Eating issues

Hi, My twins Emma and Bella are 19 months old. They are very limited on what they will eat. They still don't actually eat table food. Currently they will eat Vanilla yogurt with baby food (stage 2 no chunks) fruit. If I hide the veggie baby foods in the yogurt good enough, they will eat it. If I give them yogurt with fruit in the bottom, they gag it out if they get a piece of fruit. They will eat dry foods like saltine crackers, animal crackers, vanilla wafers, gold fish, yogurt melts, biter biscuits, and graham crackers. My Emma will occasionally eat pickles slices and cucumbers. Bella simply refuses to try anything new. I tried to give them spaghettios thinking they would like them and they immediately gagged them out. I though it was just a chunky food thing, but last night I pureed broccoli, rice and chicken and Bella immediately gagged it out (bad) and Emma gagged so hard she threw up everywhere! I've also tried things that were closer to crackers, like chicken nuggets, tater tots, fish sticks, and they won't eat it! I'm going crazy trying to get them to eat! Anybody have similar problems? Any solutions? What do I do?
Thanks so much!!!

 

I think I would start by talking to your ped, it might be a sensory thing that they'd need to see a specialist about. I would keep offering as much as you can. Are you feeding it to them or are they feeding themselves? Sometimes my kids would eat better if I just put their food on the tray or table and let them make a mess feeding themselves, they just didn't want to be fed by me anymore.

I hope you can get it figured out :hug:

 

I had my girls evaluated through Tri-Counties Early Intervention. They are slightly behind developmentally, and very far behind on speech and language, so they qualifies for Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Early intervention. I am very excited about this, and hope it helps them (I'm sure it will) I am just waiting for their first sessions to be set up and in the mean time am looking for anybody who may have gone through something similar with their twins, and if they have any suggestions.
Thanks so much for your reply!

 

My twins wouldn't eat the chunky stuff, it was either table food or puree but nothing in between. I kept trying (and they are still cruddy eaters!) but I found that as soon as I put it in their mouths if I start yelling "yay jae yay jackson" blah blah blah and jump up and down and wave my arms around they would smile and be distracted enough to eat it. This was in fact the only way I got my girl to eat even purees as she wouldn't/couldn't eat any food until 12 months without gagging and barfing! Feeding times were exhausting but we had a special cheer we always did and once she got super good at it we got to drop the cheer. Course now that we are forcing the chunky meals we had to ressurect the cheer, bleh! Haha! Good luck!!

 

I would just keep offering and one day they may surprise you and put it in their mouth. Also eat with them at the table so they can model your eating. Sometimes babies will want what is on momma's plate more than their own. Since they have severe speech issues, the problem may be related to oral-motor or sensory issues. I would ask your ST and OT about it because some will work with feeding issues. If you are near a children's hospital they often have a feeding team that can help.