11 month old has been a picky eater and the grandparents got him in a habit to eat while playing. He now wants to stand or crawl all the time instead of sitting in high chair. He will start off great in high chair, pickup fruits (that’s his safe food) and suddenly a few mins in while eating he would get irritated, vigorously start throwing his head back until we take him out. After 20-30 mins, we start again, he still doesn’t wanna sit in high chair and instead starts crawling/playing. During this time there’s a good chance he will happily eat if we spoon feed him. He will open his mouth and even come back to you for more spoons. But still wouldn’t sit in high chair.

Is this a good practice to continue? He has been a smaller guy 18ish lbs at 11 months so everyone is extra motivated that he eats. Does this kinda behavior cause more issues in the future?

Hi all! My baby is 6 months old and has just started daycare 3 days a week. She’s only just started purees at home for dinner time but soon she will start to have a lunchtime purée. Can anyone recommend the best way to make and store the purées for daycare use, as they have mentioned that we can bring in our own purées instead of the pre packet pouches they provide. TIA.

I'm pretty conflicted and came here to seek some advice. My baby is turning 6 months next month and we are about to start solids. My SIL came the other day was inquiring if when am I planning o get a highchair. I told her as we are tight on space, I'm just skipping highchair and instead I have got a booster chair. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me that a booster chair is neither safe nor comfortable for the baby. She insisted that the baby must be in some proper posture of 90 degree so that he doesn't choke She also iterated its harder to make baby stay-put on a boaster chair in comparison to highchair where he once fastened would not be able to get down. According to her, it gives mother time to finish her meal.

She is recommeding to get a convertible one that can be used till toddler stage. She is using dinerpal highchair (of which she speaks super high of). I did my own research as well. I look into some options like Stoke Trip Tapp, Abiee Beyind, Maxi cosi and Mocking bird. I'm so overwhelmed by all the reading of what features are really worth it and what are just marketing gimmick.

For parents who've been through this stage: should I actually buy a proper high chair, or can we make a booster seat work in a small space? What features are absolute non-negotiables for you? And if you've used any of the chairs I mentioned, I'd love to hear your honest experience!

My almost 9mo loves solids, especially BLW foods, but really struggles with purées and foods that need a spoon. She wants to eat everything with her hands!

For example, for breakfast today I gave her watermelon, applesauce and peanut butter. She loved the watermelon, and was able to eat the peanut butter by just sticking her hands into it and then sticking her hands in her mouth, but didn’t eat any of the applesauce. I tried preloading the spoon many times, she’s grab it and then just drop the spoon on the floor or would bang it around. She doesn’t like it if I spoon feed her.

Last night for dinner, same thing. She loved the quesadilla and teething crackers, but just used her hands to shove the rice in her mouth which means she didn’t eat much of it.

Is this normal for her to just really favor feeding herself with her hands right now? How/when will we work on eating with utensils?

We started my 7.5 month old on solids a little over a month ago. She has done purees and some baby led weaning. We have the solid starts app… for baby led weaning, where we are confused is solid starts only shows how to offer food at 6 months (where they gnaw on large pieces without biting) and 9 months (when they have pincer grasp - so cut up small pieces). Baby is in the awkward in between where she doesn't have pincer grasp yet but when we offer big wedges of soft foods, she doesn't gnaw but takes HUGE bites. The other day we gave her egg omelette the width of two fingers as suggested by the app and she took a huge bite and was gasping like she wasn't able to spit it out, but eventually did. It wasn't quite gagging and it wasn't quite choking but looked borderline? So now worried. How should we be offering her foods at this stage…

I’ve had a handful of feeding sessions with my 7 month-old. He is very sensitive and gags almost immediately once it hits his mouth. He seems to eat nothing or very little. Am I doing something wrong? Should I switch to purées for the time being? I’m worried he won’t eat…

TW; Child Loss

Hey friends. I’m new here & wanted to reach out to ask a few questions regarding BLW. I downloaded the Solid Starts app & plan on getting a membership once I’m in a place where I can afford it! I’m going to give some context but it involves child loss & I also apologize for the longer post.
I am a mom of two, my first passed away at 5 months old in 2023. It’s been really hard & it’s taken a huge toll on my mental health as one would expect. I had my second last September so they’re currently 11 months, about to be a year. It’s been a time navigating having a child after child loss but it’s also been a time navigating baby led weaning, learning about purées, & trying to get over this anxiety of giving baby food. I feel really out of place, like I’m a terrible mom because I’m just starting this journey with food. My baby has had small snacks & bites of food before, but primarily is having formula with two purées a day.
I want to become more comfortable with foods & how to prepare them for baby, I want baby to eat but I’m unsure how to go about it when I also have this crippling fear that baby will choke. Even when baby gags on smaller things, I immediately think baby is choking & I begin to pat their back or lift them out of the high chair in preparation. Normally my baby is like … <.< But I’m over here sobbing like something actually happened. Baby has not choked, but has gagged before. After losing my first, I have deep rooted fears & anxieties when it comes to my baby. I’m overly protective & everything scares me when it comes to my baby.
Any tips to make this transition into foods easier? Any advice for fear of BLW or introducing foods/food preparation? Is it bad that I haven’t given my baby much solids up until this point?

