Parents - feeding problems in 10 month old?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, well, after a visit with the ped today, she wants me to schedule an appointment with a speech therapist for my nearly-10-month-old son’s feeding problems. He eats pureed baby food without a problem - in fact, he eats a lot of it. However, when it comes to finger foods and ‘real’ foods - anything chunkier than what’s normally a stage 2 jar of food - he get it in his mouth and spits it right out. If by chance he happens to try to swallow, he gags.

We’ve been trying regular food since 6 1/2 months old. He has absolutely no problems picking it up and putting it in his mouth, but as soon as it touches his tongue, he spits it right out. In fact, he was shoving those dissolving Gerber Puffs in his mouth the other day like he couldn’t get enough of them - but the second he realized it was ‘real’ food, out they came. We have tried EVERYTHING. Mushed bananas, soft fruits and veggies, bread, pancakes, waffles, ravioli, pasta, mac and cheese, cereal bars, etc., etc., etc. We try giving him foods from our plates, same thing. We don’t push it, we just put it on his plate and let him pick it up, but it’s always the same result.

I didn’t want to sound like I was overreacting this morning with the ped, but I figure by 10 months, he should be able to eat something, even if it’s just those Puffs. He is perfectly on track both physically and verbally (in fact, his latest word is “Oscar” - our boy cat’s name - although it comes out more like ‘ahh-ka!’), so I’m not reallly worried about a developmental delay. In fact, the only thing that’s really bugging me about it is that he definitely seems to be ready for more substantial food - he just won’t, or can’t, eat it.

Anyone dealt with something like this? Any suggestions? We keep offering it, it’s just frustrating to offer food for 3 months, and not make ANY progress.

2

What’s the issue with going to see a speech therapist?

The speech therapist I’m in contact with professionally, teaches people with various cancers to talk and swallow again after radical surgery or radiotherapy. So as long as there isn’t an anatomical or neurological problem (and I would think the paediatrician would rule those out), it would seem that the speech therapist is the way to go.

3

While I hate to contradict your doctor (and yes, you should follow her advice), I think she’s overreacting. The fact that he’s speaking recognizable words at 9 months actually puts him *ahead *of the curve for speech development.

Some babies just aren’t ready for solid foods at 6 months, or even 10 months. Neither my son or my daughter were ready for even pureed foods until 12 months - before that, their tonguing reflex was too strong. So be it. Worldwide, feeding children solids before a year is pretty uncommon, and they can get satisfactory nutrition from breastmilk alone until 12 months. If on formula, pureed foods are just fine and will fill in any nutritional gaps. There’s just no need, other than convenience, for them to eat choking hazards like textured foods. Save yourself the worry of constant supervision - chewing foods are a headache if you have a kid prone to gagging or choking (and tongue thrusting may be a sign of this.)

Are you using jarred food? He may just not like it - neither of my kids could ever choke down that stuff. The Stage 2 stuff especially is some nasty stuff. (One of the kids I babysit uses it, and it’s all this horrid stuff like beef with vegetables and noodles. Smells like cat food and tastes like cat puke.) Try feeding him little morsels of your food, instead.

I think there are three signs to look out for for feeding readiness:
Sits unassisted (this is a sign that he’s strong enough to cough and not make it worse by flopping over if he gets something down the wrong pipe.)
No more tongue thrusting.
Interested in Mom and Dad’s food.

If the tongue thrusting persists past a year, then I’d definitely get it checked out. Until then, it’s your call.

So, take my advice to calm yourself down and follow your doctor’s advice for medical opinion. It won’t hurt to have a speech therapist take a look, and it will ease your mind (or give you specific things to do to help.)

ETA: Oh, and Puffs? Way too advanced. The feeding progression goes pureed, pureed with little tiny soft chunks, pureed with slightly larger soft chunks, soft big things like fig newtons, and only then little hard things like Cheerios and Puffs. They can’t do Puffs until they have a pincer grasp - can pick things up with one finger and the thumb, which would be shockingly rare at 9 months.

