My 11 Month Old Spits Out Everything!!!

Hi M.,
Sounds like a normal 11 month old! They do have a tendency only to like the foods they can pick up themselves. It is a new skill and they like to do it themselves! My suggestion is to not give the formula first thing in the morning. I have a 10 month old and I give her rice cereal with fruit in it for breakfast, and then when it's naptime, she gets a bottle. Kids need less than you may think they need for growth and development. I wouldn't stress over that. If she's eating a few finger foods and taking formula, that should be plenty for her. Try to relax and just go with it. This won't have anything to do with her being picky or not when she's older. It's just a normal stage. Offer her new things every now and then, and if she doesn't want it, don't worry about it. Just keep offering different things, whether they get eaten or not. She'll grow out of this stage and be perfectly fine. It's a frustration and worry we all had to deal with as new mothers. So just try to stay relaxed about it and go with the flow. If all she wants is Cheerios and formula for 2 weeks, it's okay! Hard to believe, but really, it's okay. When she gets ready, she will begin to eat you out of house and home! God bless.

Don't worry. She's still getting most of her nutrients from the formula. Keep introducing the solids and let her feed herself when she wants to. Model for her what you want her to eat. Put the same food in front of you and eat it. Kids usually want what mom and dad are eating. Have you tried letting her feed herself a cooled-off bowl of soup or oatmeal. My toddler loves frozen blueberries, grapes (I cut them in half so he won't choke, small broccoli florets, mashed banana with avocado, scrambled eggs with a little ketchup on them? Just keep trying stuff. Make sure it is soft enough and easy for her to chew. Don't pressure her and let her tell you when she's done. Just keep presenting the good foods and eat them yourself in front of her. :-) Good Luck!

As long as she is not skin and bones, your daughter is doing fine. If she is hungry, she will eat. You buy, cook, and serve her meals and snack. She eats alot or a little or done at all. Please don't worry; this is normal. Don't let her fill up with treats/sweets. Serve her formula with her meal. The bigger deal one makes of a problem eater, the more they will not eat. She is changing from baby food to all table food. It also helps if parents sit down and eat as a family; the she sees adults eat.
F.

I'm in the same boat you are. My 18 month old barely eats, and spits everything out. Her docter told me not to worry too much about it, because she won't starve herself. He said that even if I don't think she's getting much, she's probably getting enough for her body, and as long as I keep offering her healthy meals and snacks, she will eat when she's hungry. They don't need that much at this point because they are so small. I was really worried too, because my nephew, who is the same age, eats like a horse. My daughter also goes through stages of eating a little more, and less. Whatever you do, don't make a big issue about food, because even as a baby, she could start using it to get a rise out of you. They learn very young how to get a reaction out of mom and dad, and it could quickly become a power play. That's another thing the doctor told me. That's one of the only things that they have control over, and they will keep doing it if you make a big deal out of it. So just be calm about it, and she will eat when she's hungry. Unless your doc thinks she's not healthy, or maybe needs vitamins, I would just keep offering food, and she will decide how much she needs.

I'm not sure if you have spoken with a doctor, but I believe that some children are simply like this. My daughter who is now 7 was the same way, only she wouldn't eat green beans or any vegetable. I would just keep doing what you are doing. Give her a variety of food on a plate and let her choose what to eat. I also gave my daughter a multi-vitamin to make up for the nutrients she didn't get from the food she wouldn't eat. When I was enrolled in WIC they informed us that babies and small children will eat when they are hungry, they won't starve themselves. Eventually your daughter will get tired of the same old foods and branch out to the other choices you provide her. It will just take time and patience.

Hi M., you already answered yourself when you said:
"She spits everything out, unless it's something she can pick up and feed herself" So do just that. YOU HAVE GOT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR OWN FRUSTRATION...she can feel that and is responding to it. It's so very normal for an 11 month old to be picky and choosy about food and to want to feed herself and not be fed by anyone. RELAX!!! You are trying too hard. Just let her be who she is. Take a deep breath. Focus on her food intake over THE COURSE OF A WHOLE MONTH, not focus on her intake on a daily basis. When you look at her food intake over a whole month, you'll see that she gets what she needs. Also, when you are not engaged in personal frustration, you be will freeing her to explore her own likes/dislikes with foods. Your job is to give her the food. Whether she eats it or not is up to her. She will take in what she needs. Trust that process and RELAX...you need to truly enjoy each moment and not strive for that perfection. Life is imperfect, and it is in the imperfection of our daily moments that we find perfection. Just love her, joke with her, empower her to make her own choices. Otherwise you are creating a battle that you cannot win. She will grow and thrive, you relax and back off. Learn to trust the process that she will get her nutritional needs met over the course of a whole month and just give her the oppportunities to feed herself. Enjoy her! Sounds like you have a beautiful family.

