When does baby "eat what you eat"?

[Zil131]

At DS's 8 month check the HV told me DS should be "eating what you are eating", and that I should throw Annabel Karmel away...

DS is now one and still loves pureed mush and pureed fruit; and anything with any kind of lump (e.g pasta, fruit cubes etc) will still get picked up, squeezed, and thrown on the floor; or if it makes it to his mouth, it then get's spat out; then we have tantrums till the mush / sweet stuff comes out. I eat with him, I try not to get stressed, I don't offer endless choices of stuff to be refused; just what we are having; then a mush option.

I have tried 2 phases of "if you don't want it then there is nothing else", based on the "they won't starve themselves" logic. However, it seems my son's fear of the unfamilliar / stubborn streak, means he will starve himself.... After 5 days of picking at stuff he didn't want, he was weak and sick, so my Father fed him 6 youghurts in one go and told me to go back to mush!

I'm presuming that he's simply not ready for pizza slices yet.... Anyone else back me up here??

6 months

Baby can BLW from 6 months

The thing is, although normal food is perfectly suitable for babies from 6 months (barring salt and higly processed stuff) some babies just prefer smooth food, and it sounds like your DS is one of those babies.

Continue doing what you are doing, eat together, offer the same food as you are having, and then also give him what you know he will eat.

By the time he's ten it won't have mattered whether he was eating purees or normal food at a year old.

aw don't worry
Carry on giving him sloppy stff but offer toast, bread sticks, chunks of bread at the same time
Try pasta , you can get small pasta from boots, or spaghetti hoops etc and see if he likes that
He will get there eventually

things like mashed potato, with or without cheese, shepherds pie too go down well at the age as it is mushy but also 'proper food'.

Do what you feel is right and ignore hv. Baby led weaning is fine, purees are fine, they should have a bit of texture by 9 months, but most of all make sure it is fun for both of you anf don't get stressed about it.

Try giving him the 'mush' with things to dunk in it like big pasta tubes, chunks of cheese, toast, broccili, carrot sticks.

Then just leave him to it.

If he is eating well and enjoying his food then fine. Some babies are feeding themselves by this age, some aren't. Tis no big deal. I'm really anti-mush myself but parents and children are different.
At somepoint he will need to learn to feed himself so you could try him with some finger food perhaps for snacks when he is not so hungry.

My DS is 13 months, and we are finally at a stage where I feel confident I can go out for lunch and there'll be something on any menu I can order for him.

But eating what we eat - well, theoretically yes, but practically no. I'm still cooking up batches of AK meals and stuffing them in the freezer - it just takes the stress out of it for me. And DD (3) eats those things too. I think they eat much more healthily this way than they would if suriviving off the crap random items I end up feeing myself and DH.

Go by your instinct, and not by what your HV says.

Tell the HV that you are doing baby led weaning. You are being led by his preference for mushy food

Mine have loved their mush too, just moving onto 'crushed' food now at 11 months. What I called 'fake' lumps went down better, ie. small pasta, soft peas, in a completely smooth sauce.

My son is 3 yrs old and still doesn't often 'eat what we eat'. He eats 2 hours earlier than us, for starters, and he doesn't like strongly flavoured or spicy food, which we love. Don't feel like you have to force the issue. Introduce your child to lots of different foods and see how you go.

DS was about 12 mths. He was mush-weaned, btw!

My ds1 never progressed from pureed food. Became really fussy and stopped eating most things altogether. With hindsight what I ought to have done was offer finger foods for tea each day. By then he'd have had a good lunch not to mention breakfast / snacks etc, so I wouldn't have had to worry about him going hungry.
Any chance you could adopt a similar approach?

Mine will be 7 months next week and has been eating what we have from the start of weaning (6 months) she gets on better with some things than others, no teeth so not good with meat but she likes a good suck of it.

Oh Ms Mattie that is the same here. We live on sloppy, spicy food and dd (3) will only eat plain food all seperated out, not mixed and no sauces. We're doomed. We will never eat together.

Sympathise because had a similar problem with my DS (now nearly 3). Ate really varied healthy diet at the puree stage but i had real trouble with lumps. It lasted a good few months but eventually won him over with the foods he loved (mainly fruit and veg). At one point I felt like the only mother complaining about my baby eating fruit and veg but that really was all he ate! He is still not good with meat but he is nothing like he was.

ime, 6.5 months for non salted, non garnished food, so no curries etc. cheese, toatst, salad bits, egg etc
8.5 months my kids were having curries from my plate.

id try the sneaky mummy way - Puree the same food ever so slightly less and gradually introduce the lumps over a few weeks. Don't let him see you watch him (babies are past masters at picking up the slightist look) I always make a point of pretending to be occupied with something else completely if i think my lo is unsure about the food and ignore it completely- it seems to work (unless he actually dislikes it) give something to chew/ suck/ play with at each meal - rice cakes/ bread sticks/ - etc - esp at the meal he's hungriest and before you dish up ie while you're preparing the meal. And if he has an little older cousin / friend invite them round - they'll want to feed him and he might as mine did steal the other's food! ps I assume he has plenty of teeth? otherwise he might just be uncomfortable if they're just coming through? mine didnt like the lumps until he had a few teeth.

Thanks all!! I think next time round I may do the BLW thing, if they've never had mush maybe they'll never miss it!
I'm also beginning to think it may be inherited, I was incredibly fussy and would refuse to try anything new, as was my mother; and we both agree we tried really hard not to pass this on. Maybe it's an inherent lack of adventure...?? hmm