Baby Food vs. Big People Food

Hi. My son is 12 mo. old now and I am having an extremely hard time
switching him over to big boy food. He ONLY wants baby food in jars. He'll
eat crackers and peas, but that's about it. He screams hysterically when I
show him the "big boy" food. When I say big boy food, I mean Mac&Cheese,
spaghetti, cheese balls, etc. In fact he didn't even want anything to do
with his birthday cake! If I pull out a baby food jar he opens wide. I
even tried blending his food to give it that baby food texture. He might
take one bite, but when he realizes it's not Gerber, he tries to pull the
food out of his mouth and starts crying. I'm stumped! Do I give in and
just keep giving him baby food or is there some secret I haven't heard
about? Suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Amy

Amy Hunt wrote:
Hi. My son is 12 mo. old now and I am having an extremely hard time
switching him over to big boy food. He ONLY wants baby food in jars. He'll
eat crackers and peas, but that's about it. He screams hysterically when I
show him the "big boy" food. When I say big boy food, I mean Mac&Cheese,
spaghetti, cheese balls, etc. In fact he didn't even want anything to do
with his birthday cake! If I pull out a baby food jar he opens wide. I
even tried blending his food to give it that baby food texture. He might
take one bite, but when he realizes it's not Gerber, he tries to pull the
food out of his mouth and starts crying. I'm stumped! Do I give in and
just keep giving him baby food or is there some secret I haven't heard
about? Suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Amy



Have you tried putting the mac and cheese in a baby food
jar when he isn't looking and then opening it up in front
of him with the mac 'n' cheese inside?

What if you accidentally ran out of baby food? What would
he eat then?

scott

He's too smart for the old switch-a-roo routine. As far as running out of
baby food...he does eat yogurt, bananas, peas, crackers and other little
things, just not family meals. I'm working on it!

Amy


Have you tried putting the mac and cheese in a baby food
jar when he isn't looking and then opening it up in front
of him with the mac 'n' cheese inside?

What if you accidentally ran out of baby food? What would
he eat then?

scott

In article s.com,
Amy Hunt wrote:
Hi. My son is 12 mo. old now and I am having an extremely hard time
switching him over to big boy food. He ONLY wants baby food in jars. He'll
eat crackers and peas, but that's about it. He screams hysterically when I
show him the "big boy" food. When I say big boy food, I mean Mac&Cheese,
spaghetti, cheese balls, etc. In fact he didn't even want anything to do
with his birthday cake! If I pull out a baby food jar he opens wide. I
even tried blending his food to give it that baby food texture. He might
take one bite, but when he realizes it's not Gerber, he tries to pull the
food out of his mouth and starts crying. I'm stumped! Do I give in and
just keep giving him baby food or is there some secret I haven't heard
about? Suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

12 months is about the time to switch to solid food (meaning baby
food, not milk). It may be a bit early for the foods you are trying
for this particular child. Twelve months is a bit early for cake.

Commercial baby food in jars are (in my
opinion) a mistake ever to introduce to children---many are so loaded
with sugar that the children start expecting high doses of sugar in
everything.

What are his favorite flavors? Carrots, peas? Try making home
versions of those (blended still---chewing may still be a barrier to
new foods).

A good early food is baby oatmeal, cooked in breast milk. If you are
not breast feeding and there is no allergy to cow's milk, then baby
oatmeal cooked in cow's milk is good to try also. Cook the stuff with
enough liquid that it is quite soft (not quite runny)---as the kid
gets older you can switch him to oatmeals with more texture.




--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

Hi. My son is 12 mo. old now and I am having an extremely hard time
switching him over to big boy food. He ONLY wants baby food in jars.

Have you tried the "stages" baby foods that come in jars, but have chunks in
them?

Amy wrote in rs.com:

He's too smart for the old switch-a-roo routine.**As*far*as*running*out*of
baby food...he does eat yogurt, bananas, peas, crackers and other little
things, just not family meals.**I'm*working*on*it!

Is he fussy about which jars he has, or does he eat most of them? If he
eats a wide variety, it might be the texture that matters.

A friend of mine had this problem: she solved it using 'real people' food
of the same flavour as the jars. So she would mash a very tiny amount -
about a teaspoon of Heinz Baked Beans (in tomato sauce, a ubiquitous UK
side dish) to a jar of Heinz Baby Baked Beans. Her baby accepted that,
so she gradually upped the percentage of real baked beans to baby baked
beans.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Yes, I've tried the stage 3 food, but he does not like the texture. If I
had it to do over again, I would be making his baby food, not buying it in
jars. I guess I will just keep experimenting until I find something he
likes. Thanks.

Amy

"Kevin Karplus" wrote in message
...
Commercial baby food in jars are (in my
opinion) a mistake ever to introduce to children---many are so loaded
with sugar that the children start expecting high doses of sugar in
everything.


Well, at least here in the US, the ONLY ones that have any added sugar in
them are clearly labeled as DESERT, so the sugar thing is a non-issue for
jar foods.

Well, at least here in the US, the ONLY ones that have any added sugar in
them are clearly labeled as DESERT, so the sugar thing is a non-issue for
jar foods.

Sure it's not added sand? ;-)

In article s.com,
Amy wrote:
Yes, I've tried the stage 3 food, but he does not like the texture. If I
had it to do over again, I would be making his baby food, not buying it in
jars. I guess I will just keep experimenting until I find something he
likes. Thanks.

IME, 1yos often start showing an interest in what everyone else is
eating. I would keep giving him his jars, but do it at the dinner
table while everyone else is eating a regular meal. Eventually he may
want to try a bite of what you have.

You might also try mixing a little stage 3 food into a stage 2 jar of the
same type, to get him used to a little more texture, gradually.

Good luck, and don't worry.

--Robyn