Hi M.! You are doing the right thing you love your baby!! I can say honestly "this to shall pass"! :) My neighbor experienced the same thing and basically when her baby was hungry she would finally eat. What she was noticing is it was making her more crazy than the baby so she was transferring all of that energy to the child. Everything you say in front of the baby they eventually process. She doesn't know what being a picky eater is at this point. Could you make her a smoothie with all of the good stuff? As long as she is getting calories try not to stress yourself out. My son is 3 1/2 now and all of the things I worried about when he was younger changed over time. Every time I would pick up a book or stress about it call specialist too by the time I tried to fix he was past it. Even now with some behavior ( night time-sleep) I go crazy trying to solve and it changes back to normal again. My son didn't eat until he was 1. We kept him on formula for first year because he had eczema so it was suggested the later we wait the better. By the time he was spitting food it was because he knew he'd get a rise out of us not the taste of the food! :) Now at 3 1/2 it's full circle he began "spitting" last week and now I'd dealing with that! It's a toddler thing! Good luck! You are a wonderful mom!

Hi M. -

I did not even start feeding my any of my four kids solid food until they were about 10 months old. At this age they are getting their nutrition and calories mainly from formula or breastmilk and they are only experimenting with solid food. Keep giving your daughter formula and wait for a while - she will interest herself in solid food as time goes by and you will not need to stress. I would advise not worrying about it and to stop forcing the issue. 11 months is too young to be getting any appreciable nutrition from solid foods.

Hello!

have you spoken to your doctor about this? i know that some folk don't give any thing besides formula and baby cereal for the first year. there is a concern of developing allergies if too many foods are introduced too soon. if she doesn't want to eat it, she probably doesn't need it. go back to simple offerings. if she likes cheerios, great. let her have just the few things that she likes. it may be better for her health overall. i certainly think it is too early for meat. the food pyramid indicates protein, but that should be taken care of with the milk/formula. they need grains which cheerios fill in nicely, or other cereal like the rice cereal for babies, and then even a single fruit is sufficient. i only ate bananas for thee years myself... don't worry too much, if food is offered, your child won't starve itself, if she is particular, then keep it simple. kids like bland, plain, and familiar foods. this is natural. don't try to fight it too much.

The formula should be giving her what she needs for brain development, etc. She eats more stuff than my kid! I have 3 friends that all gave birth within 3 months of my son - all of our kids were tough to feed at that age except one. My son and the 2 girls gagged on almost anything except yogurt, etc. they did seem to prefer self-feeding - maybe because it was a new skill. Anyway - all 4 kids have grown into normal pre-schoolers in spite of Luke wanting to only eat hot dogs, charlotte still will only eat turkey, jack cheese and carrot sticks and my son eats dairy, bread, pasta, grapes and the occaisional chicken nugget. Talk to your pediatrician - ask for nutrition guidelines based on age and try try try - her palate will change as she grows and she will like new foods and reject old ones just to keep you guessing. ;)
Our Pedi told us to look at what our son ate over a week and if that was balanced overall he had a good week. Most of the time he had days that were all fruit, the next was dairy, then he only wanted breads or Cheerios, etc. etc.
Hang in there - you're doing better than you think!

you will do a great job, dont be so hard on yourself, cut the formula so she is hungry for food.

Hi M.. My little guy is almost 12 months. my oldest is 4 1/2. little one only eats things he can feed himself, but not picky. My 4 year old is EXTREMELY picky and always has been. Both boys get a bottle/sippy cup once or twice a day (depending on how much they eat that day) of Shaklee brand soy protien with powdered vitamins mixed in milk. This brand vits is only reduced foods. it's natural, and kosher, and tastes yummy. (I drink it too, but take the mulit vit pill). This way I know without a doubt they are getting the proper nutrition. There's never any question with this that all vitamins, minerals, and healthy yummies are present for them to properly develop.

I posted a question here about a month ago asking for recipe suggestions and got a lot of really good ideas too. Here at the bottom of this response you can go check it out if recipes will help...

An added benifit to the protien and vits regime is that if you give it at night they sleep through so much better.

Hi there,

Another mommy asked a very similar question about a week or two ago (March 14, from: D'S Mom S, subject: Meal Time Terrors....ARGH HELP!!!!). I'm copying and pasting my reply to her below. Hope this helps you! See if you can find her request because she got a lot of good replies. :)

H.

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Hi there,

Oh, you sure do have your hands full! Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. I can completely relate. My little one has been so hard to deal with at the table, too.

I don't have time to read the other responses you've gotten so far, but here's my advice. Don't force him to eat or to eat certain foods. It is a battle you will loose and will only cause more negative associations with food and meal times. I don't mean long-term, like you are going to scar him or anything, just that in the short-term you are going to keep having the same struggle.

