When DO You Stop Pureeing?

[highlander]

I've always been determined that food will not be an issue with DS (15mo). He's a great little eater - but everything still has to be pureed. It's not totally smooth, but whenever I try to introduce a bit of lumpiness (you know - so that the separate food groups are recognisable) he just spits it out and wont eat. I know he can chew - fruit, toast etc - but I'm getting a tad concerned that I'm approaching this all wrong, especially after seeing the House of Tiny Tearaways last night. I'm horrified that DS will still be on puree when he's 2!!

Do I just stick with it and keep occasionally trying lumpy food? A big problem is that DH and I eat after DS has gone to bed as DH is rarely home before DS's bedtime. Thus, DS isn't getting scraps to try from our plates.

You eat with your ds, the ou dh can have his when he gets home. That way your ds will get to see what adults eat. Do you eat lunch together?

You could maybe try him with chunks on his high chair of things like pasta, boiled veg, chips, a bit of a messy one but beans, chunks of cheese etc etc. Then let hime feed himself whatever he fancies. He will play with it, he will through it on the floor and he will make a right mess, but it's all completely normal. Eventually he will get the idea. With regards to your scraps, you could always save them until the next day and your ds could have them then.

how about adding to his fruit and toast a few peas, sweetcorn on it and then add other vegetables chopped small, cheese cubes and let him finger feed himself.

He won't starve himself and could you maybe have a little snack while he is eating so he sees you eating.

Eat with him.

Introduce finger foods as then he knows they are lumpy; when it's on a spoon he probably expects it to be mush.

We used to leave a few of the same things we'd mashed - broccoli, carrot etc - whole so that it was a familiar flavour/colour but alternative texture. Also putting bits of bread in a lumpy "soup" for him to scoop out. ds refused things like pasta for ages and now I wonder if it was tied in with his sensory issues which have subsequently been identified.

Eating together, at the weekends at least, may make it more interesting for him.

littledonkey - you have hit the nail on the head!!!!! You genius!! He'll happily munch on finger foods (he's very good about trying stuff), but if it's on a spoon, he clearly expects mush.

We've always eaten lunch together, but DS has recently decided that he's not hungry at lunchtime. He'll trough a few morsels of fruit, but anything else he just turns his nose up at. And he goes berserk if he's in his highchair but not hungry.

Excellent suggestions about peas etc.

I've always done as Furball suggested, worked for us until recently. ds lived off finger foods for quite a while until he learned to use a spoon himself. Now all the kids eat one meal and we eat a different one.

DD was like that with lumps at first - all spat straight out but I persevered first with lumpy puddings e.g. organix apple with apricot pieces (never been much good at making homemade "slight lumpy" food!) and since she was so keen to get her pudding she eventually took to them. Once she took to her lumps gradually replaced puddings with fresh fruit or stewed apple etc.

i stop pureeing as early as possible! by about 9 months max i expect them to be eating food that i may have cut up V small, and mashed together with a fork, maybe with a little xtra gravy / sauce / water / milk dep on meal to make it runnier

I do what the others suggest - eat with the boys and DH has his dinner later - I'll often make myself a small snack or a coffee to have while he's eating so we still get to sit down together.

I believe that if you try to make their normally pureed food a bit lumpier they will reject it without question, whereas if you introduce something totally new they're more likely to give it a go. dd was on finger foods at barely 7mo. Once she'd tackled rice cakes and roasted root veg and toast she was off. Pasta shapes were v popular too, not the "baby" ones but fusilli or spirals. As were berries-raspberries and bluberries, blackberries etc. I'd put them on her tray and stay close by to pat her back if needs be, which was often in the beginning. She's been eating the same food as the rest of us since 9-10months just cut up small.