One Year Old Won't Eat Table Food

HI W.,
Sounds like he is not ready for table food yet, when he is, this will not be a problem anymore. Go with where he is at and let go of where you want him to be.
Good luck
N.

I would give him more time. My son was not ready to give up jarred baby food until he was about 18 months old.

We have the same name & almost the same issue! my son (who will be one in 2 weeks) also doesn't eat table food but does great with stage two products. He has a few teeth too. But, when I give him small pieces of food ... he sometimes gags/chokes for an unknown reason and scares the daylight out of me. Anyone else experienced this? What does anyone suggest?? My pediatriacian said that we should keep trying and he will get the hang of "chewing".

My son is 13 months (8 weeks premature) and also has this issue. He can only do dissolvable solids (puffs) and stage 2 purees - he continues to grow well and so no doc is terribly concerned. He loves his food and he is able to chew and swallow the food - his issues arise anywhere from minutes to hours after eating solids and he can continue to have projectile vomiting (I was told not to call this spitting up) for up to 12 hours until he is able to bring up all the solid food he ate. His twin sister can eat ANYTHING and he is really starting to want to eat her food. He has been evaluated by a speech therapist and initially he had poor oral motor skills that have significantly improved and is no longer a possible cause. He has undergone a swallow study with no findings. We finally videotaped his episodes and showed them to the GI doc - he considers it to be 'impressive' and we will be undergoing a GI series on Monday to find any possible causes.
Good luck - this can be so frustrating. It is important to try and stay calm so that they do not pick up on your frustration and develop aversions to trying to eat.

It's definately the texture that he doesn't like. Sometimes they equate the location with a food so you might try putting a few cherios or raisins on an end table or chair (anywhere away from the location you usually feed him at) to see if he'll snack on them. He'll get use to it. Kind of like when they go from a bottle to a sippy cup.

Hi W.,

Don't sweat it. He will eat table food in due time. Just give him soft food like banana etc...and teach him to eat with a spoon. Don't worry, soon he will be eating you out of house and home! Believe me I know, I have 2 boys and there is never enough food for them. A little about myself, I am a Mary Kay Consultant because I also have children at home that I need to be there for. My business works around the needs of my family and also provides income to feed these kids! God Bless

My son was "juicy" as the nurses called him, right from the beginning...When he got older and I started giving him real food, he choked and gagged - it was awful...and you know, he's going to be 4 in July and he is still the same way - he has to take really small bites...if he puts too much in, he chokes, gags and spits it all out...I figure that is just the way my Joey is...

I guess my advice is to give him everything really small...It sounds like both our boys have sensitive gag reflexes...As long as your son is gaining weight, etc...I wouldn't worry...It wasn't until about a year when Joey started on table food again...he just did better with baby food.

Enjoy him mom, they grow way too quickly!

J.

Hi W.,
I have just the opposite with my 1 year old. I can rarely get him to eat baby food anymore - he gags and many times throws up. But he will eat almost ANYTHING as long as it comes from Mommy's plate. Anytime he sees an adult fork or spoon coming his way, his mouth opens wide for it. He still gags sometimes on table food if it is too big. But he has had reflux since he was a few weeks old, so I'm used to cleaning up vomit. I'm assuming at this point that he just has a very sensitive gag reflex. Have you tried puffs instead of cheerios? They start to dissolve in his mouth while he is chewing - maybe he won't have time to gag on it! My son likes pancakes (cut very small) and pasta (cut very small). Have you tried pastina? Maybe your son would like fruit in one of those mesh feeders. I wish I could still get baby food into my son; at least then I would know that he is getting a serving of fruit & vegetables everyday. Best of luck to you!

