14 Month Old & Table Foods

This is a power struggle. My daughter was completely on table food by 10 months with only 2 teeth. Stop the baby food, give him whatever you eat (mashed up if you want) and let him feed himself. At 14 months, a lot of kids throw food on the floor (which is not okay). Stopping baby food is not going to traumatize him. When he gets hungry enough, he will eat. No more cookies, by the way. Don't give him a lot of different things right now. That's too confusing. What are his favorite baby foods? Give him one or two of those in table food until he starts eating. You must be consistent. When you get rid of the baby food, get rid of it - throw it out so you won't be tempted. And, don't fill him up with milk. It will be hard but you can do it.

Yes, he is certainly old enough to start weaning off the jar food, many babies start around 8-9 months if they have the teeth. It isn't just texture, but learning to chew, learning to mash foods in his mouth and use his tongue. It's perfectly normal for food to end up on the floor. The best way to help combat it, is to just give a few morsels at a time. Keep offering the same foods even if he doesn't eat them. He may discover he loves green beans on the sixth try. Also, he won't eat it if he's full on baby food, so I tend to agree with your husband on stopping the baby food. He is also old enough to be drinking whole milk. Here is some expert advice on introducing table foods:

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/from-baby-food-to-...

http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_center/healthy_eat...#

As a side note, hot dogs and raisins are chocking hazards, so wait a while before introducing those, and when you do, cut them up very small. Grapes and berries are also choking hazards, they need to be cut up as well. Some good foods to introduce:

crackers, bananas, avocado, cheese, hardboiled/scrambled eggs, well cooked fruits/vegetables that are soft, pasta, potatos, fish,

Oh, my goodness! My 16 month old only has 4 teeth...the front ones...NO chewing teeth...and she's been on table food for at least 6 months. She refused the baby food!

It may be easier for you to spoon him up some baby food, but he really needs to get used to eating real food since that's where he's heading next. It's time. He can ABSOLUTELY have table food...he's got a mouthful of teeth! :) Mine doesn't have any teeth to chew with and she eats table food with the best of them.

You could start out slow, with casseroles, for example...they tend to be somewhat mushy like the stage 3 foods.

If I were you, I guess I'd just start feeding him whatever you're eating, cut up into small portions. I am a bit of a paranoid freak about choking so I try to cut everything up into bites about the size of my pinkie nail, but I do peel apples/pears and give them to her whole, and she does well with them. I also give her whole bananas...closely supervised, of course.

You can cut up small chunks of meat, soft fruit, cooked veggies, chunks of cheese, toast with a million different toppings, tuna salad sandwiches, etc...there really isn't much I don't give my 16 month old, besides raisins, nuts, and popcorn. She also LOVES cheesy scrambled eggs (yum!), black olives, rice, Chex, and orange slices (cut the way you see them in a drink, not peeled and pulled apart).

Well I don't think it will traumatize him per say, but I probably wouldn't stop cold turkey. It's within the normal range for kids to eat purees until 18 months and my pediatrician said boys are more likely to last longer with this. I would, however, be trying to get him to eat more table food...it really is liberating, I promise! ;) Offer him table food at every meal, even if you do purees too. At snack time I'd probably only offer table foods, something easy like Baby Goldfish, Teddy Grahams, grapes, blueberries, etc. with a sippy cup of water. Also, you might want to go ahead and take him off the formula. You may be using a toddler formula and I am not all that familiar with those, but if it's a baby one, get rid of it as it may be stunting his appetite.

Dear,

What's the rush? Kids will be ready, when they are... Some of my kids never ate baby food, they hated it! Others loved it. He's only 14 months old. He can eat baby food until he is ready for table food. He'll let you know. Make sure he still drinks his formula up to 32oz per day. He probably is sensing your trying to force stuff into him with this growing up on the food thing. Back off for a week or two and then try reintroducing a little thing here or there. If he still doesn't want it, give it more time, the important thing is that he gets enough food that is nutritious, not the type. Best wishes and God bless! :-)

I had read somewhere they need to be off jarred foods at 12 months.
You can start with weaning him off the 2nd stage and going for the chunky stage 3. You can give him mashed potatoes...a real banana. If he won't go for the real banana, mash it a bit but leave it chunky. and just mash up the food you are serving yourselves. i also give my 19 mon old bread, not toasted though. he's been having that for a long time, back when he only had 6 teeth. Your DS sure has a lot of teeth. Yes, he should be on table food. Oh, how about strawberries and blueberries? They are in season...almost. He could pick those up and eat them himself.

