New Foods for My 8 Month Old?

My first child would have nothing to do with baby food at all. It got to the point where I would just feed her what the family was eating. I would through it in the food processor, or cut it up small, and she did well with that. I dont know what it was about the baby food but she did fine. The little graduates are good, but theres also things like raviolli, spagetti, mac and cheese, that you can get in single serving microwaveable cup, and she really like those.

It's been awhile since I've had one of my own, but I have a 1 year old grandson. He never would eat much of the baby food, not even the fruit! My daughter would just blend up what they were having, mash up a potato with a small amount of salt and butter, fix instant oatmeal, mash up some canned or cooked fresh/frozen vegies, etc. and he loved it! That is the only way she could get him to eat anything. Hope this helps.

Our second didn't like baby food. We did the Gerber Graduates, I think, with him. It was the stews and things like that. He really liked them. I do remember it was the foods after the stage 3. He did eat a few of the stage 3s. Most the stuff is cooked pretty tender, so he didn't have a problem with it being too hard to eat. They mushed pretty good with gums. GL!

Wow-- I was just getting ready to post almost the exact same thing! My dd just turned 8 mo old and went from eating a whole jar of baby food at a time, to refusing anything on a spoon! Even homeade foods! 2 things I have found so far, as she wont even TASTE food on a spoon-
1- she will eat anything she can hold and put in her mouth: crackers, teething biscuits, pieces of banana, etc.
2- she will drink from a cup, so when hubby made homeade potato soup the other night, I finally got some down her by putting it in a cup and letting her "drink" it, though it was a little messy.
I can't wait to read more reponses here too!! :)

Dana,

She probably doesn't want to eat jarred pureed mush. Now is a great time to start her on soft table foods. I'm guessing she is getting proficient at picking up and putting in her mouth? Put food on her tray and let her eat. My second daughter is a year old, and I just realized that she has never had a jar of baby food. She hasn't needed it. Let you daughter sit with the family, and let her eat with the family. She will be more likely to eat if she can do it herself, and if she feels included in the mealtime and is eating what everyone else is eating.

*Steamed veggies and fruit are good. I just chopped an apple and steamed it for 2 minutes, and the baby LOVED it.
*Frozen veggies like peas and chopped carrots are great. I steam 2 lb of carrots at a time and dice them up, then freeze them in a quart-sized bag. If DD can't eat what we are having for dinner, I thaw the veggies by running them under warm water briefly. Also, cold not-quite frozen peas (run them under cold water for about 20 seconds) are great when baby is teething!
*Cheerio's are an old standby. There are some great organic whole-grain brands out there.
*Soft cooked meat is WONDERFUL for this age group. The crock pot is a God-send for cooking meat. Many babies are iron-deficient because they don't have meat in their diet, but rather than offering meat, we offer iron-fortified cereals. Fake iron is a poor substitute for the naturally ocurring heme-iron that is found in meat products. Fortified iron is poorly absorbed and often causes constipation. There is no medical reason to delay introducing meat if it is soft and easy to eat. In many parts of the world, meat is the first food for babies, rather than the last. Mom can chew it a little bit and then give it to baby. It sounds gross, but it's actually very good for them, as it starts the meat breaking down and it introduces beneficial bacteria into baby's tummy.
*Beans are also a great finger food that is easy to make and packed with nutrition. Homemade are better than canned, but if you do feed canned beans make sure you rinse them for at least a minute before feeding them to baby.
*You might want to check with your doctor, but you should be able to start her on yogurt now. Yogurt is not included in the "no dairy until 1 year" rule because of the way it is processed. It is a great food packed with protein and calcium. We give our daughter a small cup of active culture yogurt every morning for breakfast. We also add a probiotic power (Jarro-Dophilus) to help balance out the bacteria in her gut.
*Closer to a year old, we started offering cottage cheese mixed with mashed fruit. DD loves it. Again, packed with calcium and protein.
*Pasta - Small shapes like elbow mac or wagon wheels are easy to pick up, and whole grain products have more nutrition that traditional pasta. A word of caution, some nutritionists are questioning the wisdom of starting wheat-based foods so early. The earlier and more often children are exposed to a food, the more likely they are to develop allergies. There are questions about whether babies are ready for wheat in their first year to 18 months. Perhaps that is why wheat allergies are on the rise. I don't think anyone knows for sure, but I am personally trying to limit the amount of wheat I offer my 1 yo.

