10m old hates to touch food, please help!!!

[Chandra]

Well, whatever edible he touches (don't know yet how he can differenciate between edible and no edible things) he just looks in horror to his hands. I can not say that his face isn't really funny when he does that but... it has been imposible to introduce any finger foods, the things he put in his mouth are very reduced as well: his finger, my nose, the bottle, a spoon, a rattle and his all time favourite, a sock... any suggestions are highly welcomed,

My daughter's always been fussy about the 'feel' of things too. She's 15 months now and it is better than it was but she still squirms away from anything cold and wet or slimy feeling. I found warm and dry foods were the best - bits of boiled potato or potato waffle, dry lightly cooked toast or even dry bread, biscuits and dry pasta. I always found it infuriating that she'd pick up a soggy stick from the ground and put it in her mouth but she wouldn't touch a bit of toast with any kind of spread on it! Weird ...

My dd is exactly the same (20 months) - infact it went through a phase where all she would eat would be fishfingers, potato waffles, crips, choclate. She hated anything slighty wet - cooked pasta, any kind of fruit and veg etc. She is getting better now - esp. as she can use a spoon. Infcat yesterday she had some of her daddy's chile. I think they just come right - you can't reason with them when they are that small. I guess just keep trying with food that has a range of textures. Aslo try eating all togther.

My ds was exactly the same - in fact one of his first words was 'icky'. He learned to eat with a fork by the age of one, and gradually learned to tolerate getting his hands dirty. Don't regret that your ds puts less in his mouth, my dd is a little 'hoover' compared to her big brother, and takes a heck of a lot more supervising as a result. She can also go through several changes of clothing a day, whereas ds could wear the same outfit for a week. So a cleanly baby is a good thing, IMO!

I feel a bit confused now as I was expecting this to be a short term problem, but after reading your postings I see the problem is here to stay.... on the bright side of things, yes, he is a very clean baby (his clothes are so clean at the end of the day that I need to smell them to know they have been used).

Do you believe that if I introduce far more non edible textures like wet sand paper may make him more willing to touch a piece of toast? or I may try to put a piece of hard bread between his toys so he could get used to texture before realising it is food? God!!! what am I saying???

Does he eat well in general? If so, I really wouldn't worry. Just keep giving him the opportunity to explore and to feed himself, without winding him up by offering things you know he dislikes.

Well, he is becoming very fusy, he sometimes rejects even mashed foods, so I am a bit concerned because he ends up drinking a huge amount of milk.

I believe he is miles away of being underweight but it worries me that he is becoming a milkaholic (if that is the correct spelling)

Perhaps you need to be a leeeetle bit tough, and not give him extra milk to compensate?

yes, I'm sure that will work (today he didn't wanted to have lunch before nursery and had to eat whatever it was for tea). He finally took a piece of bread and put it in his mouth!!! peer pressure or hunger? I don't know but I was so happy!!.

Hooray! It generally evens out in the end, and we mums tend to get more upset than the baba. If he's hungry he will eat, and he'll feed himself when he's ready.

(She says, utterly placidly, and hiding the patches where she tore her own hair out, worrying about her ds's eating )

My daughter, who will NEVER usually touch bread, especially with anything on it, the other day, on her grandma's knee, downed a cheese sandwich, thickly spread with butter ... Needless to say, she hasn't repeated it for me ...