Problem with 10 month old feeding

[squinny101]

My 10 month old dd does not feed herself. She does not pick food up and put it in her mouth. She does not gum toys or try and suck on anything apart from her bottle.

I have real problems trying to feed her anything more than a puree. She chokes a lot and can be sick really easily (she was a reflux baby).

The health visitor keeps banging on to me that she must have finger food but whatever I put on her highchair tray goes straight on the floor.

is this normal? my other dd (2)was practically cooking her own food at this age.

First of all, ignore your health visitor.

Have you seen your gp to rule out any discomfort in her mouth or throat? Does she have a lot of milk and is possibly just not that interested in food?

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting puree at her age. My ds1 (2) was disgusted with even the smallest lump until over age 1 whereas ds2 (7mnths) can polish off a cheese sarnie. I wonder if the fact that your two are so different makes it more of a worry.

she was a reflux baby so sometimes I wonder if she associates food with being sick. Although she never minds her botle.

She can have little lumps but anything like a tiny peice of toast which I can put on a spoon ends up with the most over the top gagging display I've ever seen.

She still does not sleep through the night and has to have milk, the HV has told me to cut the milk down but she will scream for hours on end and with two other children under 5 can get a bit tiring.

How about more slimey foods like noodles or pasta in little lumps? I still give my 2 year old pink cheese sauce (cheese sauce with salmon and spinach blended in) and green cheese sauce (with brocolli and peas) albeit over noodles or pasta or rice.

I think your HV has got you worried uneccessarily. If you are okay with night feeds then you can cut down and stop when it suits you. She's still only little.

I get those dramatic gagging reactions, often accompanied by hand scraping all food off tongue. Good job mums aren't over sensitive chefs.

My twin boys didn't have lumps until about 18 months of age, everything was very smooth until then. My dt1 would gag on mashed potato!! (and he was refluxy)

After that they were fine and are now great eaters.

My advice would be to relax and feed her purees, try the chunky stuff every few days (or weeks!) to see if she is ready

squinny, if she does have (say) an over sensitive gag reflex, maybe a speech and language therapist can give you some advice. There are some on here - I think moondog may be, but couldn't swear to it.

Is she still having very smooth purees? I used a potato ricer to add some texture, but no lumps.

Had the HV actually given you any useful advice?

I'd say keep putting it on her tray, and spooning it in. She'll get it in her own time.

Still stuck on puree at 10 months is a little unusual.

Keep offering finger foods like suggested and hopefully she'll get the hang of it.

Not putting things in her mouth at 10 months is also a little unusual.

Perhaps a speech therapist opinion would be good?

We have been referred to a speech therapist and have been told we can expect to wait up to six months for an appointment, by which time she will be way over 12 mths.

Last night for example she had chicken, potatos, carrots in a tomato sauce which I put through the blender, it had the consistency of mashed potato and she was OK with it. I followed it up with a yoghurt but put raisins in the yoghurt and she started to gag.

I put some raisins on the tray but she picked them up and threw them on the floor, I tried with a biscuit to guide it into her mouth which she sucked but then when I tried to let her do it herself it went on the floor as well.

The throwing on the floor is typical beahviour of this age and prob not food related - it's the "let it drop and watch it fall" thing that's fun.

Does she suck her fingers at all - dip them in yogurt and stand well back?

IMO as lumps in liquid tend to make babies gag the raisins in the yogurt will have made her gag as she was prob trying to suck the yogurt up wiht her tongue and found a lump (the raisin) floating towards the back of her throat and heaved.

Your best bet is to start offering her non-blended veg whilst still blending the meat? So she could have mashed broccoli & carrot mixed in with blended chicken? The texture of the mashed blended food could slowly be made stiffer until she has to chew a little.

And put her hands in her dinner for her at every meal? She may end up sucking the food off them and then make the connection between hands and food!

My ds (14mo) throws everything on the floor constantly still. I just make sure the floor is relatively clean and pick it up and give it back to him.
Also, I found that eating the same thing in front of him, and totally over emphasising how yummy it was really helped him to try things. Now when he eats brocilli he will make lots of "MMMMMMmmm" sounds. I do feel like an idiot doing it, but it works for us!