9 month old dislikes savoury food

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant]

As the title says. My (just turned) 9 month old is happy eating fruit, yoghurt and porridge but doesn't really eat more than one or two mouthfuls of anything savoury. She will sometimes chew on a crumpet or a little piece of toast but for the most part she's still all about the breast milk. Any tips encouraging her to enjoy vegetables, pasta, meat... anything savoury?! I've tried mashed food and finger food.. not a fan of being spoon fed but enjoys throwing the finger food off the high chair so neither option is great.

My first basically ate what was in front of her so this is new to me. Did a switch flick one day and your child just decided to enjoy food? Is it just a case of putting the food in front of her and one day she'll just try it and not throw it?

My second was like this. He liked carrot as they are sweet. I ended up mixing everything savoury with a little apple sauce or some other puréed fruit and gradually reduced the amount of fruit until he was just having the savoury food. Did a mix of spoon feeding and finger foods. He’s three now and still has a sweet tooth in a big way and loves milk. Not crazy on meals, more of a snack we. Eats a reasonable variety of things

I did consider doing that but wondered whether it would taste bad initially and whether she'd still not eat it 😂

You've had a lifetime to develop your tastes. She's barely existed on the planet more than the blink of an eye.

Just keep putting a wide variety of food out for her and leave her to it. Eat together. Model healthy eating. Let her muck about with it, it doesn't matter. Don't start dipping it in apple sauce and so on, it doesn't need to be a faff. Worry less and she'll eat things when she's ready.

This felt unnecessarily condescending, but thanks.

I'd add a bit of sweetness to whatever savoury food you want her to eat. My DC used to eat mashed avocado with banana at that age. Pureed rice and blueberries. Puree some pork in with some apple sauce or some chicken in with some carrot and peas and a dash of honey. No different from us eating chicken with sweet chilli or roast pork and apple sauce.

@FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant

This felt unnecessarily condescending, but thanks.

It's just advice. She's only 9 months old, she's got weeks of eating under her belt. She'll get there.

The best thing to do is not to stress about it. Offer the savoury food as finger food and leave her to it. Put a mat on the floor reserved for her food that you can reserve a max of 3 times. If she doesnt eat much no biggie as she still gets milk. But don't make my mistake. I offered fruit with every meal and not my 14 mo expects it! And will throw food to get it. Best to serve all components of the meal at the same time.

Mine liked sweet potato, carrot, and butternut squash but wouldn't eat anything less sweet than that, things like avocado and cucumber came later.

We did baby led weaning with my 21 year old up to age 3 she had a very sweet tooth and dh was very unconvinced this had been a good idea.. then it gradually changed. Now age 21 she eats a few sweet things but far prefers savory things.

I recall her loving olivies from a young age many of our peers were going "you give her olives?" Yes I did and still do 😄

I would just keep offering

No honey for under 1s as it can be a botulism risk i think?

Oh that is interesting. I'd have thought the boiled to death honey is safe. But safety guidance rules change all the time. Thanks for pointing this out.

Just don’t offer much sweet stuff. Of course, they will prefer sugary yoghurt (even natural sugar is sugar) to peas. But they don’t need to be eating a certain quantity of food at 9 months. They are learning how to eat. How to move food to the mouth, how to chew it and how to like all different tastes. You just offer mostly savoury stuff and accept that a lot of it will just get chucked on the floor. But eventually they will eat it. 9 months is still very young for eating much of anything.

Ours was the same - we just ploughed on and one day (at nursery) she just started tucking into a variety of food. Maybe pop a selection of crackers and butter, some fruit and crisps (or healthier) and hopefully she will tuck into… but yeh our baby was literally crap eating anything normal and it drove us nuts… hang in there