9 month old is sick every time she is spoon-fed stage 2 type food...

[DawnAS]

Hi there,

I am looking for some advice.

DD is just over 9 months old and is happily working her way through various pureed foods and also loves snacking on various things, but mostly organix snacks, breadsticks and rice-cakes. She likes toast but I'm not sure how much she actually eats, but she sucks all the butter and marmite off.

She is very happy on her purees, but if I tried to spoon feed her anything with lumps, she is immediately sick and was started to get distressed, so we gave up on it.

But I'm now worried that she's going to be behind in her feeding and want to know the best way to get her back onto the lumps.

She has no teeth AT ALL and no signs of them yet. I've tried soft veg and just put them on her tray but she was sick with every bit she tried bless her, although she really wanted to try them and was desperately upset when she was sick.

I don't want her to be scared of food because it's making her constantly sick and I don't want her to lose weight either!

Any advice please?

Hi there

Am bumping this for you because I am having the exact same prob with my dd. She has been very poorly thou with a nasty cold so am hoping that it's just a phase. She is flatly refusing all puree's and wont even entertain the spoon coming anywhere near her.

I've tried just giving her finger foods but she'll only eat the rice cake and leave the veggies and everything else, even throwing them at me and getting very annoyed!

She's still taking her milk feeds so that's something but if anyone else can shed any light I'd also welcome some advice.

It's a minefield isn't it? And I think what turns the heat up is the HVs breathing down your neck about maintaining the centiles where weight is concerned. It makes you panic that they're not eating/drinking enough.

Hmmm... Let's hope that we get some responses soon!

liquid with lumps in is actually a really odd thing to eat, even when we eat soup we usually eat the lumps separately from the stock or juices. Why not simply have mashed food if you want to introduce more texture and let her feed herself as much as possible

Thank you witch - meant in the nicest possible way of course!

I might give that a go. I work Mon-Thur so may try it when we can give it lots of time, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and see what happens.

DD is having or was having mashed whatever I have cooked and has been for a while but has just recently started being sick whilst eating it and she had been quite good with her finger foods eating sticks of carrot etc. but since she's started being sick whilst eating she's really gone off of everything I give her.

I'm hoping that once she recovers from her cold she'll get back to normal and in the meantime I'll keep offering it along with rice cakes and pieces of banana and pear, the only foods she seems to want to eat!

ick1efeet, the only time (other than when eating lumps!) that my DD is sick is when she has a cold, so I'm sure that's the problem in your case. I just think that they get so bunged up inside because they can't blow their noses to get rid of it like we can, that they swallow all the mucus and it just makes them sick.

How old is your DD and does she feed herself with a spoon or just fingers? Just interested as I haven't given my DD a spoon to feed herself yet... We normally eat at different times to her so I would feel a bit strange I think, just letting her get on with it. Plus I'm concerned that she won't eat if I don't feed her and will lose weight...

Hi Dawn, she is 9 months and can't manage actually feeding with a spoon, she'll put it in her mouth sometimes but not really feeding herself as anything that was on it has fallen off on route! Mainly finger foods, ie rusks, ricecakes, baked organic snack things, but she was becoming really good with cooked veggies and pieces of fruit but that all seems to have gone to pot since her cold.

I think that you are right thou re the mucus cos she's also been sick quite a few times in the middle of the night after a bad bout of coughing. Bless.

Fingers crossed she recovers soon. Try not to worry too much about weight as long as your dd is taking milk feeds she's still getting everything she needs. I'm sure it's a phase and they will come around when they are ready.

I think my concern is that my DD's milk feeds have dropped down and now she takes around 21oz a day - which I know is still within the recommended amount for her, but she's never been a big feeder anyway. So while she's eating 2 jars of stage one puree at lunch and two at teatime (as in 1 Savoury and 1 Sweet), I know she's getting plenty, hence my worry about changing to something that she might not eat...