4

WhyNot, the thing is he eats Stage 2 like a champ. He’s a pretty active, hungry little guy, and he will eat baby food like crazy. But we’ve been offering him regular food almost as long as we’ve been offering jarred baby food (which he loves…go figure…), and it’s only the regular food that he gags on and spits out. Anything pureed and smooth is fine - anything with any kind of texture or chunkiness to it - comes right out.

So it’s not a matter of not being ready for solids, it’s a matter of not being able to eat real food. He has the chewing motion down - he chews with his baby food, and the two or three times we’ve been able to get real food in him, he chews it (of course, then he usually gags on it). He’s certainly interested in our food - he grabs at it. He has the pincer grasp, and picks food up and puts it in his mouth (he was picking up peas last night). But 99.9% of the time, anything real gets spit out and/or gagged on.

But he’s definitely not having speech issues - he’s definitely talking, mostly the usual Dada/Daddy, Mama (when he’s upset), and we’ve been getting some keeeeee! for kitty, (and believe me, hearing him say “Oscar” shocked the hell out of us), and he’s on-time physically with everything.

Szlater, there’s no issue with the speech therapist - I have no problem going to see one if that’s what he needs. I’m just wondering if anyone else has dealt with these issues so that maybe there’s something else I can try at home.

5

Ahh, I misinterpreted your OP. Sorry.

Good luck with your son.

6

counts

The Nephew is about the size of a force-fed calf (ok, not so much but definitely big for his age) and he wasn’t eating chunky food until he was 14mo or so. And he was quite particular about what he tried to swallow and what came back out: he used to reject ham, which apparently was his Mom’s and MomBro’s first solid - omelette went right in, an experiment with fried egg also worked well but his Mom was afraid he’d choke on the bread. Now that he’s 20mo he’s perfectly happy to have ham and I’m told he’s been investigating salami but not quite eating it yet.

So long as he’s getting adequate nutrition and being under 1yo, it doesn’t sound to me like this is something to worry about, really…
Nava whose first solid meal was one of Daddy’s sunny-side-up eggs.

7

Nava, that makes me feel a bit better. Thanks.

This is one of those times where I really need to try to stop comparing to what my nephew did or what my friends’ babies are doing - because I think that’s where I’m worrying myself. My cousin’s daughter, who’s six days younger than my kid, was eating everything offered to her a month ago when we were in Florida for a wedding, while my kid turned down everything but baby food and bottles. My friends’ kids all seem to be on regular food with just a tiny bit of baby food at this point.

I’m kind of wondering if it’s reflux-related - because he’s had severe reflux since birth. Maybe it’s just going to take him longer to eat regular food because of the reflux.

8

I think I know of a toddler* who had reflux issues as a baby who didn’t start eating regular food before 18 months and needed therapy at 18 months or so. He’d do the spit out thing you’ve described. I’m not actually sure that I’ve heard any follow-ups about the kid since that point, so I don’t know how he’s doing now.

*My knowledge of said toddler is 3rd or 4th hand–and said toddler’s mother has issues. Mother does not do anything maternal except play with her babies. This probably has nothing to do with the kid not eating non-pureed food at 18 months. But it might explain why nothing was done about the situation earlier. Mother didn’t care and Father was too overworked to follow-up on any oddities. (Both parents worked full-time, and the toddler in question has a twin sister).

9

Elza, my son was born August 18th. He doesn’t eat anything past #2. He gags also.

Dear gawd your doctor is a freak.

This is your first kid, right? Well, let me sit you down right here and get some things straight. Kids develop at wildly different levels. Some crawl, then walk. Some go straight to walking. Some refuse to walk until they are well over a year and a half. Some don’t talk until mater, etc. etc.

