Worried that ds won't go back to healthier dinners now he wants finger food.

[Looby34]

In the last week, ds 9 months has started turning his head away and crying when I put him in his high chair to try and feed him.

Up until this point I had been giving him meals such as salmon, mash, carrot and peppers, or mince, tomato, parsnip and sweet potato etc - all home cooked and I had been making the texture more lumpy as the weeks went on. He only has two teeth at the bottom (front) with a few more coming through at the top (front). I had also been giving him rice cakes, bread sticks, green beans etc - which he could eat himself.

I don't really know what to do now he won't take the 'proper' dinners. I don't see how he can manage on the odd rice cake etc - and he hasn't got enough teeth to be able to eat little sandwhiches etc. To add to this, when I first gave him cheese and egg, he was sick, so the hv has said to leave this until he is one. So I can't give him these - and I'm going to leave off butter for the minute too - so buttered toast is out too. He does manage yoghurt and his formula OK so he isn't dairy intolerant.

I'm getting a bit stressed about all this because my dd (now 3) was easy and just ate whatever I gave her.

I'm sure this is pretty common but like everything with ds - it's more complicated than dd !! I'd really appreciate some tips on what to give him and whether this will pass - so he can have the finger food, but also the more substantial meals I had been giving him as well.

why would you leave out butter? if he can take yoghurt and formula, then surely he can have butter?

finger foods is not limited to rice cakes or toast

steamed vegetables, pieces/ chunks of meat and fish, meat/chicken balls. fish balls.

pasta with a sauce

a chunky shepherds/cottage pie can be eaten with fingers

thick bread /toast fingers dipped into soups/ hoummous etc

you will be surprised at how much babies can eat with onyl a couple of teeth,their gums are v v hard

Can you try letting him eat the more substantial food with his fingers? DD ate everything on your list with her hands when she had no teeth, so (say) roasted sweet potato, mince with a fairly stiff mash, chunks of salmon, roasted peppers and steamed carrot should all be fine.

Babies' gums are really hard - they don't need teeth to eat sandwiches, etc.

I'd agree with just plonking the food in front of him and letting him pick it up and eat it as he wants. You can dig a few spoons into things as well as see if he will eat from a spoon if it's under his control.

As Lulu said their gums are pretty tough, so pasta with sauces, fish pie with bigger lumps of fish, beef stew. Try googling BLW sites for recipe ideas.

dd is 10 months and as we did baby led weaning she eats everything with her fingers. She eats pasta with a variety of sauces, this evening had fish cake with broccoli, peas and sweetcorn, last night had cottage pie. Try giving your ds whatever you would have made anyway but let him do it himself.

btw dd has only recently acquired 2 teeth and has been scoffing roast chicken dinner since she was 7 months (see my profile pics)

Ds2 wont really entertain a spoon at all (unless its loaded with yogurt) but will try and use a fork to spear food.

Other than that, we just chuck everything onto his highchair tray. Last night was bacon joint, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, potato and tomatoes. He ate the whole lot (messily!)with his hands. Spag Bol is the same, and tuna pasta bake. He has a wonderfully rounded diet, but just feeds it all to himself.

If DS wont take it off the spoon, just dump the food onto a tray and let him use his hands. Leave it really chunky. He'll love it.

oh, and he has just got his 4th tooth through (he's 12m) and been doing this for weeks. Their gums are really hard as the teeth are underneath and they can chew really well. When he does struggle, he just sticks a finger in there to help break it up as he chews.

What everyone else said. It IS messy but IMO you have to go through a messy stage at some stage, and by a year or so, dd was much less messy than friends who were just starting to let their kids feed themselves. We load up sticky porridge on a spoon and 8mth ds feeds himself too (and picks it up directly, but he likes the spoon). He has no teeth either but manages all sorts inc. apple (dd had no teeth til she was 9 or ten months either!).

Thanks - I didn't realise how much they could manage without many teeth.

We don't have a high chair tray which is a bit of a pain. We bought a Stokke Tripp Trapp like my daughters as we like the idea of pushing him right into the table. Unfortunately he lifts his feet up and pushes against the table and the chair nearly tips backwards - so we can't leave him even for a second. I have a good mind to complain to Stokke as I can't be the only one this happens to !!??

We don't have a kitchen table and as we have a wooden dining table we can't get one of those sticky mats that he can't rip off so I guess I will have to sit with him the whole time while he eats as if I take my eye off him he will swipe the mat and all the food onto the mat on the floor.

PS Lulu mama - I know finger food isn't limited to rice cakes and toast - thanks.

It was the fact that he didn't have many teeth - which I did say in the op.

I felt anxious enough to post on here asking for advice so am grateful for all the helpful comments.

Hmm. How about getting a wipeable tablecloth, and just putting his food straight on to that?

Does her eat at the same time as you? I think sitting with children and eating at the same time is a useful habit anyway, if you can manage it, as it teaches the social aspect of mealtimes, and they'll often want to copy what you eat anyway.

It's a bit of a leap of faith to think about what they can eat with no teeth - seeing a 7-8 month old dd make very short work of roast chicken was quite an eye-opener for my family!

I always sit with dd for her meals and find it's helped our whole family take more time over eating. Ds now sits for much longer at the table and eats more because we're all there waiting for dd to finish anyway. DD is sooooooooo refined she insists on shovelling her food from a bowl not the tray so I eat one handed and hold her bowl at an angle so she can get at her dinner - so much for blw being less effort

Think wipeable table cloth may be the best way to go. Thanks.

Dh, dd and I always eat together at 5ish. I had been feeding ds at 4pm but I will give him a snack mid afternoon to keep him going and feed him / give him some to pick up himself at the same time as us. We all had turkey and 3 bean fajitas tonight and we managed to give ds some and he took some pieces of turkey himself so I think eating together is a good idea.

You'd think being a second time Mum I'd know all this but ds is very different to dd and it's like learning everything over again .

Mine the same. Ds is the faddiest eater known to man, dd will eat anything (including mud, fluff, tissues, wet wipes and anything else unsuitable that she grabs). I feel like I'm starting all over again with her

Teeth doesn't matter.My dd has also only 2 bottom front ones and they only half way through.She is happily eating raw(not very)ripe pear.
I like Natt82 idea.Try it and see what happens.Good luck and don't stress yourself-babies tend not to starve themselves!