Nearly one year old preferring smooth purees again during teething

[Puddings2108]

Baby boy is just shy of 1 year and for the last 1 to 2 months has completely gone off food and even changed his eating habit. He is teething, only just cut his first tooth (bottom, front tooth) and i think there are more on the way judging by the lumps under his gums, so this is most likely why.

My dilemma is that he has gone from 100% baby led weaning from 6 months where he would only feed himself finger food (purees and a spoon were the devil) to now just wanting very smooth purees to be fed to him! Not only that, i have always given him home cooked food without salt and sugar etc but he refuses this now, and when we brought some Tesco baby food jar out of desperation he wolfed that down! Over 2 days that i offered it along side home cooked food he ate the baby food jar.

I really don't want to give him baby food jars especially when he is coming up to a year, he seems to enjoy and eat his porridge and yogurt for breakfast (only meal which isn't a struggle) so i am thinking it is the smooth texture he is preferring due to teething discomfort and if i should just puree his lunch and dinner for now?

But i worry that he will just want smooth purees and become lazt, when do i reintroduce lumps, finger food etc?

Any advice welcome!

It’s a long time ago for me but I was quite anxious about my little ones eating at that age so I didn’t want you to go unanswered.

I expect he has a sore mouth with the teething bless him and quite understandable that he doesn’t want pressure on his gums right now. I think you’re right just to give him what he’ll eat happily for now - much more important to fill his tummy with whatever is wanted. He won’t be on smooth soft foods forever I promise you, teething isn’t forever, children are curious and inquisitive and he’ll start to explore food again, and even find that gnawing on something textured can relieve the teething, back in the day babies were given rusks so they could help the teeth through 😄 they were actually very nice! But sugary… carry on with the soft comforting foods for now, he’ll be fine.

Thank you so much @ArielHawksquill for replying. It is a very anxious and stressful time, you just want to do what is best for them.

For lunch i blended up some chicken, veg and rice and it seemed to go down much better, granted still needed a bit of diatraction but he ate it as opposed to clamping his mouth shut. I offered some finger foods alongside it and he did munch on a potato wedge.

I think you are right he will eventually go back to exploring food again once he feels better, and if he is eating home cooked food rather then store bought then im happy 😊

That sounds like a great balance, he can fill up on easy food and also have the opportunity to try something more “interesting” alongside. Things change quickly with tiny ones. Enjoy your little darling 😊

I think it’s easy to think with your first that they start in solids and that’s it. It will be a linear process and you go from 6 months to one year just gradually increasing the amounts of food they have.

It’s not quite like that though. They can have set backs, especially through pain and discomfort from teething.

My DC2 once survived a few days in ice lollies when they had a virus.

How are they getting on now and what pain relief have you tried so far?

Hi @ExplodingSmittens

You're absolutely right, with your first you have all these perceptions and I'm fasting finding that babies are not predictable!

So blending homemade food down to a more puree consistency did go down better but still its a better unless its the mac and cheese! That and treats is the only thing he is eating without any tantrums, we trued giving him a dofferent store bought baby ready meal but he flat out refused.

I think i am just going to stick to my guns, give him table food, baby versions of pir food, blended down to a mashed consistency and then offer finger foods on the side, what do u think? I think the mac and cheese option should be few and far between and always as part of something else, what do you think?

We have tried Calpol and Nurofen gor pain relief, find the neurofen works the best.

I guess what I am a bit vonfused about is why he likes his food blended down now and why does he stick like to chop on his toys etc and he will eat baby biscuits, crisps, bites of our food like sandwiches etc....?

The chewing is probably making his sore gums worse… I gave a lot of cooling foods, Greek youghurt, rice, cucumber, avacado. Tomato or cheese wasn’t great to acidic..

I think offering one option only is a good idea. I would stop the baby biscuits and baby crisps though. Those crisps are UPFs and he’s a bit young for those

Your plan does sound good though. If Nurofen works, have you tried adding in a teething gel, like Dentinox, just before he eats?