My kid isn’t nearly to the point of speech as yours. He hasn’t even said any word yet. But I am not worried a whit. My first also was delayed in speech, but now in first grade is in the highest levels of speech, reading, and math. His first cousin of the same age spoke at 6 months, yet lags behind in school. The thing is, with kids, current performance is no guarantee of future ability. Our ped is a rock star, she really calmed us down. We were so worried about guideposts and milestones with #1 son. Her regular line was "Oh well, those guideposts can be measured in +/- a year, don’t worry. It all shakes out.

10

Got it. Does that include really bland “real” foods like loose oatmeal? My next guess is supertaster - that “real” food just tastes too strongly of whatever it is for him. He likes the salty/sweet blandness of jarred food.

Have you tried Stage 3 baby food? That’s the stuff that has (very soft) chunks in it like little ball noodles. That might help you be certain if it’s flavor or texture; if it’s a flavor thing he should eat that. If not, then I’m stumped. How does the tell the difference between the texture of a softly cooked home carrot and a softly cooked jarred baby food carrot?

If he just prefers jarred food, I’m afraid I’m not much help on transitioning him - I used homemade food from the start (Not in a mommyboard bragging way - my kids just refused the jar.) Maybe mix some of your food into his food and gradually adjust the ratio in favor of your food.

One other thing I’ll add though is that babies are smarter than we think. Even though my (now 2 years old) hates the jarred baby food, she loves eating out of baby food jars. I think she watched me feeding the babysat kid and got jealous. I’ve offered her tastes of his food, and she’ll try it and say “yuck” but still demand the jar. I’ve finally taken to putting her regular food IN a washed out baby food jar and she loves it. Maybe he’s figured out that food that comes from a jar is his, and if you put homemade food in a baby food jar, he’ll try it!

11

Okay, you made me laugh :smiley: . (And my boy was born on August 19th - he should’ve been born on the 18th, as I went into labor with him at 1:30 AM on the 18th, but then he decided he didn’t want to come out, so he waited until the 19th.)

That’s the thing - he’s doing so well otherwise - I think she just wants to rule out any problems early, so that if there’s not a physical reason for it, we know “Okay, he’s just not ready for it”. We started offering table foods at 6 1/2 months because I really wanted him to go to table foods as soon as possible - I’d much rather he eat that than the jarred stuff - and we’ve made absolutely no progress. So I think she’s just being proactive.

Part of it is that he’s starting to get frustrated with being spoon-fed, but won’t eat anything else. I’ve started giving him his own spoons to play with while I feed him, although I’m not sure how long that’s going to go over.

12

Yep, we’ve tried stage 3. He gags on that, too, unless it’s the smoother breakfast stuff. I actually never even wanted to go to Stage 3 - I was planning to try and transition straight to table foods at 8 months or so, but this has thrown a monkey wrench in that.

I’ve never given him homemade carrots (Something I read - about the cooking process the baby food companies use compared to cooking carrots at home - I could be pulling that out of my ass, but I swear I read something about that), but if I give him mashed banana - he gags on it and spits it out. But if I give him the same thing pureed into a smooth mass (usually from a jar, although I’ve thrown a few things into the food processor), he eats it fine. If I give him some diced peaches or pears (usually from my own no-sugar fruit that I eat - very soft), he will take a bite, and immediately spit it back out. Same with peas, green beans, etc.

So I’m not sure it’s necessarily that he prefers the jars because he’s getting really annoyed with being spoon-fed (see above post), it’s that he doesn’t seem to like the texture of regular food, no matter how soft. Unless it’s pureed very smooth, he can’t seem to get it down.

And he will eat oatmeal - but if it’s too thick, we get gagging. We’ve tried stuff like yogurt and my sitter gave him a little pudding (I wasn’t thrilled with that because of the sugar, but he only had a little), and he eats that fine.

My MIL said that my husband had issues with texture as a kid, so I’m wondering if that’s been passed along to the kid.

