How do I get my ds to eat?

[BeedieWeedieB]

OK, to start off I know it is ok for kiddos to be soley on bm but I think he is defiantely past that stage, meaning he wants more.
Ds has been soley breastfed, he is now almost 8 months. We have at times tried a little cereal with him, I think the first time around 4 months, I know early but he is a BIG boy so eating a ton and making talking care of my other son who has special needs hard, plus he has GERD and we wanted to give it a shot. Well he loved it....for about a week. OK no prob, we stopped figured hes still young not an issue, he still watched us eat like a hawk, grabbed glasses out of our hands and tried to drink from them, and tried to out our food he coulod grab in his mouth too. So every so often we would try the cereal or some babyfood, and he's really been hit or miss. By that I mean, he will love the babyfood for about a week and then hate it for another 2 weeks or so, we have tried Earths Best baby food, Gerber and homemade, same to each of them, thing is he loves to eat, he eats the dissolving wagon wheel things like crazy, he loves biter biscuits, homemade fries, basically finger food. I think that is the issue he wants to be able to feed himself, but at this age that would require more solid finger food and at 8 months he still has no teeth so I can only give him really soft things or things that will dissolve. When he goes a day with nothing but mom I am plugged in every hour or hour and a half day and night. I know he needs more food, he's a 8 month old wearing 18month cloths he's so big (gots his mama's backside even without the fluff)

Any suggestions of what to try, finger foods that dissolve goos, he's got the grinding montion down pat, just no teeth to help.

thanks,
heidi

[cicily]

Have you tried the Gerber Fruit or Veggie Puffs (Walmart makes a generic version)? My son loved those at your son's age and he still does at 13 months. They are easy to eat for those without many teeth (or none) - they dissolve really quickly.

[CarrieMF]

teeth are no indicator on whether they can have more solid food or not. When they get teeth it is the front on, not the ones that are needed for chewing food. They're only good for biting food off which the gums will do too. My oldest was 19 months when she got teeth and she was eating steak.

At 8months they do love to feed themselves, they will gum the foods up. You can make thick cereal that he can feed himself, give him cheese, yogurt, cut up cooked veggies & meat, cut up fruits, bread

[Leininger27]

I would say you could give him just about anything at that age. As long as he is good at gumming things up and not trying to swallow right away. I wouldn't go and give him a steak , but most foods are going to be okay. Have you tried putting foods in the mesh baggie things to see how he does eating out of them if you are worried?

I know my ds #1 was a big eater and he loved tablefood much more than any baby food! Pasta was always one of his favorites (and still is to this day). Most fruits and veggies he could eat if you cut them up.

HTH!

[geckoed]

just fyi my son was 32lbs and on JUST breast milk and ONLY nursing from one side. If you nursed him he'd build the supply to meet his need, its how breasts work.
But as far as what to feed him... everything. Babies can mash most anything with their gums. The early teeth are just "cutters" anyway so if you cut it into bite size bits he'll be fine.
avacado, peeled apple bits, diced veggies (raw would be difficult, use steamed), turkey bits, chicken, burger. My youngest LOVES stews. Barley soup drained so its just barley, beef bits, veggies. He adores chicken stew. Pasta is easy to eat. We make a soup or stew and then freeze small portions in those snack size ziploc baggies. Each day I pluck a meal from the freezer for him. I have 4-6 each of chicken stew, beef barley, vegeteble soup, chicken and rice, curried rice, fish soup, fried rice w/ veggies, apples pears and chicken in rice, chicken noodle, vegetable with stars, and cream of potato. Drained its still a bit messy as finger food but not bad and we always gave him a spoon to "play with"