Home cooked food help!

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Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice. My LO is nearly 11 months old and up until now I have fed her on food jars, I really hate doing it but at the beginning she preferred that to my food so I gave in. I'm now getting a point where I want her to eat the same as the rest of the family but she is point blank refusing!! She eats half of what she would normally eat and then will just scream. Do I preserver or give in? Has anyone got any experience they can share?

Hi. I was in a similar situation with my dd. She'd eat the stuff out of the jar but wouldn't touch the stuff I made - regardless if it was solid or pureed.
The hv told me to just stop the jars and puree, full stop, and she'd eat. And she did. I reduced the amount of milk (ff and didn't ever drink that much anyway) and served dinner a little later than usual so she was really hungry.
Her first 'proper' meal was fishfingers that she won't touch now, potato letters and mixed veg. She ate the lot and we haven't looked back.
The difference is that ds ws there, happily tucking in; and dd just loves to copy him - this gave her a lead to follow.

I've try recreating the jarred food. Tonight it was fish fingers (without the coating) potatos, carrots and broccoli all mushed up together with a bit of parsley sauce. She ate a few spoons, then started pulling faces and then started spitting it out.

I am trying to feed her earlier so she is less tired and less likely to throw a tantrum but I might do it later so she's really hungry!!

She's on cows milk now and has about 8oz but only really has it to settle herself to sleep for a afternoon nap and at night. I will try cutting this down in the day too.

I'm not giving her any jars. Have a couple in the cupboard as back up, but I really don't want to give them to her. I'm just worried she'll go to bed hungry!

Sorry, I never answered your question.
I think you could try just stopping the puree and jars and only serving a range of more solid foods (anything that you'd normally eat - expect mess!). As long as she eats something, even if it's not a great deal, it's better than nothing. Try to avoid making too much fuss - positive or negative - and just let her get on with it. After a set time (20 mins, say), take it away and offer pudding. You could go down the route of 3 square meals a day or offer more snacks more often. With my dd, I found that trying to make her eat a meal at lunch and then another at teatime was getting us nowhere so I now just offer a platter of choosy bits such as couscous, pitta strips, fruit, cheese yoghurts, cold meats etc etc and then something more substantial at tea. For us this works better.
Hope it works out

One of my children did this. We started on purees, then used occasional jars for convenience. He then refused to eat anything but food from jars.

I am told the process by which they ? heat seal it caramelizes the food, so it tastes sweeter.

We kept trying to given him normal food, without success for several months. Eventually he expanded his repertoire, and eats fine now.

In hindsight now mine are older I would look back and tell myself to go with it - offer normal food for a day/few days, but if it's not eaten cut my losses. I'm not sure I would have listened to myself back then though. It used to drive me nuts.

Don't worry, it will pass, and this does not mean the start of a fussy eater.

It's the texture and neutral taste they have to get away from. Have you ever tasted the jars/pouches? Very tasteless once you get away from the fruit purees. I used them as emergency stuff but dd would only ever have the fruity ones. I tried the stage 2 stuff and really not nice.

So normal food will taste strange to her and will usually need more effort with chewing etc. she will learn so I would do as mumofboyo suggests and go cold turkey. Porridge in the morning and yoghurt are good easy fillers, and you could always give extra porridge last thing at night if she hasn't eaten much that day.

She's also getting to the age they like food separated rather than mixed up, might be worth a try.

Good luck, it's not easy, and remember she may well have been fussy even if you'd never used jars. DS is pfb and never had a jar. Fussy little whatsit is v hard to please!

I agree that persevering is really the only option. She's had several months of the jar food and it's all she's used to. It may take a fair while to alter what she will accept, but it's worth doing.

On a separate point, she's a bit young at 10 months to be having cows milk as a main drink. Under 12 months it should be formula (or breastmilk if breastfeeding) as her main drink.