13

Elza, I have a question. Do you or the daddy have a strong gag reflex? My wife gags really easily, so I figure that plays into the gag thing for our baby.

14

I had an acquaintance that adopted about the same time we did. Her child was a toddler from India who’d never had solid food. And six months after adoption, the child still wasn’t eating solid foods and had been working with a therapist for months. The therapist said there is a window for this sort of development and kids missing the window for development have a very hard time picking up the skill.

So I’d go see the therapist - maybe they will say “oh, don’t worry until 14 months” - maybe she/he will want to do something. But I wouldn’t sit on it - I’d talk to an expert who understands what the normal development truly is. You don’t want to be told “oh, this would have been easier if you’d have talked to us three months ago.”

It could be a sensory thing - perfectly bright kids with normal development have sensory issues - my son had that tendancy as a small kid (not necessary with food, but seams on socks or clothing that hit in the wrong spot).

15

My husband does. A pretty bad one, actually - he almost always gags when changing a poopy diaper, and when taking out the trash. I’ve always kind of teased him about it, but that’s a good point. And if it was JUST the gagging, I don’t think I’d be as concerned - it’s the spitting everything out that’s not pureed, too. I think that’s what made my ped want to have it checked out.

Yeah, I think that’s what my ped wants to do. They didn’t seem surprised at his age when I called the speech therapy center, so maybe they figure if she’s referring us, it’s for a good reason.

I actually did call a friend of mine to ask her if I’m overreacting (because she will tell me if I am :wink: ), and she doesn’t think I am - she’s seen the way my son eats, and she’s seen him gag and spit out food constantly. She said the same thing you do - it’s better to rule something out now or deal with it now than wait until he’s older and it’s a more difficult issue to handle.

16

I know a little girl who didn’t eat “solid” foods until she was about two years old. When they first started trying chunkier food, she just kept choking and gagging and her mother got scared and just stopped trying altogether. Then one day her mother caught me feeding her ground turkey from a lasagna, and she was scarfing it down. Ever since then she ate solid food just fine.

I’d say just feed him what he likes and he will eventually learn and even demand to eat what you eat. There’s no need to rush. Kind of like potty training. My doctor told me you don’t see any five year olds who aren’t potty trained. Don’t worry, it will happen eventually.

Caveat: I am not a doctor or even a mother (yet).

17

Is the little one continuing to grow and gain weight? If he’s an active little boy, then I wouldn’t fret yet. Make sure there’s no physiological reasons why he can’t tolerate solid foods, then wait and see.

IIRC, babies’ larynx and esophagus are separate at birth? That’s why they can nurse and breathe at the same time. After awhile this changes…maybe there’s some delay in this? IANAD, but I believe I read this in one of my baby books. Please feel free to correct me if I have misremembered.

18

Elza,

May be a long shot, but my niece has Sensory Defensiveness and had similar problems with eating as your son.

My sister found it really strange when she tried to sit Maddy in the grass while wearing shorts at 10 months old. She’d pull her legs up as soon as they touched a blade and would scream.

She took her to the pediatrician and found out that she had SD. My sister just thought she was a picky eater. Not so.

It may be something to look in to.

How does your son do with different feeling fabrics? Does he ever scream when you wash his hair?

19

I’ve never met a baby who didn’t.

20

I think this is a good idea - to make sure nothing is medically wrong by contacting a therapist. However (and I’m obviously not a doctor), I would also be inclined to agree with those who feel that this probably is normal. My son, who is 13 months old now, refused to eat anything chunkier than solid cheerios until about 11 or 12 months. Now he eats mostly finger foods and gets really ticked when we try to feed him.

So definitely see the therapist, but I wouldn’t get too worried. As stated earlier, babies develop at their own pace. For example, mine’s not walking yet (takes one or two steps now and then), but he can say seven words. I tell people he’s focusing on more intellectual pursuits before he takes his first forays into serious walking. Right now walking is more of a pastime than anything else. :wink: