Seeking Mom's Help with Baby Feeding for an Almost 9 Month Old!

Food at this age isn't for nutrition, I wouldn't put it in his bottle - just wait it out. He won't starve - and like the previous mom said, maybe he wants to finger-feed?

Hi,

When my daughter was just about the same age as your baby she went on a full spoon strike. She wouldn't eat anything off a spoon and I was breast feeding and trying to ween and she didn't take a bottle so needless to say I was freaking out about it. What I did was first off, tried to stay calm. Your baby will eat again. And I stopped offering stuff from a spoon. I would steam baby carrots and squash and cut them up into small pieces and she would eat with her hands, cheerios are great too. Anything that is soft but finger food. small pieces of cheese or turkey or chicken. She loved kidney beans. You can try hard boiled egg whites, corn, peas...you may think your baby is too young but he's not. He doesn't just have to eat the pureed baby food. Just offer different things and try not to stress about it. The more stressed you get the more the baby picks up on it and is stressed too. If you relax, he will too and I promise, very soon he will be back using a spoon.

I had a similar problem when I was trying to get my son to drink from a sippy cup. His pediatrician advised me to bring out the sippy cup once a week instead of everyday, that way he'll start to forget how much he disliked the change. It still took a little bit of time, but in the end worked.

Hope this helps and good luck.
J.

Hi - I have two suggestions/comments for you.

1. My 8-month old refused to spoon feed when she was cutting a tooth. As soon as I put her in her high chair she stiffened up, turned her head and started to get cranky. The only things I could sometimes feed her are the cold fruits. So I just give her bottles for a day or two until she's feeling better.

2. Lately, she doesn't want to spoon feed and its not because of a tooth. She's learned how to eat with her hands (Cheerios, very small pieces of fruit/veggies, pasta) so that's all she wants to do.

Maybe Alex wants to start feeding himself?

My little guy is now 9 months old and likes to eat with his fingers. He also has a empty yogurt cup and a spoon he plays with on the floor. I just leave them there for him to play with. So there's some ideas for you to try.

My oldest daughter was like this. She wanted to feed herself. Once I just left the spoon for her to play with and try to feed herself with the screaming and spoon struggles stopped. It took her until she was 18-19 mos old before she was able to do it on her own, but in between she loved finger foods! Soft butter crackers, cheerios, finger puffs, berries, watermelon, cheese, small pieces of banana cut up, grilled cheese sandwiches cut up, rice and I discovered that she loves to eat what I'm eating. That was great because she would easily take the spoon from me if it was Mommy's food she was eating and not "baby" food.

It will get better and hopefully he will take the spoon from you again soon!

Have you tried to give him a spoon of his own? Usually this helps because he feels like he is doing something. I have a 10 month old and I will give him a spoon of his own. I also have a spoon. I also make sure to dip his spoon into the food so that he can eat something. Gerber also makes these wonderful little things called dippers (I think that is what they are called) They have a big handle so that baby can grasp it, but the spoon part is just a little stick (plastic) so that baby can dip and eat but not have a long spoon in his mouth. They are so cool!

don't create stress around feeding and food. it will pass. let him eat with his hands. he'll go back to eating like a big boy.

Hello Noelia,
My son was Mr Vomit man. He would throw up for anything. He loved to vomit. My friends would laugh and say he was bolimic. I on the other hand I did not find it one bit funny. He will get over it. I promise. I know it seem like he won't but there is light at the end of the tunnel. If he wants it in a bottle give it to him like that. In a month try again. It took 2 years for mine to stop the throwing up. Mine would do it when ever he didn't get what he wanted, if he cried, if I put him to bed before he wanted to sleep etc.
Good luck

B.

I didn't read all the replies so I'm not sure if this was asked, but did you use a spoon or something that resembled as spoon to give him his medicine when he was sick? If you did, maybe that's why he doesn't want the spoon anymore?

We tried the dippers with our daughter, but really she didn't want much to do with them. I'd just skip the dipper and give him his own spoon. Gerber also makes a really cool flexible spoon. It is made for thier "Little Soups" but I think it would be great for a little one just learning to use the spoon.