Hi W.
Didn't read any other responses because been there, and know somethings that some might not. First gagging is not a problem for MD's until they are 6 years or so unless loosing weight or not gaining. Let me just tell you what happened to us.
First Sarah didn't like to eat. You don't mention that. Good news.
Second Sarah gagged alot, and continued to do that forever. At school age I gave up telling MD. It seemed to fall on deaf ears. Oooops. That was just when they would have done something. Instead she just stopped gainning. At 12 years old she was too little to have menses. Lost her stomach lining, when she threw up. OK so I won't go into all the details but she was declared anorexic. Put in the hospital for 3 weeks. They found nothing wrong. Nobody saw her gagging all the time or throwing up because she was embarrassed and hid that, so when they did see her they thought she was purging. MD sat with her at release time, which followed tube feeding and thinking we were taking her home on feeding tube. He gave her a drink. She gagged & spit out the phlem that accummulates in her throat. He saw her spit it into the napkin and said"Mom how often does she do this?' I said every meal and from infancy. He gave her meds for malfunctioning gag reflux. She is now 18. She has more issues because of the long misdiagnosis than she ever did because of the gagging. Don't give up on telling no matter what is said. Tell at every visit and be sure MD writes it down. I sure hope your situation is something simple like not being ready for solid foods, or not liking the jar solids, or young digestive tract, or allergy, or any other thing the MD chooses to call it while they are waiting to see if they grow out of it. Keep telling as long as it is happening even weekly, yell more if it is daily, and if you are so used to it you don't notice, scream the loudest.

God bless you
God bless your baby boy, and give him health
K. --- SAHM since '71, married 38 years. Wonderful husband and 4 kids including twins

I would just give him some more time. He sounds like he's not fully ready to handle some solids. I wouldn't worry about it though. My son is 13 & 1/2 months. I feel like he's just really getting into the solids and away from the jar foods in the last couple weeks. Have you given your son the chunkier stage 3 foods? My son ate those for a while and I know when he switched from the stage 2 to the stage 3 there was some time before he fully accepted them. Also I found those Gerber Puffs were good for getting my son used to new foods and texture, but believe me some things go over better than others. Some of his favorites right now that you might try are: bananas, baked sweet potatoes, peas, pasta. They are still soft enough but he can pick them up and eat them himself. These of the trusted standby's when other things aren't accepted so well. Just keep introducing new things slowly and keep giving him his favorites, he will learn.

Is your son tongue-tied by any chance? That's when the membrane under the tongue is very short or tight. My son has a slight tongue tie and the ear nose throat doctor said to watch for gagging. If so, I'm told it can be fixed w/ a minor procedure. Good luck!

Hi W.. I put out this exact same email when my daughter turned 1 too. She is now 14 1/2 months and fortunately got over this problem (as my pediatrician said she would). I totally feel your pain though. You are a step up from me - my daughter totally gagged wtih the cheerios too for a while. Anyway, I started feeding my daughter the finger food to the side of her mouth (gum and teeth area) to encourage her to maybe chew the food. That worked a little for us. I also made my solid table food very small and put it in spoonfuls of the pureed stuff. Have you also tried stage 3 foods? I found that she gagged from that for a while but eventually got the hange of it. That totally helped her to get passed the problem. A friend of mine who ended up taking her child to a feeing therapist recommended finding a food (pureed) that your baby likes (i.e., sweet potato) and incorporating solid sweet potato into the feeding 1st - you shouldn't change both consistency/flavor/temperature of a food all at once - just change 1 component at a time to desensitize your child to eating solids. It sort of makes sense. Hopefully the way I described it makes sense too. :) Good news is, your child will outgrow this - if it concerns you, talk to your pediatrician about it. Mine just told me to keep presenting solids to my daughter and 1 day she will just get it. My friend's pediatrician thought she needed the feeding therapist. Everyone is different. It does get better though. My daughter eats everything (pretty much now) and we've had minimal to no more gagging episodes. Good luck. If there is a way to search back in this file from mamasource and look up my old request for this topic, it would be great for you - i think it was under something like "my 11 1/2 month old gags on solids". The advice from people was very helpful.