I tried some pasta twists last night with a cheese sauce. She tasted a bit and then just threw it on the floor. I was totally expecting that and so gave her a jar afterwards.

Maybe that's how I should do it. Try her with something first and then if she doesn't eat it, have a jar as back-up. Trouble is... she may get to know that is what I'm doing and so may not eat her food knowing that she will get a jar.

In all honesty though, I don't think she's that bothered about food anyway. She never ever cries because she's hungry, but she'll eat it if I give it to her, IYSWIM.

Maybe we should help each other through this stage!

Sounds like with your DD, it's definitely her cold so try not to worry too much. All my DD wants when she's got a cold, is her milk, so I think it's perfectly normal. Sometimes it can take a couple of weeks for them to recover aswell.

Sounds to me like she's getting plenty, well about the same amount of food and milk as my dd. Perhaps she's just not yet ready for stage 2 foods. I don't really use jars, although she loves Ella's Kitchen, I just pureed her food (veggies etc) but when she hit 6 months started mashing it instead and she had been fine with it until she hit 8 months and then started to refuse it and being sick, she's had this cold for 3 weeks thou. I think she's also teething, she already has 2 but I think some more are on their way.

I always offer finger foods first followed by the puree or finely mashed food, that way if she does gag on it the 'real' food does'nt come up as well.

She did quite well this morning but I dropped her morning bottle. She still feeds in the night and took a full feed at 1.30am so instead of giving her another milk feed at 6.30am when she woke I just got her up and gave her breakfast and she managed a couple of sucks on some toast followed by a reasonable amount of porridge.

Just wondering have you tried Ella's kitchen pouches? They are slightly more textured than the jars, ie. very small lumps. Maybe your dd will be able to manage these. I know that they are more expensive but they are closer to real food (well I think so) or maybe you could empty a stage 2 jar onto a plate and mash it with a fork to reduce the size of the lumps? Might be worth a try.

Also I tend to eat at the same time as my dd, although me and dh eat at different times to her I try to ensure that I eat something with her, even if it's a piece of toast, that way she can watch me chewing my food and hopfully copy me. They don't just know how to chew they have the learn it, so if she see's me moving my mouth and chewing she can copy it.

In terms of finger foods is there anything your dd with eat? I don't think we have to worry to much at this age if they don't eat finger foods I just offer a small selection at every meal and she eats, swishes, and mashes as much as she want's and sometimes eats, sucks, licks a little and I just follow it with a puree.

Is your lo still putting on weight? I don't have to worry to much as dd is huge!! 26lbs and on the 98th centile so if anything she has some reserves to fall back on!

Gosh - your DD is big compared to mine... She is only 16lbs 7ozs and on the 9th centile . She had dropped down to the 2nd centile when she was 12 weeks old as she was ill, but has finally gone up to the 9th and the paedatrician that we saw recently (nothing weight or food related) didn't bat an eyelid, so I'm taking that as a sign. She is obbviously just going to be dinky!

I have just been for lunch with an old school friend, whose Mum is an expert on this (she's qualified in it, so not sure what she actually does...) so she's going to ask her and get back to me!

Ellie will have organics carrot sticks, sweetcorn rings and rice cakes. She also LOVES breadsticks with philly. Both times I've tried veg, (very soft carrot sticks, brocolli and cauliflower) she was soooo excited to try them and eagerly put them in her mouth and then gagged and was sick. We cleaned her up and she tried again, still eagerly, but she was sick again. She will also eat toast with marmite, well, she'll suck all the butter and marmite off anyway!

I will try the Ella pouches, I'll get some this weekend. Do all Supermarkets sell them?

I think you're right about trying to eat something while Ellie is eating, I'll give that a go. What makes it all harder is that Ellie doesn't have any teeth at all!! So we really are limited as to what she can chomp down on!

Is your DD coughing? Could it be a slight chest infection left over from the cold? Ellie has had an ear infection following a cold before and I think it's quite common for something to linger around...

