Having a hard time getting her to eat table foods....

Tiff,
Do you think you could psyche her out by mushing up your food just enough and putting it in a jar to make her think she's eating stage 3? I know it sounds crazy, but I remember the stage 3 spaghetti n meatballs looking almost like ours, and like the mac n cheese and stuff. Does she eat those without gagging. Kind of off topic, but to help get me to my point. Jayden hated water. If she saw you pouring water in her cup, she'd cry, even if you mixed it with juice. If she saw it, she didn't give the taste a try. But, if I mixed water and lemon juice together without her seeing it, she'd drink it up no problems. Finally, the point, it could just be her preference of what SHE wants. It sounds like she CAN eat your food cause she'll eat it off your plate, but prefers the easiness and convenience of less chewing with her stage 3 foods. I hope you guys get through it. Our babies with their quirks.

I don't know what to tell you. We started with Isaac eating off of our plates at the couch too and then I felt like I was feeding a dog so we had to move to the highchair. I feed him first at 5:00 and then dh and I eat when he gets home at 7:00. Isaac usually wants to eat again but with his dairy and soy sensitivity I usually would only go for cheerios. Now that we seem to be over the dairy and soy issues he get a little taste of our food unless it is spicy or fried. I never bought the stage three foods because the few I did buy just smelled and tasted gross to me (but we were limited because of soy and dairy). I splurged for Baeba Baby Food maker and would make him food that way. I think I just slowly switched him to table food a little at a time. First his snacks then main meals. What he liked we went with...grapes quartered...blueberries. Now he eats three dino nuggets (cut up) and peas and carrots anything that doesn't move really. Our fight is to get him to let us feed him with a spoon. He wants to eat everything with his fingers.

Have you tried making it a game...give her some dippy things...hummus...avocado...yogurt and then let her dip something in it. It is messy but it might get her to think of it as more of a game with her own food.

I also never really had much a transition problem with Audrey, she always ate what we ate for dinner in her highchair from around a year old. We never fed her off our plates unless we have already ate dinner, breakfast, or lunch and are having a snack in the living room or something, we would share with her. I know her babysitter feeds her off her plate sometimes too, but it hasn't bothered our routine. Some days Audrey will throw her food around (she only does this when she's not herself) other times she eats everything and other times she likes it when I put her food up and feed it to her.

I have read that if you take too long to switch over to regular food, you end up having issues, so I made sure I switched her over early and just cut everything up really small. She still gagged on food for months and months and months, but as long as you cut them really small, she'll eventually get used to eating it properly. Audrey has JUST started using her teething to bite into harder food. She normally swallowed pretty much everything.

Good luck hun, it's just another transition...

Tiff
I started Owen on things that were mixed together like spaghetti with sauce, chicken mixed with sauce and pasta or rice or I would mix the chicken in the mashed potatoes..... my goal was to make it have the consistency of the baby food.
Then I started offering him JUST chicken or JUST mashed potatoes. That seemed to help us. Owen only has 6 teeth so I have to really make things easy for him to chew.
Does she like the Gerber Graduates? Owen LOVES those and they have been great transition foods for us.

Let us know how it's going!

Princess_Longbottom wrote:P.S. do crickets count as finger foods?? She totally put a live one in her mouth yesterday that she found in the kitchen and I started screaming and was too freaked out to fish it out. My DH went to get it out, and all he managed was a couple of legs, and she swallowed the body!!! EW!!!!! I am NOT looking forward to changing a poopy diaper and seeing a partly digested cricket in her poo!!!

make sure to dip them in chocolate for her next time She's soooo cute and adventurous!!! Just keep at it hun, she'll get better with chewing, maybe show her how to chew, that's what we did with Audrey. We just keep saying 'chew chew' and we'd open our mouths to show her how.

Tiff i went thru this forever with thane and i still have to worry with some things cuz still gag him!!! But, fortunately it seems to mostly be a phase...he still is not a big eater. She may just not like change too much She is very healthy and isn't falling off the weight charts so I think you should worry about that. And its ok if she still eats baby food. My little sis kept thane last friday and when i asked what he had for lunch she said "Apples and Chickens (stage 2 baby food!) I was like "uh katie..he's been on big people food for awhile!" but he just NOW has stopped throwing his food! I know you don't want to hear that either...he has done thats for almost a year! but its getting much better

Good luck and just keep trying! I try new foods with Thane all the time some he likes some he spits out like "Come on!!!"

mscherry42 wrote:Tiff,
Do you think you could psyche her out by mushing up your food just enough and putting it in a jar to make her think she's eating stage 3? I know it sounds crazy, but I remember the stage 3 spaghetti n meatballs looking almost like ours, and like the mac n cheese and stuff. Does she eat those without gagging. Kind of off topic, but to help get me to my point. Jayden hated water. If she saw you pouring water in her cup, she'd cry, even if you mixed it with juice. If she saw it, she didn't give the taste a try. But, if I mixed water and lemon juice together without her seeing it, she'd drink it up no problems. Finally, the point, it could just be her preference of what SHE wants. It sounds like she CAN eat your food cause she'll eat it off your plate, but prefers the easiness and convenience of less chewing with her stage 3 foods. I hope you guys get through it. Our babies with their quirks.

great idea!my mum never gave me jar foods,said it was nasty n full of chemicals lol.every meal for me was what she had cooked for her n my dad,blended (you could just make it the same consistency as her stage 3 foods!,plop it in a jar n do that!for now it really doesnt matter as long as shes eating,she might b a grazer,prefferinbg to have 4-6 snack times a day rather than 3 meals.A lot of banies are like that from what I read,as long as shes gainging weigfht ,I really wouldint worry.

FYI the gag refliex is TOTALLY normal.I know it's not nice to watch,specially me the emetophbe,but it's totaly different from choking (Weh food enters the actual airways) the gag reflex in fact is a good thing that prevents choking,although perhaps LM has an over sensitive one? IDK! Either way,I wouldnt worry just keep offering them,one day she will catch on,she HAS only just got her big teeth and it's probably still hurting and causing her to churn the food around her mouth with her toungue and accidently push it too far back causing her to gag because she cant' yet bare to use her teeth as they'e still sore.But,I would give her until they are all out (as long as she's still gaingin weght) and then if she's still doing it,ask the pediatrician if it's ok and it they're anyting that you can do!

I am sure she's fine hunny! love you x