Help - my 8 month old refuses to eat anything but stage 1 puree

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We are now at the stage where my 8 mth old should be on 3 bottles and 3 meals a day. Problem is she hates anything that is slightly textured (i.e stage 2 foods).

I really want her to start eating chicken and lentils and more veg - I've tried disguising it within the pureed stuff but she always detects it and then throws the whole lot up.

I have now had to put her back on 4 bottles a day as she was waking up every 2-3 hours and refusing to go back to sleep - obviously hungry.

I know she could change at any point but I'm worried I'm doing the wrong thing by increasing her bottles and continuing with the really pureed food which is mostly made up of fruit.

Any advice would be gratefully received. Sorry for the long winded note - I am yet to master the abbreviations!

the gag reflex makes her throw up the food

you shouldn't panic, this is different to choking

have you tried her with food that she can pick up and feed herself, just dump it on the highchair tray and let her get fistfuls of it

I've given her bits of bread, toast and rice cakes etc...she tends to just pull them apart and chuck them around. I don't understand why she's gagging on the other food though...

Agree with others as dd was same with textured baby food or any homemade stuff but liked finger food- toast, soft pear were popular and gradually got into it . Fwiw I don't think she was comfortably onto 3 meals a day til she was over one.

the problem with purees is that they don't teach a bab to chew food. they tend to almost suck it off the food and down, like a thick drink

so when you introduce a puree with lumps in they do the same thing and then gag. they don't know if to suck or chew.

so i would definitely second the idea of offering finger foods. I often do a dinner of finger foods, followed by a spoon-fed dessert for example.

it's also normal for a baby to gag. some do it more frequently than others, but it is the mechanism that stops them choking, so don;t be too worried if she gags on some finger foods.

sorry, to answer your other question, she is gagging on the lumpy purees because she is sucking on it and then the lumps are triggering the gag reflex, which doesn't happen if she is in control of what is going into her mouth and she is chewing it first

Thank you all for your comments - I hadn't considered she really doesn't know how to chew and is basically drinking her purees. Ok, finger food it is!