My son did not really eat solid foods until he was 16 months. He was late in walking, his eating more table foods corresponded to when he walked. I just kept offering him little tiny bites of our food, but also gave him what he wanted until I saw he began eating more solid food on hiw own. You didn't mention his verbal skills and if he just gags or truly spits up food. My son has reflux which we discovered at age 1, once on medication he stopped throwin gup. This still did not get him to eat solid foods though. Also, my sons verbal skills were ahead, which is why his pedi was not worried about him needing any interventions or about his late walking. He said often when a child is far ahead in one area, they are behind in another. If you have not had your one year check up, discuss all of this. If you have, call the nurse in your ped office and talk to her, she might put your mind at ease. Good luck!

W., you may want to try the fruit and veggie puffs made for new eaters. if you are concerned about him gaggy you can break the puffs in half to start and get him used to it, also they disolve once they get wet. my now 1 year old would not eat baby food so we started her early on solid food and these were a life saver, she now for the most part is a very good eater though sometimes she does gag on certain textures (cottage cheese). hope this help and good luck!

i don't intend to alarm you but my friend went through the same thing with her son. eventually they found out that the muscles in the back of his throat were not properly formed & not only was their child gagging with every solid food but eventually they found that his speech was impaired. he is two now & still seeing a speech therapist two times a week in their home. they had him evaluated when they realized he should be able to get food down & couldn't. the therapist works on his speech as well as feeding him foods slowly & doing exercises to strengthen the muscles in the throat. good luck!

Hello, I am a speech-language pathologist and I say, why wait until later. Get a quick evaluation from your early intervention services in your area.

Gagging and choking on food can be a symptom or sign of a number of different treatable issues.

A couple of things to try at home:
- Does your baby put things/toys in his mouth? If not he should... All infants have very forward gag reflexes and they need to slowly inch them back to tolerate eating and speech.

- Try some vibrating teething toys.

- Does he have teeth? They do say that teeth are a wonderful individualized readiness symbol for a child.

- Try any elongated SAFE chewy toy that you could place on between his molars/gums in the back (if it makes him gag, start up front and slowly work it back over time EVERY DAY).

- Place soft whole foods between where his molars should be or in his cheeks and see what he does.

But most of all, just get evaluated and set your mind at ease and get first hand information and techniques to use at home.

Sincerely,
C. Jarvis MS CCC
Speech-Language Pathologist

I am in Manhattan if you need any more advice

Consider getting a referral to a speech pathologist who specializes in food issues. My daughter does all the same things and we needed to find out if it was a muscular problem. For us, it was a rejection of certain textures and we are working to train her to chew her food in a different way. She's older, but we have been dealing for a long time with this and developed power struggles as amresult of my frustration and lack of knowledge. An S.P. might be able to figure out what is going on for you and help you avoid future problems.

I do not know what stage 2 foods are. Perhaps you should stop serving them? I have always given my kids chopped up or mooshed up versions of what the rest of us were eating.

My middle child did and still does have a very sensitive gag reflex. He gagged & choked throughout his toddlerhood. If he didn't like it he'd throw up. So I understand where you are coming from as far as that is concerned.

At 1 years old he should be pretty good at chewing so again I think you need to offer real food that you cook cut up to the appropriate size. Practice makes perfect.

A.

Hey W.,
My daughter had the same exact problem, but with her she wouldnt even eat the stage 2 or 3 foods...if I tried to give her chicken with rice or things like that she would gag like crazy and then throw up..it was as if she would gag before I even got the spoon to her mouth.....so I kind of skipped the stage 3 and improvised with my own stuff..I started giving her pasta with butter, cheese, yogurt, crackers, puffs, toast, things that werent as difficult to swallow...Have you tasted the baby foods? They are actually pretty disgusting and even though the kids dont really know any different I cant blame them for gagging... :) I also used to mash bananas which she loved....I checked with her pedi before doing all of this and he said it was fine...I think its all about the texture and once they get over the differences your little guy will be ok....Hope this was helpful!!
Meg :)