And if he will have a bite of a sandwich, will he eat his own sandwich? My DC2 just wanted what we were eating so if we had sandwiches, that’s what we had to give her.

I would stop buying the store bought jars completely. Offer him a plate of different foods. One of those foods could be a blended safe food that you know he will eat and everything else I would give as the appropriately prepared solid.

Maybe meals were you can encourage him to dip would work well? A well blended pasta sauce that he can dip pasta into? Something else that he dips bread or breadsticks into?

Sorry OP but teething can last for ages and at around 1 you might be getting closer to toddler level pickiness that you didn’t have to contend with so much with a younger baby. I think you could have difficulty getting back to harder food if you just lean into him wanting puree. There are so many different aspects of solid food, the act of chewing helps they jaw development, they get used to how much they need to chew, how far back in their mouth they can hold the food without gagging. All you can do is offer the food though, you can’t make him eat it but definitely continue to offer!

Will he eat fruit? Blue berries, strawberries etc? Hopefully they’d feel nice on gums.

There are also some great recipes out there for different flavours of porridge for babies, I remember a carrot cake (carrot and warm spices) and a pina colada one (had pineapple) it might be worth playing with those recipes if porridge is something he enjoys.

Started feeding our 1yr old purée again after knowing he was hungry but refusing things in his mouth. Lasted a week.. until another tooth erupted.. back to eating anything and everything now.

As someone who 'teethed' at the same time as my own DC (wisdom tooth which pushed other teeth around so much so that within a year the gap between my front teeth closed! And I could fit 50p coin in there..)
Teething is not just sore gums. I had terrible taste too. And anything I ate was tainted.. I've always given my babies Calpol when they are miserable..
I have every sympathy

Oh gosh now I am a bit worried! 😟 Do you think he will forget how to chew/regress?!

I did BLW with him from 6 montha and he took to it like a champion, was chomoing on chicken drumsticks, corn cob, ribs, and all kinds of vegetables. He refused pureed totally and also refused to be fed. I never bought store baby food.

Then we hit 11 months and the first tooth and he just stopped touching his food, couple of weeks ago we were out and picked up this ready baby dinner, basically mac and cheese with some veg disguised in it, never did i think he would eat it, but he loved it, since then we have offered him to it a handful of time and he still loves it and the only thing he eats without causing a fuss, we tried a different flavour and he didnt like it. Now at the risk of making excuses the macroni is whole pieces and he chews that.

I have always given him the food that we eat just appropitately cut/seasoned for him, and i have been carry that on butter blending it to a coarse puree (i don't think i can ever get it to the store bought smooth-ness!) And he is better with it but still does fuss.

I really don't want to give him store bought food especially when i didn't at the beginning, the plan was always home cooked food and i am really conscious of the whole learning to chew hence why i did BLW. My baby has a cousin who was weaned on purees and never moves to lumpy or solid food and now has delaued speach at the age of 2.5 years and still only eats purees. Do you think my baby will forget how to chew if i give him blended food for a few weeks? I do give him whole foods alongside it, like the veg fingers, pastries, potato wedges.

@ExplodingSmittens the baby crisps we give very few and far between because as you say they are UPF's, its a little treat now and then.

But like @Crumpetring says, teething lasts a long time so when do i stop giving him blended food?

So much of child development is two steps forward one step back. Try not to worry too much, he will eat solid foods again just make sure you are still putting a selection of differently prepared foods in front of him and not just blending all his main meals because that’s his preference at the moment.

My first cut teeth at 4 months and honestly that was so much easier than my second who didn’t start getting them till 10 months plus 🫠

Did you read my post?
But in all honesty he needs food! How he gets food doesn't matter really. Worse case scenario is he's off feeding himself for (insert how long) he will eventually start up again. He won't go to school eating purées..
Said very gently. You are overthinking this..

