mashed food - when to stop blending?!!!

[lyndsey66]

My ds still likes his food mashed to a pulp!
He is 19 months old. He will eat snack finger food ok - but when it comes to dinner he spits lumps out, gags and his best dinner party peice is to pout and say "no, no, no".

Is this normal? Am I stunting his development by still mashing up his food?? How do I get him to eat food in its proper state?

Thanks wise mumsnetters xx

you need to do it gradually. How many teeth has he? I stopped blending(may mash a litle still) at ? 8 months

maybe also he doesnt like wet casseroley food. My nephew went through a stage where he liked dry non sauce ish food only

lynsey my dd is nearly 17mths and still likes everything fairly well blended, am trying to get her to take the chicken in short shreds, but she too will gag and spit it out like she never tasted it before. she a fussy one!
i am not too worried about it, shes starting to use the fork and spoon so if she gets the hang of those she'll soon eat it lumpy rather than mashed.

i am just happy she eats.

I agree with hermykne, what they eat is more important than how it's served. And if he's good at eating finger foods / snacks then his development isn't stunted at all. He'll come round to other types of food in his own time, it's like everything else, what one kid does at 8 months another might take twice as long to do. My dd is 17 months and has recently taken to eating slightly more textured food, but not greatly so and only if she's in the right mood (i.e. ravenous!). She's so-so with finger foods so long as they are relatively easy to manage. But I honestly don't worry about this so much as I worry that she eats so damned little of anything. So if he eats well I'd be v. contented if I were you.

I was starting to be concerned about this . My ds2 is 12 months and still cannot take lumps in his food - wont even eat 7 month jars due to the lumps - he is great with finger food though - toast apple etc. I am happy he eats though so I blend things fairly smoothly. i remeber ds1 was much better at it though and was eating lumps early on. I think it is more important what they eat not what consistency it is. At nursery they tell me that he manages only semi blended food but this have been known to make him gag and bring back his food at home - so I dont try much anymore and am happy to blend rather than have him lose his dinner!

stopped with dd2 just recently - she's 10 months with no teeth

started dd onsolids at 6 months and mashed where possible from then - but then she did have teeth! She never wanted sloppy stuff. I'd swap her eating lumps for maybe a sleeping baby or one who just ate without doing a wide-mouthed frogimpression

I guess they're all different!

Both my ds twins (now 26 months old) hated anything lumpy! Like your ds they enjoyed finger food and only when I started giving them whole foods (cut into bits) and using a fork properly did they eat proper dinners.

But if it was mash, it still has to be mashed properly, they hate lumpy bits! When I make them cottage pie they eat the chunks of veg and mince but the potato-carrot-swede topping has to be mashed to perfection!!!!

I think it is just a textures thing.

My little 9 month dd only has 2 teeth on bottom and some very hard gums at the top. I am so glad she likes lumpy food. She will eat mashed bananas with greek youghurt easily. In fact I have given her a chunk of banana and she pulverizes it herself.

She doesn't really like those hjar baby food anyway, creamed to bits is not for her. For instance last night, she had 3/4 of a whole grape, she ate it on those 2 front teeth looking like she was doing a pout all the while, but she ended up with bits she could swallow. There wasn't anyway we could take it away as she wanted to chomp on it all the time.

I guess you just have to give them food in chunks or interesting shapes and they will figure that if it will be eaten, they must bite it themselves. Make it interesting.

I guess the important thing is, to give them the food way they will eat it, squashed to bits or lumpy. It is another headache when they don't.:9

They willl tell you when to stop mashing they just start to reject it. My boy skipped the lumpy stage altogether and I was still pureeing at 12 months. He's now 15 months and has gone straight on to solids (approx two months ago)so the lumps stage was missed altogether. Your health visitor should be very helpful for all your babies feeding needs

She is 10 months old and likes lumpy food especially pasta and chopped vegetables in a cheese sauce. She also likes toast and fingers of cheese but is not interested in other finger foods i.e. carrot sticks, banana, they get stuck to her hands and then go straight on the floor.