Hi W.. I have a 5 year old son that would not eat any food but smooth baby food too. He was on baby food longer than my other sons. When I would tell our pediatrician that, he always said to try this or that and he would eventually eat other things and not baby food. Well come to find out when he was alittle less than 2 years old, that he has a speech delay and then we found out when he was about 2 1/2- 2 3/4 years old that he also has SPD (sensory processing disorder). That is why he wouldn't eat things with certain textures. He now gets OT to help him with that. He still has a VERY VERY limited list of foods that he will eat.That is frustrating,but what was more frustrating was when we had him tested by an OT and she said that the first sign of a sensory issue is when a baby will not eat anything but smooth baby food. Not to say your child has a sensory issue,but had my doctor known that, we would have had out son tested at 12-18 months. He might actually be eating more now and have an easier time with the sensory processing had we started helping with it then and not when he was almost 3 years old. Your child may just be picky, or he may have other things going on. I hope this helps you. I wish I had some insight on things back then. If I can help at all, please let me know.

G. :-)

Hi W.,

My son is 15 1/2 months old & I would say about 3 weeks ago he started eatting table food. When he was about 13/14 months i went out & purchased a pureed machine & started pureeding his some fruits, vegies & other things. He liked some of it not all of it but he would eat it. Then about 3 weeks ago we were at my parents & he wanted some of what we were eatting & we never looked back to jar food.

It is the texture thing that the babies do not like. It will take a little while them to adjust. Try to puree some fruits & vegies. He will come around. My son wouldn't even put the food in his mouth if he had something in his hands but that has changed over this weekend. He now will attempt to feed himself & I love it.

Take care & good luck

Hi, I totally agree with Amy. I never gave either of my children jar food, i made everything and my children (aged 7 and 8) are amazing eaters that will try pretty much anything.
I say go with your food. Whatever you are eating, start off with letting your child eat from your plate then gradually put some in a dish of their own. They usually want want everyone else is eating. I personally would have hated the jars of food, the smell alone is disgusting.
Good luck!

My first daughter didn't care for the 2nd and 3rd foods either. And personally, I found the meat and pasta kinds especially gross. She still liked the fruit and veggie jars though. And I'll save you some money: if your child is not crazy with the 2nd and 3rd foods, skip the Pasta Pick-ups made by Gerber. My daughter wouldn't eat them either, but she will eat homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Try some of the dry baby/toddler foods: puffs, cereal bars, etc.

At a year old some children aren't quite ready for a wide assortment of table food. Keep things in small bites. You can also try pureeing your homemade food (what you are having for dinner) and feed it to your child. Just make sure you double check with the pediatrician on certain ingredients.

Good luck! :-)

Hi, W.!

What a lot of great responses and support from the mamas! I agree, having been a teacher for 12 years mostly of children with special needs that the first step with any concern would be to consult a doctor and a specialist to rule out any physical issues. If nothing turns up, it would seem that your child is not ready yet.

I have a 14 month old who is still more comfortable with baby food but who is eating more and more table foods all the time. When I first started him on chunkier food, he gagged so I would back up and wait a couple weeks. I started with teething biscuits, which he loved! He had control over how much went into his mouth and it melted away as he gummed them. We started giving him peanut butter sandwiches on toasted bread. Then we went to the Gerber melt-in-the-mouth snacks, which he loves. NOw he will eat chicken fingers and french fries, meatloaf and meatballs. Last night he ate grilled cheese with gusto and he will eat cheese pizza like it's the food of the gods. He likes food that he can pick up and eat by tearing a little off with his front teeth and not so much food in little pieces from his tray. He also doesn't like to pick up squishy, messy foods with his fingers. Although he loves the mashed bananas I give him on a spoon for breakfast, he will not pick up banana pieces from his tray. He touches them and then looks at me with a wrinkled up nose. We introduce new foods to him all the time and let him decide whether or not to eat them. We keep jarred and homemade baby food handy all the time just in case, especially fruits and veggies. He is thriving and increasing his food repetoire all the time so we don't worry too much. We don't want to make food an issue so every attempt is low key and fun. He holds some things out for us to try first and we take a little bite of his offering and say, "Yummy, yummy, yummy!" Then he gives it a try.

Please let us know how your little man makes out.

S.