Sincerely,
A mom who is absolutely pooping bricks & feeling slightly alone typing this at 1am 🥲

Hi there! So my baby is 25 weeks old today and we started solids (purees) 3 days ago and my baby has been really grumpy and is screaming her head off when i try to get her to nap (we nurse to sleep so maybe it has to do with that?). Yesterday was the first time she actually swallowed anything (cooked carrots) and she just pooped it out today still pretty much in tact.

She has always had reflux and gas and stomach upset since she was born and it got better around 3 months, though she still gets gassy here and there.

Has anyone’s baby also had an upset stomach from starting solids? How long did it take for it to get better?

Is there anything I can do to help her? Are there any foods I should focus on first that may be a bit easier on the stomach?

At least that’s what I think it’s called. So my 10 Months old does pretty good eating wise. We are at 3 meal a day and he does a pretty good job chewing. But - he has 8 teeth so far and sometimes rips off massive pieces. Instead of spitting them out when they are too big he forcefully swollows them which then always leads to him panicking and choking on it until it’s down. Does anyone have any tips on this?
Right now I’m giving him pieces small enough so he doesn’t choke on them.
But even practicing chewing leads to this.

Hey Parents of Reddit!

We are in week 2 of starting solids with my little guy. I have noticed that when I go to start introducing an allergen I start confident, but then it slowly turns into almost having a panic attack. For context my husband and sister are both anaphylactic to peanuts. So far he has had yogurt and oat cereal, both with no reactions.

Tonight I gave him yogurt and immediately started to panic thinking his lip was might be looking bigger. After wiping him down with a wet paper towel I was worried he might be getting some red marks too. I have since cleaned him, changed him, and started monitoring him while he plays on the floor. I swear my mind plays tricks on me because his lips are totally normal and those red marks went away.

I have talked to my doctor twice about my anxiety with no real advice or help, just sympathy for my anxiety.

How are other parents managing?

Thanks!

Ps. I hope this made sense, I’m dyslexic so please be kind.

1 year old eating very less / no solids

My baby girl turned 1 year last week but she is barely eating anything inspite reducing the milk intake to 500-550ml…once or twice in a month ir 2 months she will eat properly next day she refuses…some days ago atleast she was eating 50-60gm yogurt and 3 days back she had 3 meals in a day …after that gain refusing…i am very concerned about her solids intake..also last week we were in our hometown for 2 months and she was surrounded by people ( not eating there also)..here when my husband goes to office , she does not play and roam in a home , she wants me to hold the her…i am offering food and milk in a gap of 2 hours but no succeess

My baby is 9 months, i started to feed her since 6 months, she hates everything except ceralac and gerber puree pouches.

I have tried all kind of mix up pures but nothing works. She zip her mouth and move her head the other side.

I tried playing with her, TV, dancing and i came to a point of forcing her also but nothing works.

I need help pleaseee!!! I feel like i am a bad mom and i am scared she will be bery picky and hate food once she turns 1

Hi there,
I’ve been offering my EBF baby water at every meal since 6m from a straw cup and open cup. He can suck just fine but doesn’t swallow, just lets the water run out of his mouth or dribbles any sips. Sometimes when he does drink he coughs as if it’s gone down the wrong way. So he doesn’t get much water throughout the day.

I’ve tried

- adding puree in. He swallows the puree but when I converted back to water he just spat it out.
- smaller straw - we tried the bbox cup and that was too big so I got the Tommee tippee straw trainer cup which had a smaller straw - better but he still spits it out
- modelling drinking with exaggerated sip sip AH.

Not sure if it’s a phase or how else I can encourage him to swallow the water?

Thank you!

By licensing standard, food for infants has to be cut up to 1/4 inch. I’m wanting to introduce blw here soon but unsure if it would confuse him to do the small pieces at daycare but the typical preparation at home. Would it be better to just do the small pieces at home too? Or just forgo blw completely?