I personally think they tell us to progress to lumpy foods to soon. I don't know anyone's baby who could cope with the stage 2 jars with lumps (like the Organix ones) at anything much before 9 months. They gag on lumps and it makes them sick. Finger foods like rice cakes are normally a different story as they are in control of biting and chewing, not having puree + big lumps put into their mouth! I would keep going with the finger food but stick with spoon-feeding more pureed food.

DS1 (now 8) had this exact problem. My health visitor told me to persevere, and I did, but it got progressively worse and he ended up being sick on food until he was 2, and had speech delay as a result.

With my other two I have learnt that some children just do not cope with lumpy food in liquids at all. Either give puree, or finger food until they are older. I tended to give cheese on toast/sandwiches and pre-chew it a bit to make it easier. DS 2 (21 months) now eats sandwiches etc on his own, so it does work.

BeckenhamMum and sybilvimes, thank you so much for your reassurance. I didn't want to think that I was disadvantaging my DD in anyway, that was my main concern.

My Mum never ever used stage 2 jar consistency food with us. She used purees until we were ready to eat mashed food and just gave us biscuits (as in rusks) to suck on to introduce a bit more texture.

There's just too much confusion these days I think and being a first-time Mum, didn't want to solely take Mum's advice as times have changed.

But what you have said makes me think that she was right! Besides, none of us (and there's 5 of us!) have ever had any problem with food, so it was good enough for us!

Also, we decided tonight that we might be on to our first tooth - that may help things!!

Never thought of offering breadsticks with philly, might do that tomorrow as she does like breadsticks.

Thank you ladies for your reasurance, and agree about the lumpy liquids and have today returned to pureeing dd's meals which have gone down better and yes Dawn she has a terrible cough and has had for 2 weeks. Had a course of antibiotics from dr's but have made no difference, guess she'll have to work through it herself.

Also i've been out today visiting a friend who told me that her ds is still only eating mashed foods and he's 16 months so that made me feel better.

By the way Ellie is a lovely name and I have a neice with the same name, which is a bummer as I had wanted it for my dd!

ick1e, she is actually called Elesha Ellen Rose. DH wanted a name that he could shorten to Ellie!

So there you go, pick a name that you can shorten to Ellie and then no-one can accuse you of copying!

That's definitely made me feel better aswell, about your friend's DS! xx

We had this and what worked for us was chopping up the organix carrot snacks (or buttons or skips etc, something melt in mouth) into very small pieces and leaving them on the tray after the purreed food. Eventually DS picked them up and ate them with us encouraging him to chew properly by showing him chewing motions ourselves.

After a while we gave him bigger pieces of the organix snacks and also mashed up 7 month jar (or home made but same consistancy) so it was somewhere in between 4 and 7 months. We did it really slow, a couple of mouthfulls after his smooth purrees (we tried instead of the first time and it led to him refuxing food altogether for 3 days!!) every other night.

We increased it to every tea time and when found a flavour he liked stuck with it. After 4 weeks of that we gave him the 7 mth jar without mashing it. He ate it fine and eventually progressed to other flavours and mashed stuff, grated cheese etc and then more solidy stuff.

I sympathise, my DS was violently sick and choked at any lumps and I thought would be on purree at 18!! Good luck.

Hi Jellybeans,

Thank you so much for your post. Ellie will eat the organix snacks without us chopping them up and even rice cakes. Plus she loves breadsticks with philadelphia and will feed herself.

The problem that we have is that she won't take lumps when she's spoonfed them, but she's not quite ready to feed herself either. However, I did have a bit of a breakthrough yesterday. We had been recommended the Ella's Kitchen pouches as they are textured instead of lumpy at stage 2 level.

Ellie ate one and was fine with it, so definitely progress!! Will definitely try and mash up some stage 2 jars aswell now and see how we get on.

I know what you mean though, at least at 18 she'll be able to puree the food herself!!

Thank you again.