2nd foods forever...

I am so frustrated with my babies eating habits. We were doing so good (I thought) moving from 1st foods to 2nd foods and then finger foods for snacks. For the past month we've been trying to introduce different 3rd foods and it is awful! They spit them back out at me as soon at they realize there are chunks in there. <_< They don't like any meats unless I slip it by them in the sweet potatoes. Ugh! I hate 2nd foods. They are runny and I want to move them to table foods sooner than later.

Are there any suggestions out there for what to do next? Should I just skip 3rd foods and move to table? They seem to hate everything with texture/lumps. I don't know how we are going to manage cooking an early dinner for them. I'm guessing I'm going to have to do some cooking on the weekends and freeze for later.

 

I don't have any advice because I'm right there with you. We just recently (in the last week or so) started introducing the 3rd stage. They hate it! They spit the noodles/lumps right back out at me. It's so frustrating. They do like the cereal and oatmeal mixed with fruits from the 3rd stage but that's it.

And I agree that I hate the 2nd foods. I have added cereal to some of the really runny veggies to thicken it up a little. That does seem to help a little.

 

i've noticed the Gerber 2nd foods with DHA (the greyish box) are much thicker (no chunks, just veggies with rice or barley or something to thicken it i think) than the regular Gerber 2nd foods. i mostly buy those, adn the girls love them. i haven't even thought of moving to stage 3 yet... maybe i should...

 

I think skipping 3rd stage would be okay-I did with my dd and it went fine. I just started feeding her what we ate but mashed up into little tiny pieces. She also loved the pasta pick ups. Good luck!

 

QUOTE(ddancerd1 @ Jul 23 2008, 11:14 AM) [snapback]891352[/snapback]
i've noticed the Gerber 2nd foods with DHA (the greyish box) are much thicker (no chunks, just veggies with rice or barley or something to thicken it i think) than the regular Gerber 2nd foods. i mostly buy those, adn the girls love them. i haven't even thought of moving to stage 3 yet... maybe i should...


I haven't tried those. I've also noticed that the Earth's Best 2nd foods are thicker.

QUOTE(Lesley Anne @ Jul 23 2008, 11:17 AM) [snapback]891359[/snapback]
I think skipping 3rd stage would be okay-I did with my dd and it went fine. I just started feeding her what we ate but mashed up into little tiny pieces. She also loved the pasta pick ups. Good luck!


Thanks! I'm really tired of filling my cart with these itty bitty jars of food that we go through like crazy!

 

My girls didn't like 3rd foods either. I actually strained them and then put the chunks on their tray so they would pick them up and eat them. This got them used to it and its fun to pick up little pieces of veggies and make a mess! While they were doing this, I tried to spoon feed them too. Eventually though I just moved to table food because it was easier. GL.

 

Mine never would eat that stuff. We went straight from 2nd to table food cut up really small. GL!

 

my kids still won't eat 3rd foods. i skipped it totally but try it every once in awhile. i give them table foods and they just love to pick them up by themselves. it's a little messy though so keep a wash cloth handy good luck

 

I made a lot of my food and although we occasionally tried Stage 3 foods (or my homemade equivalent), the kids refused to eat it. We pretty much went straight to table foods.

 

You can mix the stage 2's with cereal and that will make it thicker and maybe even help them with texture. I did this because I had a gagger. It took him a bit to get used to the chunks of veggies in the food. He did a lot of table foods fine. I just think the chunks in a puree baby food are kind of a surprise to them in their food and they dont know how to handle a puree with chunks.

FWIW my older DD never did a stage 3 food. She went right to table food. The boys were just slower to get it.

 

We skipped Stage 3. We REALLY tried, but the kids just never accepted them. I think they were so used to pureed foods that they didn't know what to do with those chunks.

We just started right with the table food. The Gerber graduates they liked. Ravioli, overcooked pasta, etc. Don't stress about Stage 3s. SO many people I talked to said the same thing, their kids just never took to them.

 

None of my kids ate the 3rd foods or the meats, and I can't say that I blame them. We went straight to table foods.

 

None of mine ever ate Stage 3 foods, either. I kept giving them stage 2 until they got pretty good at table foods.

One idea I got from a fellow TS'er that worked for some of our first table foods was to strain the broth off of something like vegetable soup, and give them the small pieces of veggies from the soup. Everything is already cut up pretty small, so it was an easy meal for me. Good luck starting more table foods!

 

My girls are still on stage 2 foods and love them. They will not even think about eating stage 3. I tried the spaghetti and I know they can eat spaghetti because I had put some on their tray a few days before and they ate it just fine, but not when I tried to feed it to them with a spoon. I think it has something to do with them feeding themselves. They are so used to me giving them their mushy baby food that they went into shock when I tried to give them something with texture off a spoon.

 

You ladies ROCK! Thank you for all the tips and sharing that your babies didn't like the 3rd foods either. I agree that it seems like it surprises them that there are chunks in the puree. I have started adding cereal to the veggies, esp carrots and squash (which seem super runny).

So I suppose we could try some of the graduates stuff and mashed up table foods. I like the strained soup idea too!

 

My older ds didn’t like 3 either (went from 2 to table food)… as a matter of fact, since ds was an only child and had no cousins until he was almost 6… when no one was around we would still put garden veg. in his mac and cheese and other meals until he was 5 and asked why we had baby food in our pantry… I tried to pass it off as his cousins food, but they didn’t come over THAT much… so I stopped sneaking it in… funny thing… he didn’t like mac and chesse with out it…

 

QUOTE(brandycaviness @ Jul 23 2008, 11:40 AM) [snapback]891415[/snapback]
Mine never would eat that stuff. We went straight from 2nd to table food cut up really small. GL!


Us too. To this day they hate 3rd foods. They have no problem at all with table foods -- and eat EVERYTHING. I think it's the comb of "chunks" and puree they don't like.

 

Mine hate it too
I'm just going to keep trying, eventually these babies are going to like food!


ETA - mine hate table foods worse than stage 3. They'll take a few bites of stage 3, but regular table food and it's an immediate gag.