I dealt with MANY feeding issues with my son. Even had to go to a feeding therapist, but he did have a texture issue.

One thing the therapist stressed to us is that you don't want to make feeding time a negative thing. If you are sitting him down at a table and he is hungry, but you won't give him anything but table food that he can't/won't eat - then your son will start thinking that feeding time is not a happy time. Once he associates feeding with negative feelings, he could start acting out and you'll be in trouble then. I know this from experience! We had this issue before we started therapy. It got to the point that every time we sat him in his highchair, he would scream and cry and make himself vomit. It took us months of therapy to get him to think that feeding time was a happy time and then he finally started to eat.

I know your son likely doesn't have the severe feeding issues that mine had, but I truly feel that if you try to force him to eat table foods before he is ready, then you will only create more problems down the road. I would start with fun foods, like diced fruit. Most kids also like crunchy foods as a first food, like crackers or Cherios. You need to get him used to eating table foods a little at a time.

Oh, and another thing with going cold turkey - if your son is just starting table foods, then his jaw muscles may not be ready to handle a lot of chewing. The jaws can get fatigued quickly until those muscles are used a little more. Again - this came from our feeding therapist.

As you know, kids will do things at their own pace. Forcing them to go at your pace will not work and will cause frustration.

My DD was able to eat most table foods (even tiny pieces of steak) back when she only had 4 teeth. You could try giving him some Gerber puffs or other 'training' foods. They dissolve into mush when they get wet, so they are easy to learn on. My DD especially loved green beans when I was introducing her to solids. The canned kind... I usually prefer frozen/fresh fruits and veggies, but the canned green beans are really soft and easy to chew.

Is he on baby formula or toddler? He can go to whole milk as of 12 months unless your pediatrician recommended the toddler one. Ours didn't and when I asked about it she said it was too filling and could inhibit eating regular food.

Since he has 16 teeth he is capable of going to regular table food, and you need to let him be the one to feed himself, it's how he learns, chewing and spitting out food is part of it. When my daughter was that age she ate like a bird, literally, sometimes only a teaspoon or two of solid food a day. But her pediatrician said that her body would tell her when to eat, and that I needn't be concerned unless she was unable to do her regular activities of running, jumping, etc., which never happened. She ate that way until she was 3.5, when she started to eat better it surprised me!

Give him a toddler spoon and fork, lots of different foods (experts say they need to try a food an average of 15 times before they'll eat it, that's per each food!) and let him learn. He'll be fine.

My nephew never had baby food. He's now 15 months and eats everything, and I mean everything! Mom cooks or steams the food and cuts it into little pieces and he feeds himself. He does throw stuff on the floor, but only because he thinks it's funny. He will not be traumatized if you take away baby food. He's just not used to solid food. It's probably a bit strange to him. Also, he's used to the taste of jarred food, which is pretty gross if you ask me. Just try a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, rice, things like that. I bet he'll be eating big people food in no time! Good luck (:

My son started table foods at about 8 months with 6 teeth. It sounds like your little guy wants table food. You just cut it really small for him, and he'll love eating like daddy!

we never only used baby food with our third a few times... I hated baby food in general, so I just gave him mashed up people food that he was very capable of eating (I didn't give him stuff i didn't think he could manage for ex I didn't give him raw carrots but I would give him cooked mashed carrots) he was fine...

Kid umber two wouldn't eat anything but #1 or 2 baby foods and would not eat #3 foods, a texture issue.

Kid number 1 ate everything in sight.

but one thing I did find helpful was to give him the opportunity to feed himself, which really helped even #2 the picky eater. I put out a variety of things and let him help himself, you might try some of his favorite baby foods first to be sure he will like the flavor.

I must add: I agree with the poster below that some kids just eat table foods later than others, if you are concerned ask you Dr. My #2 kid eats a lot of foods now, he is still picky and wont eat a lot of foods but there are plenty that I didn't think he would eat that he just loves, just keep offering it to him