A SOLID Struggle

Warning: desperate mom ahead.  I need some serious solid-feeding TIPS!  I’d request tricks, but I’ve heard this tactic is frowned upon…

Declan is 12 months.  He was formula-fed for this first year.  Around 6 months, I started introducing purees with a spoon, which he was inconsistent about.  Sometimes he’d eat all 4 ounces, other times just 2, other times he wouldn’t take it at all.

Around 9 months, we started the purees with chunks (lil bits!).  He was the same way: inconsistent.  I also started giving him half pieces of Cheerios at that time.  He would take about 5 halves and then no more.  He had no interest in anything else like bits of blueberries or bananas.

All the while, he continued having his formula throughout the day.

For a bit, from 9-11 months, he did enjoy taking food from the spout of puree pouches, but that ended.

Now, at 12 months, he is officially off formula as of Monday, under the direction of our pediatrician.  We spent the last couple weeks transitioning to whole D milk and Declan’s cool with the new taste (it just has to be room temperature or warmer, like his formula was).  But he’s nearly regressed in terms of taking anything else!

At about 10 months, he stopped taking the spoon altogether.

He also stopped taking the Cheerios.  He doesn’t enjoy puffs AT ALL.  No more pouches, no lil bits, no puree, nothing.

He doesn’t feed himself at all either, by the way, nor does he hold his bottle!  I have to hold it for him.  I’ve encouraged him to hold it and even brought his hands up to it while he’s drinking from it.  Nothing.  He will only play with it, which ends with him turning it completely upside down and squirting it all over the carpet. :(

I put a plethora of finger foods in front of him throughout the day: cheese bits, cheerios, puffs, mashed banana, oatmeal.  He will put his hands in/on these foods and then throw them on the floor.  He brings nothing to his mouth at all.

He also doesn’t take from a sippy cup… including spoutless, ones with straws, soft tips, hard tips, valves, valves removed… I’ve bought out all of Walmart! I continuously offer him a sippy cup daily, even just for him to hold.  If I encourage him to drink from it, he just swats me away.  I’ve taken sips from it myself in hopes he’d imitate me, but nothing.

There is ONE “solid food” that excites him… that he never refuses… that he recognizes in the store and at the table… that he now NEEDS to be given while hubs and I are eating dinner… and those are yogurt melts.  Obviously, this momma is concerned with nutritious value.  I’m thinking of removing them from the house altogether.

Last month, the week before his first birthday, I was eating chips with guacamole while holding him, and he seemed interested in the green stuff.  I gave him samples of guac off my finger, expecting him to refuse as always, and he took like 7 finger fulls.  I almost threw a party.  Actually, I was in the middle of doing so anyway.

So I now have a 12-month-old who is on full milk bottles and yogurt melts for snacks… that’s it.

I’ve offered him guac since… nope.

He will play with finger foods and throw them on the floor. He doesn’t hold his bottle and he doesn’t take from a sippy cup.  He doesn’t bring foods to his mouth.

I told our pediatrician all of this with lots of concern at his 12 month appointment two weeks ago, and he said that my son is just playing me and there is no use in arguing or insisting.  I don’t do either one, but I’m out of ideas and starting to get really concerned about the nutrients he’s taking in.

By the way, he’s off the charts for height (~105th %) and just came back “down” to 95% for weight at his 12 month appointment.  He’s consistently gained since birth.

Should I just continue to consistently offer as I do and let it go for the time being and be content with a 95% weight baby and milk + yogurt melts?  Should I get rid of the yogurt melts? This morning, I tried tricking him.  Thinking he’d prefer a juicy, soft taste (reminiscent of the melts), I tried soaking Cheerios in grape juice and then pretended to remove them from the yogurt melts bag.  He’s a smart cookie and he spit it right out, just like any other fragment of food I’ve gotten in there in the last month or so that he realized wasn’t a melt…

His dad is an incredibly picky eater so I’m not completely surprised, just getting concerned…

How did you get your picky, spoon-refusing, non-feeding, anti-sippy cup toddler to evolve into table food and cups?

Comment below, tweet me (@hopelessMAblog), email me: hopelessmomantics@gmail.com, please!

#helpamommaout

-Colleen (Hopeless Mom)