10 month old won't eat lumps

[BellaZoCh]

My 10 month old is fussy with his food. In terms of flavours he's not at all, hell eat almost anything, but he has trouble with textures. I've been doing a combination of traditional weaning and BLW. He does very well withbpurees/finely mashed food (for example the 7 month jars/pouches), but if it's got too many lumps it goes in and comes right back out again. With finger foods, he can manage foods that dissolve; like those carrot puffs, or baby crisps, wafers, melty buttons, etc. Also peas and sweetcorn because they go down whole basically. I offer him plenty of soft food, but even banana he won't swallow unless I've mashed it finely for him.

Has anyone else's little one been like this? I always thought my daughter was hard to wean but actually looking back she was perfect. She was eating most food, with a completely BLW diet by this point. My 10m old does have a "mild tongue tie" which the TT specialist said wasn't work treating as it won't likely have any future effects on him (he was 5 months then), and he has a high palate which I've been told might cause teeth over crowding and need for orthodontics in his future but wasn't told it would affect eating. Although I'm wondering if those 2 things are having an impact some how. He only has 2 teeth but my daughter was eating more food than him with just 2 or 3 teeth so I don't think that's the issue.

Hoping someone can give me some advice, reassurance, or a sympathetic ear ☺

Thank you!

I read upto "had mild tt".

This was exactly our experience with DS. Couldn't wean properly, woke regularly and had speech and language therapy. I'd look into having it divided

Hi, my 10 month old is exactly the same. Cant seem to get him to consistently eat more textured food. Sometimes he will eat the baby pasta in sauce then other times he just spits it out and I have to feed him a pouch to get some food in him

he too has a high palate but no tongue tie. Have you had any success in feeding since you posted? Or anyone else got any ideas?

Thank you. Did you have your sons divided and did it make a big difference?

Hi NewMummy. It's so frustrating isn't it. He hasn't made massive progress to be honest although I do feel like there may be a little bit more effort on his part. He has been trying more things, but I find I have to give him one or two things at a time (I can't give him a full a plate of food for him to help himself to for example, he'll just shove all of it in, spit some out, shove more in, repeat 🤦🏼‍♀️) I also have to make them very small pieces otherwise the same happens. So instead of sandwhich fingers, it's more like fingertips! 🤣
But yeah he's still pretty much on a puree diet right now. I plan to speak to the HV about it at his 10-12 month review if I ever get a date for it

I’m seeing HV this Monday so I will talk to her and let you know what she says. He’s starting nursery in sept so want to make sure he will get enough food in him. I know they won’t let him starve but they can’t give him one on one attention and he’s so hit and miss with what he will feed himself I worry he will look like he’s not hungry when he is

OK thanks! Would be good to hear what they say. I jave heard though that being at nursery really helps. They all eat together so seeing other babies eating at the same time can have a good impact on feeding and eating habits! Mine isn't starting nursery he'll be with family while I work so I'm hoping he just picks it up himself. Today he did manage a ready meal for a 10 month old with lots of lumps, including rice and peas! Ate the whole thing, I was astounded 🤣 I think he's having a growth spurt as he's been demanding more milk too, but hoping it stays after this spurt!

I literally could have written your post as I have a 10 month old who is funny about lumpier textures. Totally fine with toast, strawberries, puffs, but as soon as it's rice/mince meat/chicken in a mushy dinner but lumpy he does a weird shiver as if he's repulsed by the texture and spits it out or does swallow but gags it up again.

I'm just trying little and often to get him used to it. And trying with my own meals more often too as I find the pouches (even if they say "lumpier" or 10month +) are a little smoother than I'd like him to be taking at this stage.

I've read it's quite normal at this stage for them to be freaked out by textures and even giving them different bumpy/lumpy things to feel with their hands can help normalise it for them.

He did a weird shiver at a paint brush texture the other day and I just left it with him to get used to it and now he's not freaked out by it 😂

Ah Bella glad he ate a full meal! My son ate half a Thai curry with noodle pouch yesterday with decent noodle chunks so we have a bit of progress.

I hope nursery does help, you can’t help but worry about them 😂

scooby, sounds like perseverance is the key then, keep trying and they will gradually get used to it. It’s just so weird when they will grab toast, puffs etc yet in meals with meat, pasta etc it freaks them out!

other option is he just grows up on yoghurt! Eats that by the bucketful!!!

