8 Month Old

Hi S.,

Feeding her regular food is fine. In fact it may be better because you can control how much salt, sugar, etc. that you add. I don't think it's necessarily safe to assume that baby food is meeting all of her needs.

My son is 15 months old and I have never bought a jar of baby food. Have you ever tasted the stuff? I wouldn't eat it either. For my son I would cook fresh or frozen vegetables and fruit (like apples and pears) on the stove, put it in the blender, and put it in tiny 4 oz canning jars to send to day care with him. I also baked sweet and white potatoes and mashed up cooked beans. His pediatrician told me she never bought baby food for her kids either.

I can't offer any suggestions for what to do about meat b/c we're vegetarians. But if she's refusing that baby food you have other options. Good luck!

H.

Might-a-Mins are a great vitamin that she can drink. You'd never have to worry again. I know how you can get more info if you want it!

S.
____@____.com

My daugher stopped eating baby food at around 10 months, she didnt want anything to do with it, I found myself wasting money because they would just get thrown away. Maybe its time to say goodbye to babay foods? Just give her what the family eats and she will be fine, give her diced fruit and veggies also. Hope this helps, good luck.

People food.

If she is eating a range of different kinds of actual foods (including breastmilk or its artificial substitute -- essential for babies this young), when she's hungry until she's not hungry anymore, she's getting enough.

Before we invented nutritionists, a shockingly small people died of starvation in the presence of ample food. As long as the foods are pretty close to the way they come (say, pork roast rather than hot dogs), and there is more than one food group in her life (breastmilk is it's own group and it is sufficient for babies until they are beyond a year, no research has yet been done to show how far beyond a year), she'll be fine.

I mean: learn to trust her hunger. Her body knows what she needs, and when there are only healthy choices, she will naturally reach for what she needs more of and move away from what she has too much of.

Some mothers find that they overcome their own eating disorders by learning from their children how to respond to natural hunger cues.

Oh, and jarred baby food is a lot of things, 'unnecessary' is at the top of the list. Food wasn't safely jarred even 300 years ago, and somehow babies lived even way back then...

Your daughter and mine are 7 days apart! Mine is a cow she is up to 4 jars a day, and I may need to switch to people food because she is not satisfied. Have you tried in between bites of people food giving her a spoonful of baby food? If you are worried about the nutrition part speak to the pediatrician, I'm sure they may have some helpful tips.

Give her a good variety of veggies and fruits. Make sure she gets some whole grain fiber from oatmeal etc. pasta or bread if she can eat it. For protein, beans are an excellent source until she can eat meat!

I made all of my daughter's baby food (until she was 9months, I bought jarred carrots to be sure of safe nitrate levels). We also gave her (and still do) fortified baby oats mixed with vanilla yogurt. She eats it right up!
These are some helpful sites: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
http://weelicious.com/index.php
http://freshbaby.com/healthy_eating/6to8.cfm

If she is breastfed, or even formula fed for that matter, most of her nutrition is coming from breast or bottle. Food at this point is NOT for nutrition, regardless of what Gerber will tell you. It is for learning tastes and textures. There are so few actual nutritional calories in babyfood as compared to breastmilk especially (I would assume formula is similar since it replaces bm), that to skip it altogether is no big deal. She's fine.

BTW, my Fiona was born the same date! Are you downriver? Fi was born at Southshore, at 11:45 pm!

Ok you just cracked me up "people food"

I have never given my babies jarred baby food...I let them decide when they are ready to eat solid foods...it's always been around 8months. They eat table food, I serve them small portions of whatever the family is eating, they eat what they want and leave the rest. At 8months the bulk of nutrition should still be coming from breastmilk or forumla. Food is to play with and experiment with new tasts and textures. Let her eat what she wants, and don't freak out too much about it...besides have you ever tasted jarred baby food? BLECH your cooking is probably a lot more tempting than unseasoned mush.

My youngest would never eat jarred baby food either, she wanted "real" food. Her favorite was avocados and sweet potatoes (cooked till soft then small cubes, not mashed!)and peas, but she ate grean beans (whole ones that she could chew on), bananas, raisins, melon, cubes of bread, cottage cheese, yogurt. I weould just chunk things up and then carefully feed them to her until she could do it and I felt comfortable letting her.

Hi S.---I'm pretty sure your daughter will be just fine offering her the same healthy foods that you eat for meals. I don't necessarity agree that for now, food is just for practice as they will receive nutrients from anything that they eat, but I do remember that babies need to learn how to use their tongues differently when swallowing food rather than liquids from the breast or bottle.