I can remember when my eldest cut his molars. He cut all four in four weeks. Im fairly sure for the whole month the only thing he ate was "ice cream". I blended banana, milk, peanut butter, etc to make ice-cream

I gave liberal amounts of teething powders to my DC when teething - denting was good, Ashton & parsons amazing. It seemed to help with the pain.

Keep giving your baby a variety of foods at each meal. If he eats porridge, keep that gling. Lunch try sandwiches but also things he can gnaw on as well as dip food into. And evening meals you could give him some of the meal unblended as well as blended. He will eat, it will be fine.

My youngest was very stubborn. He refused to eat lunches at nursery for about six months and would only eat weetabix there. He ate his breakfast (porridge or weetabix or toast etc) at home and the same meals as the rest of us in the evening. Just would not touch nursery lunch. Took against it for some reason. Then suddenly he started eating it and was having double portions for a while and for a bit refused to eat everything apart from plain pasta at home in the evening.

No idea what happened. It baffled me and I really struggled at the evening pasta obsession to be honest. It Wasn't a sign of anything going wrong, just... toddlers. We moved through it.

If yours keeps gnawing and trying different foods and is happy (apart from the sore gums!) Then keep going with what you are doing.

@namechange62 i did read your post, thank you for the reality check, i know i can be overthinking it now. And i can absolutely imagine the pain and discomfort teething puts babies through and will do anything to ease that pain.

@OotontheRandan my son attends nursery 3 days a week and on a whole it seems he eats better there then at home. And it is very similar food they serve, so yes, totally baffling, but as you say toddlers are baffling!

I think i will just relax and let him guide me, i know some days will be good others not so but the key is to offer him a variety of goods both blended/mashed if needed and whole foods and the rest is up to him i guess.

Gosh does it get easier?!

I think your DCousin’s baby might be a different issue. It’s unusual for a DC of 2.6 years to still be on purées unless there’s a reason like Tongue Tie or ND.

@ExplodingSmittens i think your right, there are other factors with that particular child but then another cousin of my baby also had delayed speech and again she was still on purees well into toddler years and had to see an occupational therapist.

So for dinner tonight we had, tuna sandwich, cucumber, tomato and a few home made potato chips. I plated it up and put it in frony of baby, he went straight for the chips and was munching away on them, eventually he tried the sandwich too but the cucmber and tomato, things he once loved he just didn't touch. He also chewed things and dpat it backnout again, which he didn't use to do, i know he did eat some but it just doesn't seem nearly enough as when i spoon feed him. But i stuck to my guns and didn't offer an alternative.

Is it normal at this age to reject vegetables?

I think what you’re describing is fairly typical. Usually as they get more mobile they become more fussy for a while. I think it’s to protect them from eating poisonous things when their Mum is a bit further away although someone will probably be along soon to tell me otherwise

Can I ask how much milk he has each day and which type?

@ExplodingSmittens i have heard about the poisonous berry thing!

Sooo with milk, we tried to transition him to cows milk 2 weeks ago (11.5 months, to make it easier for when we go on holiday next week) he drank it fine but it gave him terrible constipation, to the point where there was blood in his nappy so we decided to stop it and try again in 6 months time. So currently he is on Cow and Gate Toddler milk and the constipation is gone.

He still hasn't really weaned off his milk, he has around 20oz on a day he has been good with his solids and 25oz on a bad day.

He had his 1 year review not long ago and is in the 50th percentile for weight so bang in the middle and has always hovered around that mark.

Ok so if he’s having that amount of milk it will affect his appetite. The recommended amount is 14 Floz a day between 10 and 12 months. Could you drop a bottle today?

It’s great that he was happy to try most of the food!

Just wanted to add that the recommended amount of milk drops to 10 Floz a day once he reaches 12 months so now is a good time to drop a bottle. In fact I’d drop one now then give him a couple of weeks and drop another.

Yep, that's been on the list to drop his day time bottles, he hasn't been well lately, cold, cough and the teething so we have been a bit lax but yes we need to reduce his milk intake and we can start doing that now.

@Crumpetring it was a relief to see him engaging and exploring the food again by himself.