what is wrong with me?

So full disclaimer- first time mom... avoided babies for many years because of struggles with infertility (yeah I know, real mature)... haven't taken care of a baby since I was a teenager (my sister is 11 years younger than me, babysat thru highschool and the first couple of years of college).. I'm 32 so that was many years ago!!!

We are trying to introduce the girls to more textured foods. I think I wrote about how we tried puffs a couple of weeks ago, Meara gagged and spit it out, I nearly had a heart attack so I didn't even give one to Ana... we haven't tried it since.

I've been making the cereal progessively more textured and mixing in stage 2 fruits and veggies. I thought stage 2 was more textured than stage 1, but after careful examination they look the same. Anyway, the girls have done great with more textured cereal.

The ped told us to introduce meats when they were 8 months old. They are 8 months today, so last night I tried a stage 2 container of chicken and sweet potatoes (beachnut brand). I tasted it first and thought it tasted a lot like the plain sweet potatoes they love so much, but the grainy minched chicken was even annoying to me. But I thought what the h***, lets go for it.

Ana didn't do too bad with it. She gave me a funny look after the first bite, but swallowed it down. Meara on the other hand, started gagging and pulling at her tongue and made herself throw up. Ug. These are girls that LOVE their food so I'm not used to this. I gave them sippies of water with dinner (they've finally caught on to sippies!!!), so after each bite, I gave them a drink of water. Ana did ok... gagged a bit, but not too bad. Meara was gagging and sticking her hands in her mouth after each bite. Then she'd drink so much water she was choking. Finally I gave up and opened up a plain container of sweet potatoes and tossed the chicken.

Sorry this is so long. Is this a normal reaction to more texture or is this showing that while Ana may be ready, Meara isn't and I should wait a few weeks before trying again with her? I have half a container of chicken and sweet p's in the fridge and DH thinks I should try again today because they just need to get used to it. I know they can't actually choke on it, but I felt so bad watching Meara gag and make herself throw up. I know it wasn't because of the taste because they love sweet potatoes.

Sorry if these are ridiculous first-time mom questions... Oh and instead of baby food should I make some plain chicken breast and put it in the food processor so I can control the texture???

 

I feel your pain. I have tried several different meats with my two and one seems to do okay with it, but the other cries every time I put a spoonful of meat in his mouth. Refuses to eat it. I don't blame him - I think the stuff is nasty too. We have tried plain chicken (in the jar), turkey and rice, beef and vegetables, etc. but no luck.

I think I'm going to try and mix a little of the plain meats into some of their favorite veggies. If they go for that, then I'll start adding more.

I know this isn't a lot of help, but I guess it's just try, try, try again. Either that or let em eat peas!!

 

My kids have all been pretty advanced with the solids. Started at 4 months with stage 2, started puffs / bread / cheerios at 6 months, off baby food at 9-10 months (I still do an occassional jar b/c it's so easy). Anyway, my kids eat basically everything but when my girl doesn't like something she'll put her hands in her mouth (like she tries to get it out). It has nothing to do with the texture, they'll eat cookies, pasta, veggies, bread, pizza (only twice and boy did they love that), but it's her reaction when she doesn't like something ... she doesn't want to swallow (tries to gag), but it's stuck in her mouth, kind of thing (I just take it out with my finger). It's has nothing to do with the texture. Your one girl sounds very similar.

BTW, there is no difference between stage 1 and 2, except there are more mixes and more foods in stage 3. Stage 3 is supposed to be more chunky but that's not true for all jars.

Just keep trying different things and try meat again some other time (I personally think the meat in jars is gross, I hardly give it to them, b/c I honestly feel sorry for them). Try fish, or fish nuggets (I buy tilapia, etc.) ... very soft, healthy and easy to eat ...

HTH!

 

It could be taste, it could be texture. Where is that manual?

Wait a while with her and try something else. I didn't ever use jar foods for my kids-I wouldn't give them something that I, myself, wouldn't eat. And there is no way I would touch that stuff! I just cut up table food really, really tiny.

Good luck!

 

Thanks everyone! I think its the taste... I tried it again but this time mixed it with a lot of plain sweet potatoes and she ate a little of it, but still made faces and clamped her mouth shut at the end. Meanwhile Ana had no problem with it. Since they haven't disliked anything before I didn't know that the gagging and pulling at her tongue could be because she didn't like it! Learn something new every day!

Thanks everyone!

 

Just wanted to say that we are all first time mom's once. I'm 35 and I've been a mom for 13 years (to one DS) and I feel like a first time mom and a complete idiot when it comes to these two... so, no these are not dumb questions. I find these types of posts very useful so I can learn how to tackle these challenges.

With my son (like I mentioned this was years ago) I made ground chicken in the skillet and then put it in the foor processor with apples. I found he did better with new things when i would combine them with a favorite...like apples. I steamed the apples before processing of course.

Best wishes.

 

I never did jarred meats because they seem too much like cat food to me. I gave them chopped meats and flaked fish from about 9 months on and they did fine with it. They liked their meat very moist and chicken breast is pretty dry so I'd either add gravy or give them some of the dark meat. We did fork-mashed banana and avocado for their first texture foods and around 9 months I just quit pureeing some of their veggies -- small soft chunks instead -- and they LOVED it.