Be wary of anything with cow's milk in it, even after she turns 1. Cow's milk is highly allergenic and most people can't even imagine that allergies and other health issues can be caused by milk. For more info, go to www.strongbones.org. As long as your daughter gets a variety of fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes each day, she should be fine. If you are concerned with nutrients, as softer food for babies often needs to be cooked longer, I have a great solution for you. A company that I work with has found a way to put 17 different fruits, vegetables and grains in capsule, chewable or gummy form. It contains all of the nutrients and live enzymes that the same foods have in raw form. Thirteen independent studies show that this product gets into the bloodstream and it benefits the immune system and well as protects and repairs DNA, and it's only FOOD. If you are interested, I would be happy to share more about this at your convenience. It is like nutrition insurance for my family.

Don't worry about your daughter. She will not starve herself and if you offer healthy choices while avoiding possible problems like honey and cow's milk, you should be fine. I have to tell a story about a friend's 1 yr old. We went out to lunch for sushi and she fed her daughter edemame (soybeans, which you can find in the healthy foods freezer section at Kroger, very healthy and loaded with protein) and then the seaweed and tofu cubes from the miso soup. She also liked to suck on the lemon slices that we had for our water. Kids instictively know how to feed themselves good food, if it is offered to them. If they don't like it today, try again next week. It takes up to 10 to 14 offerings before a child decides to try and like a new food.

You can reach me at ###-###-#### if you would like any other information or shopping ideas/lists for healthy family meals. I am a soon to be certified wellness educator and I have lots of good info to share. My education services are free of charge. Good luck to your healthy, happy family. Talk to you soon. D. www.dianeshealthed.com

I have 3 kids and never fed any of them baby food from a jar. I always made my own baby food and, believe me, it is much MORE nutritious that way. Jar food has additives and preservatives in it and your daughter probably thinks it's just plain mushy! She's probably craving more texture and flavors. You can steam veggies and put a little (real) butter on them and cut them into teeny pieces for her. Give her mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, broccoli, I bet she'll love it! You can also do some pasta (I did rice pasta) with tomato sauce. Plus, apple sauce, bananas, kiwi, etc. Fresh avocado is a great one too, just scoop it out and feed her some, it has tons of "good fats" for brain development. This worked for me, try it! Good luck :)

My 10 month old only eats very small amounts of baby food but loves table food. I give her regular food until she stops eating on her own. I assume your LO is either still nursing or getting bottles and will get more nutrients from that as well. If she is hungry still she definitely lets me know by grabbing for more food.

A baby should get their nutrition from breastmilk or formula that 1st year of life.. it's just for supplimental and fun purposes to give them 'people' food.

Dear S.,

You are right to be concerned whether your daughter is getting enough nutrition. The responses from the other Moms about breastmilk still the best is right on. Are you still nursing? If so, how are you planning for enough nutrition for yourself? Have you looked at eating according to the food pyramid?

Would you like some information to help you as you plan for your nutritional needs and your daughters?

There's some good information I can share with you if you'd like.

M.

I think that my oldest daughter was right around the same age when she decided she didn't wanted to eat baby food out of the jar. We did finally give up, after all it does get expensive to just throw it away. She's now 4 1/2 years old, and continues to measure in the 90 percentile for both height and weight. We talked to our doctor about a vitamin for her to supplement those nutrients that she is missing. We were informed that really baby food is just "adult" food pureed up with very little added nutrients. What he recommended at that point, because she was still "technically" four months to young for adult food was to take what we were eating and put it in a blender or food processor. We ended up not doing that, we tried it - she wouldn't eat it, but just cut it up in bite size pieces. If she acted like she wanted more, we would give her a little more. It worked out well.

We made nearly all of my child's baby food from scratch. If you read the labels, baby food is just fruit/vegetable and water, no additives. So if you get a good blender, you can easily make your own (if your child is like mine and textures are important).

As long as you're not straying from the list of OK foods for her age, it shouldn't matter that its from the table. Besides its good for them to learn to like more textures and flavors anyway. The only things I guess I'd worry about are: what is the sugar, salt, and fat content of the foods she's eating, are the vegetables "cooked to death" and lacking minerals, is my child getting whole grains, fruits and vegetables?

These seem to be the main nutritional concerns, buy ya, toss that pureed stuff if you child doesn't like it. It might be a texture thing, because its too smooth.

