Stopped eating!

Jonathan is my big boy. However, David took to solids much faster. Anyways, we started giving the boys dairy at 10.5 months: cheese, yogurt and cottage cheese without any problems. At 11.5 months, we started mixing milk with their formula. 3 almost 4 weeks later, Jonathan started having some gas late in the day. Today was the second day. Plus, he would not take any food that was pureed, but will take finger foods without any hesitation.

So, my questions are:
what do you give your LOs for finger foods? He will eat just about anything I give him.
What do you think this gas is a result of? WHat should I change or help him?

Thanks for the info,
Jenn

 

Finger foods can be varied, I've given mine: cut up fruit, veggies, waffles, cut up grilled cheese, Beech Nut Yogurt Nibbles, Cheerios, Kix, pancakes, small crackers, cut up cheese (I am drawing a blank on the rest, but I've given them more then that)...
As for the gas, I am not sure what could causing it...maybe the dairy but he's been eating dairy products for a while. My twosome were pretty gassy and what I did was give them gas drops before a meal. I found that broccoli made them really gassy, so I make sure they get gas drops before they eat broccoli. Maybe try gas drops for him in the afternoon and if those don't help, I would contact your pedi. Good luck!

 

At 12 months I was offering finger foods similar to the things that Nancy listed (plus the ever-present puffs, sausage crumbles, shredded meats and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting). We also supplemented with a lot of baby food meals and yogurt, but my guys let me feed them until about 16 months before they refused. I've heard of other kids refusing spoon feedings WAY earlier than that. My ped said his DD went on a "spoon strike" at 9 months and would only eat if she could rake the food into her mouth by herself! :blink:

So maybe Jonathan is just *done* with spoon feeding. You can always offer to feed him purees, but if he refuses, you may just have a very independent boy on your hands. Give him lots of nutritious finger foods and let him go to town! If you're really brave, you can give him a baby food spoon and see if he wants to try feeding himself. I will warn you that it will be a huge mess at first! My guys are pretty proficient with a fork, but spoons are tougher to master.

As far as the gas goes, it could be a reaction to the milk. You could back it down a bit, and offer more calcium-rich foods like yogurt, cheese, etc. and do water/juice for hydration. Or try the gas drops like Nancy suggested and see if that brings him some relief.

Good luck!

 

IMO it’s good he’ll still eat, so it’s not eating (so a physical problem, etc.), it’s something about the pureed. How long has he not been wanting to take pureed foods? Maybe he’s just independent and wants to feed himself? This sounds similar to what one of my twins started doing at around this age. He didn’t refuse, but wouldn’t take it if I fed him. He simply wanted to feed himself. So what we ended up doing was giving him a spoon which he mostly made a mess out of (and got frustrated with until we got the hang of it) and we snuck spoonfuls in-between. So maybe try giving him a spoon and seeing how it goes?



Re: finger foods, anything we eat only in small, manageable dice-sized pieces, with the exception of many fruit skins. Chicken, beef, oranges (without skin), crackers, VERY thin slices of cheese, apples, peaches, peas, cooked carrots, toast….. you get the idea. Just avoiding things that are considered choking hazards (peanut butter, grapes, hot dogs, blueberries (not cut), etc.)



Re: gas, it is hard to say without knowing everything he is eating. Probably something dietary or maybe he is developing a food sensitivity. We actually had a round of gas because we used a different brand of MILK once. (cows must have been eating different foods that the other cows? Who knows.)