Hi! I saw my health visitor today and mentioned the food texture issues. She didn’t seem surprised at all, she said just keep trying and he will get used to it. It’s a new thing for them really having to chew and the feel in their mouth. She said when he’s hungry he will just eat it. I mentioned that if he doesn’t eat it I give him a pouch instead as I don’t want him to be hungry. She said fine as he’s still under one but he will take it, most probably at nursery when they all copy each other

so I’ll just keep trying, he’s starting nursery in 3 weeks so I’ll just hope that’s a turning point. Am a bit fed up throwing food away as tried salmon and mashed potato on his tray today and he tried a bit then got upset. Even if I mushed it and tried him with a spoon he was having none of it, so he had a pouch he wolfed down. He’s had salmon and potato or sweet potato as a purée and liked it so it’s not that he doesn’t like the taste

I’m going to drop his milk after his 2nd nap next week and see if that helps aswell so he’s hungrier

Thank you for getting back to me. Good news that she didn't seem concerned! It's so frustrating I know, I guess just keep offering, hopefully nursery will help. I was convinced mine COULDN'T eat, and there was some sort of problem or physical reason that he couldn't swallow food if it requires much chewing ... then he stole a maryland cookie and ate the whole thing, without wasting a single crumb 😑😂 so now I know he CAN, he just doesn't!
Just got to keep persevering!

A cookie?! 😂😂
maybe we just bring them up on cookies and yoghurt 😂😂

That was exactly like our experience. DS could but found it hard with the tt so didn't.

@BellaZoCh
hello, I appreciate this is a very old thread, but on the off chance you may see this, did your little one make any progress please? How are you getting on?

I am in the exact same position with my 10 month old, most textured foods he projectile vomits back up again, along with the whole contents of his stomach (hummus, baby pasta, avocado, mash potato, mince beef). He can manage weetabix, cheerios, melty puffs, mash banana and thick Greek yogurt, and purées and 7m pouches.

He had a tongue tie that was missed at birth but snipped at 12 weeks, unfortunately his inefficient breastfeeding latch left him with a high palate, which I have read can make solids difficult, but I’m really lost with what to feed him. He starts nursery in 2 months and is breastfed still and refuses a bottle, so I really need him to eat food better than he does.

Our gp has referred him for speech and language therapy to try and help, but a bit lost for what to do in the meantime.

On the off chance you see this, thank you in advance!

Hi there, how did you and your little one get on after? I have a 9 month old in the exact same situation..... missed severe tongue tie at birth and had it lasered at 3 months along with physio and feeding sessions. All was going well until i introduced the lumpier textures.... now everything comes straight back up again!

@NHRJA hello! Sorry to hear you are going through this too, I remember being in the thick of it back in January and feeling absolutely helpless and so worried, it was such a stressful time.

Fortunately it had improved massively, probably not until around 13/14 months though. There are still textures he doesn’t tolerate well, but he will spit them out now rather than vomit them (generally it’s mash type food, mash potato and rice if it’s a bit dry). He’s able to tolerate most other foods now completely fine, I think the tongue tie may have been related to be honest. He did also have very enlarged tonsils that were removed in July, but the food situation had improved before then so really can mostly put it down to him just getting more practice with chewing and swallowing, and getting used to more textures. I am hopeful he will one day manage mash potato!
I know it feels impossible now but it really did improve with time.

we did have a call with speech and language at the time and they said because he could tolerate some lumpier textures, it was quite unlikely to be anything wrong with his chewing and swallowing. They also said to try and focus on giving him majority foods he could tolerate, as vomiting that heavily could cause negative associations with food which we really didn’t want at that age.

Sending you lots of strength as I remember how dark those days felt!

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm going to bring him back to the craniosacral therapist who discovered the tongue tie as I feel the two are linked. She did oral work on him at the time and had said he may need more. I am so angry over the lack of attention given to diagnosing tongue tie in babies. It causes the world of problems and it's just dismissed!

@NHRJA no problem at all, it’s definitely worth a try. I completely agree, my son had the most horrendous reflux, sick 15-20 times a day from 4 weeks old, but because he was gaining weight well they just ignored all my asks for help and told me it’s a laundry problem for me and he’ll grow out of it. He was breastfed and had the most shallow latch, caused by the tongue tie, but being my first I had no idea as it wasn’t painful. Thank god for a breastfeeding drop in group I went along to on the off chance that helped me get it diagnosed.

Really hope things get better for you and your little one