My daughter loved eating peas, they were just the right size for her to feed herself, cheerios, cut up grapes, banana chunks, pieces of microwaved sweet potato...

Hi S.
My kids were never crazy on baby food from jars either - I actually think it's much better to give them real food anyway. Thinks you can try are mashed avocado with or without cottage cheese (I'm not sure when you can introduce dairy products so check with your doctor), baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes (all mashed with a little margarine (if no butter allowed yet), cooked carrots etc. Babies shouldn't have salt at this stage so when she can start having meat and fish, if you make a casserole or something, season it after it's cooked. You can use a food processor to grind things up - if you make enough for several meals, freeze them. Most fruits can be stewed or as she gets good at chewing, soft fruits can be introduced in small pieces. Don't sweeten things with honey until she's more than a year old - I understand it's dangerous for babies. Scrambled eggs are wonderful too - can't remember if babies need to be over a year for that so check. I also used to make spanish omelettes for my youngest - I'd chop lots of different veggies, fry them in a little oil till soft and then add egg. That was brilliant at around a year because I could cut it up and he would feed himself as finger food which he loved.

It's actually so much easier when they eat real food because you can give them whatever you are eating and it makes kids less fussy eaters - not just mac n cheese etc. Good luck.

All of her nutrition for the first year comes from breastmilk or formula.

Baby food is just practice for eating.

If she will still eat baby cereal- that is a good source of nutirition.. lots of vitamins and minerals in the cereal.

basicly feed her whatever you are eating- just cut it up...

Kraft cheese crumbles are th perfect finger food for babies..and you dont have to cut them..

Does she not still breastfeed or take a bottle? That should be her main source of food until she is a year old. Mine didn't have ANY food for at least a year. Introducing too many new things at the wrong time could set her up for allergies later. Le Leche League always recommended that unless the baby is grabbing food out of your hand, stick to the breast. That's really all they need for a year...nature's way.
Some babies give up the bottle/breast sooner than others. If she doesn't want that, just make sure she is eating things that are good for her and not a bunch of sugar laden snacks. If she's hungry....she will eat. Nature's way again!!

S.

I wouldn't worry too much about food (enough or not) as long as she is still nursing/taking formula. That is where her true nutrition will come from until she is 12 months old. I hardly feed my 8 month old anything besides pears, squash and cereal...and it is just a jar a day and about a Tablespoon cereal at 3 (out of four) feedings. She still takes 6-7 oz. formula at each feeding and she is NOT skinny. As long as your little one is growing...don't sweat it. We give my daughter cheerios, plain Italian bread pieces, and watermelon and other table fruits sometimes. I decided that I would not rely so much on baby food with my third since the nutrition is coming from the formula. It makes for a much easier/laid back schedule as we can EASILY take her wherever we go and if I don't feel like giving her cereal/pears at a particular feeding... I don't. Instead I bring some bread/cheerios along in case she wants to fill her tummy up beyond her bottle. Hope this info helps. By the way, if your baby never eats baby food again, and only eats table food (non-allergenic of course)...she will be FINE. Just take her cues. Good luck and enjoy her!

Are you also still supplementing the food feedings with formula or breast milk? A baby should be getting all the nutrients she needs from the formula or breast milk in the first year of life. I didn't breastfeed my son, I formula fed, so I'm not sure if the year thing is the same for breastfed babies. It's ok to feed baby food or certain table foods, but the main source of nutrition should come from the formula/breast milk.

Hope this helps!

MC

technically she gets enough nutrition from her milk so no food is actually needed. I would give people food to her at all meals if that is what she wants... finger foods or perhaps she is looking for rougher texture - you can blend or grind fruits and vegis on your own - she may like that better... have you ever tasted baby food in a jar its yucky - homemade is tasty!

When my little ones were small, I often put a portion of whatever we were eating in the blender (I figured they sell "meals in a jar" why can't I do it?), added some water, and pureed until it was an acceptable texture (keep adding water & blending until it's right) not only did this save me a ton on baby food, but they learned to eat whatever we were eating and I knew exactly what went into it. Just make sure they are getting enough servings of all the food groups, grains, fruit, veggies, etc in thier day and other than that, (not that they'll always eat it of course...) I wouldn't worry too much. :)

you could try buying fresh fruits and veggies and blend them to the right consistency for your daughter. that way you know that she will be getting the good stuff too.