finger foods at every meal. I'd also instantly replace the dessert jars - there's just no need for a baby to be eating a baby jar of sweet after every meal. Give them yoghurt instead. Ds3 (10mo) loves the pots of Ambrosia rice pudding, very low on sugar and no crap in them. Plus cheap and don't need refrigerating.

Breakfast is an easy one to make an immediate change to real food too - weetabix, ready brek or porridge with mashed banana or finely grated apple will be smooth and sweet.

Also don't be drawn in to giving them baby finger foods.

Things like biscotti or 'fruit' flavoured rice cakes are packed with sugar - there's less sugar in a biscuit.

They do baby crisps such as cheese straws or lentil and chive straws or Ella’s melty puffs that have no salt or added rubbish in and are great to help teach your baby to eat finger foods. Ds started with things like Ella’s melty puffs and raspberries because they’re so soft and easy to eat.

All you need to do is go back in time and never give him jars. Simple.

Try making your own mashed meals up and putting them in jars. Maybe after he's used to that try making it a game to see if he can scoop food from a jar with you into a bowl.

If that does work slowly add carrot, or Tony bits of diced chicken or avocado etc to the jars, increase untill the jar is all home made.

Tbh i don't use jars but there's nothing wrong with them imo, just expensive and a bit bland. But if nothing works, he's fed that's the main thing.

Just to reassure you, if he eats very little for a few days; no harm will come to him. If eg you are working on making his lunch more sandwichy/lumpy and he is turning his nose up... I would press on ; he's still presumably having milk. Btw I agree with feeding him with others if you are not already doing so; watching others will give him the idea that this is what is expected and he isn't being poisoned or punished!

He doesn't like savoury snacks only sweet.

If that continues it could be a problem. There’s still Too much sugar hidden in processed shop bought food, unfortunately

Fortunately his likes can be manipulated.

Do you all eat at the same time? If not could you all try sit at the table together (or wherever you normally eat) and have all meals at the same time (where possible).

Also instead of adding fruit puree, Could you mix in little solid bits of fruit? And just gradually change the texture of what you're putting in the jar, making it slightly lumpier and adding in different textures to explore. He may be more willing to explore new textures if part of his 'safe foods'

All you need to do is go back in time and never give him jars. Simple

It must be cold up on your high horse.