Still on puree, cannot tolerate lumps

[Mosschops30]

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dd , a refluxy baby , didn't tolerate lumps until well past a year. Don't worry he'll help himself when he is ready !

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Mosschops, ds2 would not do lumps until well past a year. Finger food was fine, but anything "wet" had to be smooth. He would eat a huge variety of foods, but was v fussy about the consistency! From 12 months I very gradually increased the roughness of the texture of his food. By 18 months lumps were no problem, but things took much longer than with ds2.

Mosschops, my dd is 9 months and still on pureed food. She aets toast and rice cakes and anything she can pinch off her sister but not lumpy food yet.
I wouldn't worry about it and stuff anybody looking. Nosy bastards!

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My dd wouldn't eat anything with lumps in until past 12 months, no finger food either. I was getting a bit worried, but she gradually got used to it and by about 15/16 months was eating almost anything.

tbh I just pureed the food we had or made her own stuff. That way you can blend it a bit less every now and again to try it out. Still used the occasional jar though and yoghurt.

My ds was quite late getting teeth so couldn't chew things that well. When he came to us (at 10.5 months) he was eating 7mth baby jars but would spit out any lumps (pieces of carrot etc). He would eat things that are naturally fairly smooth, like mashed potato and everything else I just pureed in a blender for him. Once he got teeth he still wasn't keen on lumpy things in a runny sauce so I bought Finger Food by Jennie Maizels and he's been chomping away ever since.

If you can beg/borrow one of those small blenders it will get you through the next couple of months with much less stress.

Mosschops, what you have described is entirely normal in some babies. Please don't worry about it! The important thing is that your ds can take some finger foods and practice his chewing on those, eg the toast.

TBH, I always found the commercial jars were a bit of a choking hazard because they are mainly liquid but contain small lumps. It is far better to do your own food and try to thicken the consistency first, rather than going for runny food with small lumps scattered in it. Eg mashed potato is better - it can't just be swallowed, like puree, but it doesn't contain any unexpected lumps. You can gradually build up to thicker and thicker consistencies. Avoid lumps in runny food is my advice!

are you using jars (i only assume you may be as you want him to progress to 7month jars)

if so STOP!

use real food whizzed up..... you can then make it thicker and more lumpier gradually, rather than going from completely smooth 4 months jars to 7 month]

(if you 'must' use jar whizz the 7 month ones a bit, then gradually whizz them less and less)

I think your hv is totally right (although that hurts to say) .. don't understand why you think he'd starve .. he is capable of eating toast and rusks .. why can't he eat vegetables and pasta and yogurts

sometimes the hardest thing you can do is teach your child to do something new

I'm sorry but if he was refluxy or had a medical reason then he wouldn't be able to eat toast with his fingers

I really believe he's just manipulating you

and you are looking for a reason to get out of doing something you know you have to do

I had same problem with ds1 the hv advised me to grate things in his puree stuff initially with the tiniest grater holes adding just a few pieces and then gradually moving up.

I also gave him grated food when he had snacks too some of the time like grated carrots and grated apples and cheese, anything I could so he could get used to a different texture. I slowly and must add very slowly built him up to having lumps in his food like in veg soup.

Twiglett i think that;s a little harsh!

my ds is a lot younger, but he learned to eat solid food before 7mnth jars, and kept gagging til he was sick. It got to be a reflex, that as soon as he found a lump he would gag. He also did the same with savoury foods. I gave up for a few weeks, jsut let him have puree and finger foods. Then once he had forgotten about it, and we tried 7mnth jars and savoury again he was fine. He will get there ventually, don't feel pressurized into pushing him if he isn't ready.

DS is 14mo and still has pureed food. I cook it myself however, so it's not totally runny like the jars. At mealtimes he is very hungry and has neither the energy or patience to chew his way through an entire portion. He is very capable of solid food, chewing on scraps of our food once he has scoffed his own. He like to chew on either a biscuit or apples for snacks, but only really started doing this when his molars had completly emerged (13mo).

I wouldn't worry about it at all. Keep offering him the pureed stuff. He'll move onto more solid stuff when he's ready. Like you say, if you push him too soon you run the risk of him developing a food phobia and potentially not getting his full spectrum of nutrients. From a developmental point of view, you can't expect him to sit at the table for more than 10 mins, and it would take a lot longer than that for the poor mite to chew his food.

Be very careful of heeding the HVs advice - they are notorious for talking out of their arses when it comes to this sort of thing!

I would just echo what any of the others have already said, your DS will get there eventually. I used to get so stressed out cos my DS was exactlty the same - could cope with some finger foods but hopeless with lumps on a spoon. We just kept trying and eventually something just clicked (he was about 12 months or so I think) when he realised he had to chew! I think his gag reflex before that was too sensitive whereas now even if he tries a lump that's too big, he'll bring it forward and carry on chewing as opposed to puking everywhere!

I know it's easier said than done but try not to stress too much, after all you don't see any adults still on purees!! All babies get there eventually although some are just a bit quicker than others!!!

I started off introducing textures by mixing couscous with my purees and building it up from there. Might be an idea.