I try to give our daughter some veggies, fruit, meat and a non-wheat grain or beans every day.

Also, remember that you are teaching her what foods to like by what you feed her now. I often wonder if children don't insist on processed foods like mac & cheese and hot dogs because they are introduced to food through processed jarred food.

If she is nursing, she may be getting ready for a growth spurt, and nursing more to bring in more milk. She also may have temporarily lost interest in solid foods. I think that it is normal for their interest to go in spurts like that. I know my daughter has times where all she does is eat solids and times where she goes the whole day only nursing. Food is fun to babies; they have no concept of nutrition. I hope some of these thoughts help you out.

Best of Luck,
S.

My now 10 month old went through a stage like this at 8 months too. He likes to feed himself, so that's how we got him to eat a lot of his food. Also when he was busy trying to pick up finger food from his tray, he would open his mouth to eat if I stuck a spoonful of baby food in front of him. It was like he needed the distraction of doing something with his hands.

We fed him small pieces of soft fruit (pears, peaches, bananas, avodado)and veggies, toast, cheerios, and small chunks of tofu. Good luck!

Hi Dana,
I have a 3 yr old and a 10 1/2 month old, and my baby is liking more and more having "real" food as well. I give her pretty much whatever we are eating just cut up really tiny. That is what my Ped. told me to do. He said she could even have steak as long as it was REALLY small. With having a bottle or nursing they are getting neccecary nutriants that way. I give her alot of frozen mixed veggies, rice, pasta, sliced cheese, canned fruit, chicken, applesauce, yogurt, dry cereal, oatmeal...

She may just not like baby food, my son bypassed it almost entirely. Try the toddler finger foods by Gerber, try yogurt, applesauce, soft green beans, bananas, they have the mesh things at Babies are Us that allows them to chew on apples, peaches and so on where not to choke on big pieces, try scrambled eggs, oatmeal (real oatmeal). My son didn't care for baby food at all. Try mashed potatoes, and rice too. The more you expose to her flavor wise now, garlic and other spices the less likely she will be picky.

Hello,

Wow, my daughter was the same way at this age. She would not eat the graduates at all. Which made it really hard to find stuff she liked. So here I go:
The baby yogurt-she loved. I found a really good recipe on line and it was for turkey meat sticks. Wonderful! She was digging that. I had to make it almost every week. Let me know if you want that recipe. (I will have to look it up again or get it from home) I have found the lunchable snackers are great. They have diced meats and cheese along with crackers and she really loves those. Gerber makes some toddler snacks which are in the shapes of stars. She loved those and they desolve in their mouth. I found veggies that were really soft at wal-mart by the canned veggie isle and they are microwavable. They are great. Maybe start with the peas and go from there. I also found a recipe for veggie nuggets which were a hit as well. Hope this helps a little. I will be happy to get you any recipe I may have. Let me know!

Good Luck!

Do you buy the jars of baby food or make your own? If she is picky, homemade baby food is very easy to make and tastes much better than store bought. This is a website that gives great advice on making your own: www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Whatever food your baby will eat...when you introduce a new food, mix it in with a food she likes. I just introduced spinich to my 10 month old. At first I gave it by itself and my babies protested. After I mixed it with applesauce, they gobbled it up. Have fun making the baby food...your baby will love you for it :) Good luck!!

My daughter quit eating babyfood or anything that resembled purees about that age, I bought the graduate fruits, and veggies. I also had cheerios. I found out when she was a year old that she had a lot of food allergies that may have put her into not wanting to eat the foods. Another thing you could give her is scrambled eggs( They perfer to start out with the egg whites first). I hope some of these things help and good luck.

