14month old still eating stage 1 jars

[klovers]

Hello,
my 14 month old baby is still eating stage 1 jars, i have tried her on stage 2 but if there are any lunps in her food she gags.

There are a few solid things that she will eat but with difficulty as she does not chew properly. She can eat very small pieces of bread and pasta and biscuits, but refuses to finger feed, will only eat it if mummy feeds her!!!

Is it normal for some babies to be so delayed?

Have you tried to make your own food then you can increase the consistency slowly from pureed to 'granules' to tiny soft lumps. I am sure there are more mums with words of wisdom but IMO just take it slowly and she will chew when she is ready.

Hi Klovers

Don't worry and don't think of her as being delayed! The fact that she can eat bread, biscuits etc means she doesn't have a problem. She just has a preference for sloppier food (my DS2 was the same)

I would get her gradually used to thicker textures rather than just switching from purees to purees-with-lumps (which is basically what stage to jars are). Try porridge, weetabix (or does she eat these anyway))

Does she like raisins? These are good for getting them used to chewing and most babies won't object because they are sweet!

If she gags, do you stop giving it to her??

Cos babies gag so that they wont choke. It is different to choking. Both my dd's gagged when given lumpier food until the got used to it. Then they were fine. I assumed it was normal.

What have you tried for finger foods??

thanks for all your messages, if she just gags once i try again but if she gags more than once i stop. i've tried her on cereals but she gags and then refuses to eat.

i have tried her on raisins but she tries to swallow them whole and ended up choking!!

i have tried her on my own food, but its a very differnt consistency to the jars, much more grainy. again she will try it but once she realises they are different she refuses it.

with children you have to persevere to get them to try something new. For in stance, I was offering my DD2 pieces oforange two or three times a week, and she would taste it each time, then after about 8 months she finally ate a whole orange!

Gagging is totally normal. It's part of the learning process, and not something to unduly worry about.

Raisons may stick in the throat, but they are too small to choke. You could cut them in half if you think your dd would find that easier.

At 14 months if you are sure there is no physical reason for her to need smooth food I'd be tempted to get tough, no more jars of slop, home mashed or nowt. start with a smooth a mash as you can get and gradully firm it up rather than adding lumps.

would "this" be worth a try?

As hippmummy says, just go for thicker textures rather than inconsistent lumps.

If you are really concerned you can ask your GP to refer you to a feeding clinic - usually run by Speech and Language Therapists with physio/ot/nutritionist. Ours told us just to feed finger foods (my ds was much older) and it has worked - he is just a lazy obstinate eater!

Good luck

I think the problem is there is such a massive jump between stage 1 and stage 2 jars. My two had a mixture of jars and home cooked stuff and I think that helped especially as the homemade purees were never as smooth as the jars, it just isn't possibly to get some things that smooth at home. Rather than going straight for lumps, have you tried making a risotto, mashed white fish or salmon with mashed potato and mashed veg (or similar) and cheese, tiny bits of pasta cooked so it is very soft with a cheese and tomato sauce - that sort of thing? Those are the things my two really took to when they moved from purees.