My daughter stopped eating from 8-10 months and only breast fed. I offered her food every day and was so upset and worried that she wouldn't eat. But she's just fine (she's 18 months now). She often goes through these eating strikes, and I don't understand why. But she's happy and healthy so I am trying to relax about it. My pediatrician just gave me this link, but I haven't checked it out yet: www.baby-led.com

I'm trying to adopt the philosophy that she just won't starve herself. If she's hungry, she'll eat. I will only offer her healthy food, but if she only eats some of the things I offer, then that will have to be good enough. It's our job to offer different things, and keep trying new things, but that's all we can do. I really believe that if a baby is hungry s/he will eat anything. Also, if he doesn't eat a balanced meal every time, or even every day, then look at the entire week. If he eats more fruit one day, protein another, veggies another, etc., then that should be okay.

One last thing, we try to always eat with our daughter. That helps. And she always wants to eat off of my plate, so I put some of her food on it so she will get it that way. Now she's old enough that we actually eat the same things, but your little guy might not be yet. If she doesn't want to eat, we keep her at the table with us, but don't force her.

Try to relax and trust your son that he'll eat when he's hungry. That's what I'm trying to do and it's helping.

Hope this helps you and good luck!

H.

p.s. I forgot to add, if she starts to throw food or silverware, etc., then mealtime is over for her. As much as I want her to eat, she has to learn no to behave like that. I think they can sense how much we want them to eat so they see how far they can take "misbehaving". Or maybe they are just trying to tell us they're done! A bit of playing with food seems to be developmentally normal and helpful to experiment and learn about the texture of food, etc. But that's different from having an attitude and throwing things.

Also, I disagree with what another mommy wrote, let him snack if he wants to. Just make sure they are healthy snacks. As long as he's eating, who cares when it is. You can work on setting meal times when he's older. But that's just my opinion

"Child of Mine, Feeding With Love and Good Sense" by nutritionist Ellyn Satter is a great resource for worried parents with feeding questions. She helps us understand things like how our kids' developmental stages affect their attitude towards eating (it's totally common for them to start seeming more 'picky' as they become toddlers - they're learning to be more independent and are starting to assert that independence at meal times. She encourages parents to keep offering healthy choices to their kids, even if the child seems totally resistant - because at this stage a child will often wait until after he/she's seen a particular item 10 or more times before he/she will even let you leave it on the plate, and then maybe another 10 tries before actually tasting it. Her book helped me TREMENDOUSLY - it was very reassuring to hear that this behavior was a normal developmental phase and also to know that our childrens' nutritional needs aren't as hard to meet as we envision them to be.

I have an 11 month old also, and it sounds pretty normal. She is getting used to the different textures of foods and it is common for her to only want to eat certain foods. My 11 month old still has a lot of formula throughout the day. I give her rice cereal or the oatmeal you add formula to for breakfast, gets her more iron. Lunch she gets a stage 3 jarred food, and a bottle later for a snack. (Beef with veggies, mac-n-cheese) These have little bits of food so she gets used to mashing and chewing. At dinner I give her what we are eating in small pieces, sometimes she eats it, other times she doesn't, no big deal. I give her a bottle of formula before bed. She snacks on wagon wheels, puffs, cheerios, cheese etc. Right now she should still get the bulk of her nutrition from formula. Try not offering so many choices. Stick to 1 or 2 things for a few days than introduce more. She may be overloaded with too many new foods at once. Slow down on the options. (bottles in between meals can be the snack so you know she is getting her nutritional value) The rice cereal or oatmeal in the morning she will eat because the taste is familiar.

She is getting all the nutrition she needs, don't worry. This is the first of many food issues to come. My 3 year old would only eat mac-n-chees for 2 weeks, it is normal. Back off on the food and don't make it a battle. It is like potty training, if you back off and not make it an issue, it becomes so much easier and more fun. Good luck.

When my kids were at the finger-feeding stage, I was given this great book, 'The Super Baby Food Book.' It's purple & very thick. It was a great resource for all kindsa things....recipes, finger-food suggestions, seasons for fruits & veggies, arts & crafts ideas & even home-made cleaning products. You should get that to give you some ideas for finger-food. At this age, I gave my boys cut up veggie burgers, cut up tofu that was sauteed in a bit of olive oil & soy sauce. They loved both of those. They also loved waffles & pancakes. But, as one person posted, your daughter may also be picking up on your engery/concern over the eating. She probably loves the reaction she's getting from you when she spits out the food or won't eat it at all. As hard as this is, ease up. She will not starve & will eat when she's hungry. Offer her a couple of choices for meal times & leave it at that. Don't turn yourself into a short-order cook cuz you could find yourself w/a 15 yr old who you make totally separate meals for & nobody wants that. Stay calm & cool, maybe try to make it fun by arrranging the food in a smiley face or cut the pancakes into shapes. Best of luck!

I really don't have any advice, but wanted to mention that we tend to forget our little ones have very small stomachs (about the size of their fist), so it doesn't take much to fill it.

Good luck!