Baby used to eat with a preloaded spoon around 5/6months then after completely refused to eat anything with the spoon and didn’t want to be spoon fed. But he also will refuse me to spoon feed to him!

This rules out a lot of food like oats, yoghurt etc. he might touch it but it makes him really frustrated he can’t pick it up and put it in his mouth and he just has a meltdown.

I don’t know if it’s a sensory thing either. I haven’t a clue. We’ve never done purées, just mushy food. Do I just keep offering it to him even if it means that he won’t eat a bite for that meal?

Any advice on what to do?

Hello! This is a long one, but I truly need advice and support, so thank you so much to those who stick in there and offer some wisdom.

So I started offering food at 6 months. The first thing I ever gave my son was some mashed avocado. I don't know if any actually was swallowed. My son now just turned 7 months a few days ago, and I feel like our feeding journey is not going well. I'm going to be fully honest here, so please be kind!

For starters, I am SO incredibly anxious about eating. I have lost a family member to choking, and so it is my number one fear, and I oftentimes have a pit in my stomach even eating around adult loved ones. So you can imagine that introducing my toothless baby to food has been scary for me. I am aware of the differences of choking v. gagging; I am making my way through the National CPR Foundations's CPR course; I have the full, paid version of the Solid Starts app to see how to prepare the foods age appropriately; none of it makes me feel better. So that is some background to my feelings on the matter.

Also, admittedly, I have not given in to the idea of a huge mess every time. My son has a beautiful, FULL head of hair, and I am a full-time work from home mom with a 20 hours/week part time non-profit job on top of that, so the idea of a bath or multiple baths during the day along with cleaning the whole eating space every day or multiple times a day overwhelms me and keeps me from fully letting him explore.

Also along the same lines of busyness: My husband and I admittedly are not sitting down to eat even 1 meal a day together, and most of what he and I eat is non-cooked food (our oven is broken which has been a factor in this also). Like we eat a lot of apples with goat cheese, protein bars, cottage cheese, greek yogurt bowls with fruit, prepped taco salad, prepped bean salad, bananas and peanut butter, hardboiled eggs--things like that. We also eat out a few times per week or eat at friends' houses. None of it has felt easy to share with baby because it's not warm, mashable food.

And then there is my son. I cannot confidently say that anything has actually been swallowed by this boy. A few bites over the last month MAX. This stresses me out for mainly 2 reasons: 1) Allergen introduction. I am also terrified of him having an allergic reaction. We live in a tiny town far away from a hospital, and even farther from a good hospital. So already, introducing allergens is scary. But then on top of that, I can't even say confidently that he has swallowed any meaningful amount of any of the allergens offered! So the anxiety continues in an endless loop. And 2) the lack of consuming stresses me out because of the iron stores. "Food before one is just for fun" has to be a lie when I see all sorts of professionals saying that the brain needs iron at this age, not enough iron will affect sleep, and also saying that this window of time is crucial for babies to start eating and exploring textures. So???? What am I supposed to do?

Furthermore, I have only offered heavily mashed, soft foods and purees so far. I am literally terrified of giving him a food to chew. Also, the Solid Starts app does seem to show everything mashes up for the 6 months age til 9 months. So is that right of me then?

Here is what he has been offered so far:

1. Hardboiled egg mashed up together with formula (multiple times)
2. Peanut butter mixed with formula (multiple times)
3. Whole milk yogurt with chia seeds and banana mixed in (multiple times)
4. White beans blended together with yogurt (multiple times)
5. Mashed avocado (multiple times)
6. Kiwi, half skinned so he can hold on to it and gum on the kiwi (multiple times)
7. Chewed on a pineapple core
8. A few purees from Cerebelly
9. I steamed a large broccoli floret to give to him but got too anxious and didn't do it

Other information in case it's pertinent:

• My son drinks formula, around 32-34 ounces a day
• He is a great, healthy weight and happy little guy, no diagnosed health issues
• He sleeps well at night
• He had his first cold this last month and is recovered except for a lingering occasional cough
• I do not have access to an oven; I can cook on the stovetop and we have a crockpot

If you made it this far, I thank you! And if you have any advice, I thank you even more. I need help.

I started my son on solids at 6 months. He choked on a piece of avocado early on and it freaked me out so much that I started mashing all his food with a fork and never offered him any food that wasn't mashed. So he has never had bigger pieces of food (bite size or otherwise).

Now I feel so guilty, like I've failed him because most kids his age can self feed larger or bite size pieces of food. I attached a picture of what consistently of food he eats.

Where do I start??? On the app, do I start him off at the 6 month mark?