My son started refusing baby food at this age too. That was my indicator to start table foods beyond cheerios. Gerber (and Beechnut, and Parents Choice) has a whole line of crackers, cookies, mini fruits, "puffs", fruit and veggie pieces...etc. I have found all these foods are not only tasty and nutritious, but dissolve rapidly and are super easy to self feed. I would put some finger foods on my sons tray and while he picked and tried to eat them, I would sneak in bites of babyfood to ensure he felt full. Additionally, and both my boys do this (it's weird), but he will eat any kind of food off of a regualr size FORK! It took a little practice, but he knows exactly how much to take into his mouth. I can feed him meat, potatoes, and veggies off my dinner plate with no problems. Oddly, my son (who will be one on May 9th) has recently decided that rice cereal and applesauce is once again, his favorite breakfast! Who'd a thunk it?
Hope this helps!

It could be she just wants to feed herself. We've done bribery: I hold out a Cheerio so that my daughter could see it, then only give it to her after she's allowed me to stick my spoon in her mouth. Another solution that has worked for us is giving her her own spoon and taking turns. Otherwise, you can try dry foods, like crackers, toast with jelly or almond butter or hummus, or dry cereals. Also Gerber makes some melt-in-your-mouth options that are appropriate for kids this age. Good luck!

Get the book Super Baby Food By: Ruth Yaron
Great book!!

T. :o)

I've had 4 kids who have all had baby food at one point or another. None of them ate it for very long. It usually only lasted a month or two depending on what age I started them on it. When they began refusing it, I found that it was because they were ready for the next step. They wanted something else. They wanted something they could hold in their hands and feed themselves with. My guess is that your baby is done with the baby food and it's time to start her on the next step. They make a ton of options for self feeders at the store, or if you're more into providing your own food for her, maybe start with frozen peas (thawed, of course) soft bread, bananas or other soft foods that can be cut up into small pieces. Good luck.

I made my own baby food using the "magic bullet" from Bed Bath and Beyond (or the cheesy late night infomercial). She really seemed to like it, and I didn't mind the time, it wan't that bad. My daughter is still really picky, but she has always loved fruits. Maybe try a bunch of different fruits first and get her liking some, then gradually add differnt things. I've noticed that my daughter is particularly willing to try it if she sees me eating it.

Hi Dana, my name is S., I have a 2 year old son that when he was eating baby food would never really eat it. I started giving him soft foods that we ate, like eggs, little pieces of chicken if it was soft, spaghetti, stuff like that. I dont know if that is helpful but that is what i had to do. If you have any other questions my email is ____@____.com.
S.

Mine really like avocado. I would mash it up and add a little breast milk. She enjoyed that. Also, I made sure I started out with mostly veggies because I didn't want to encourage a sweet tooth by feeding too many fruits right away. Also, my daughter liked when I made babyfood more than when I bought purees. I just boiled the veggies and then chopped them really fine in a food processor, adding cooking water or breast milk to the appropriate texture. Another favorite of my daughters was butternut squash--I would bake that and then mash it and mix with a little water or breast milk. Good luck! Mine did not seem to really enjoy solids until 9 or 10 months. Our solid meals were small, and she continued her get primary nutrition from breast feeding until 9 or 10 months. It may just be taking your daughter a little while to start to enjoy solids--and I don't think that is very unusual. Again, good luck.

Quick Note: avoid egg whites for babies under 1 year. you can cut up boiled egg yolks, though. the egg whites are a common allergy food, not the yolks.

You've already been advised this, but try making your own baby food. I steam and puree all kinds of veggies: broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, squashes, etc. You can make it as chunky or smooth as you like -- just use the steam water to thin it if necessary. Then freeze in ice trays and dump the cubes into large zip locks -- it'll last a couple of months that way.

Because my son loves sweet potatoes (homemade ones), we mix every new food with those first and then slowly begin giving it to him straight :0)

Check out the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She has great homemade suggestions for infant through toddler stages.

Her ideas work really well for us -- good luck!