What in the world do you all feed your 9 and 10 month olds? I’m at a loss, PLEASE HELP!

[justanotherabdullah]

So, my twins just turned 9 months. One has no teeth yet and is incredibly picky and will push away almost everything I give him. The other just started to get a couple of teeth and is a bit less picky. I’ve asked a similar question before and read other posts, and everyone says they just give their babies bites of whatever they’re eating. This makes little sense to me and wouldn’t work for us because despite my best efforts, my boys are not at all ready for table food. Trying this always results in them adamantly refusing the spoon.

There are many mixed messages out there about giving them small bites of food even with no teeth, letting them start to feed themselves, etc., but also how they should be getting 3 meals and two snacks at this age (all food groups of fruits, grains, protein, veggies). There’s no way they would be getting anywhere near that if I did this.
Anyway, they are at that weird age where they’re getting too old for purée but are not yet ready for table food. So, I’m desperately turning to others to find out what kind of meals you give/gave to your littles around this age. Or if you have any tips. I’m one tired and stressed out mama. Thank you!

 

[mirandaaa]

@justanotherabdullah We followed the Rapley method with our little ones.

So basically I gave them anything that was baby proof and if they decided to not eat it, that was totally fine.
They started to eat meals when they were 12 months I believe and now they are absolute monsters when it comes to food. 1 year and 5 months in.

Food under one is just for fun. Don’t force them, make sure that they are not hungry and really: no pressure. They are so little.

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@mirandaaa I hasn’t heard of this - thank you for the info!

 

[rosesandthorns]

@mirandaaa Didn’t know there was a name to this method, because this is exactly what I’ve been doing. Usually steamed veggies, shredded chicken, sometimes rotini noodles, cheeses, etc. I just let them play with everything, and they usually eat most of it. They get a lot of finger foods. They are just over a year and eat 3 meals a day + snacks and they eat a LOT.

 

[rbthorne]

@justanotherabdullah Babies without teeth can eat solid food as long as it’s the right shape and soft enough that it can be mashed by their gums. My kids got teeth early but I have a niece who still doesn’t have teeth and she eats lots of different foods. Scrambled eggs, steamed veggies, shredded meat (mostly just sucks on the juices), fish, bananas and other soft fruits, etc. Just start putting food in front of them and they’ll figure it out. They may just play with it for a little while before they start putting it in their mouth and that’s okay. I recommend taking an infant cpr course so you’re more confident with them gagging or choking.

 

[agse]

@rbthorne Good rule of thumb I read about this: anything you can mash with your fingers, they can mash with their gums.

 

[lutherisch]

@justanotherabdullah It is an awkward food age while they're learning to eat solid foods. Try not to let it stress you out too much if they don't eat loads right now. Just making a mess and trying things is sometimes how it goes.

It's not always workable to give them what you're having, but you can make it convenient by cooking things where there's something they can try. Eg. Some side vegetables you can all have.

For purees, porridge, soup etc, I would do one big bowl and one spoon and feed them both spoonfuls. It makes it easier that way!

Other foods that are easy to try:
Soft fruits. A whole ripe pear for example.
Omlette
Pancakes
Steamed or boiled root vegetables
Small sized pasta shapes

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@lutherisch Thank you for these great suggestions!

 

[repentchristian]

@justanotherabdullah I do BLW with my girls. Making sure foods are soft and cut properly. The biggest success thus far in any foods I’ve tried : mozzarella shredded cheese. Also another success and makes great funny videos: one big scoop of geek yogurt on their tray with some berries or bananas cut up. It’s adorable and yummy

I try to make smaller meals of whatever we are having. For breakfast I’ve also found huge success in scrambled eggs (hard boiled eggs are great too), variations of baby or BLW pancakes (you can find tons of tin recipes on Pinterest). And i rotate experimenting with different veggies and carbs. Sometimes I do veggie pastas (zucchini or butternut squash noodles). Buckwheat (smushed with a fork), veggie pasta (cook it a bit longer to make it tender), spaghetti pasta, mashed potatoes. You name it. They’ve also tried ground beef, ground chicken, shredded chicken, ground turkey.

Sorry for the essay! I used to be terrified but I realized it can be kind of fun. I keep an eye on sodium of course but my girls were great eaters even before teeth came into the picture at 9 for one and 10 months for the other. Best of wishes

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@repentchristian These are great ideas, thank you for taking the time to write this!

 

[how2101]

@justanotherabdullah I gave mine teething crackers a few times a day. I let them eat them wherever they were and that seemed to help the transition.

 

[jamesrabbit]

@justanotherabdullah I agree with the previous poster that you can feed them solid food even if they have no teeth as long as it's quite soft and in very tiny pieces. When mine were about that age, I would steam a chicken breast and vegetables and cut them into tiny cubes. The also liked stewing beef in the crock pot. It gets really soft and easy to eat without teeth. One trick that worked with my oldest, was pancakes. I would add mashed vegetables and/or fruit to pancakes and cut them up very small and he loved to feed the pieces to himself. I even made savory pancakes with shredded cooked chicken mixed into the batter. (No syrup). Good luck!

 

[stargazer123]

@justanotherabdullah My singleton is allergic to eggs which is an awesome go to. But we did lots of yogurt, shredded cheese, cottage cheese, baked butternut squash, steamed veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus), pretty much any berry, pineapple in juice canned, pears in juice canned, bananas, light toast with cream cheese or butter, banana blueberry fritters (just banana flour and blueberry), avocado, shredded chicken breast, salmon, apple sauce, oatmeal w/ applesauce mixed in, grilled cheese, pouches occasionally. As he became a better eater and more teeth we made more ground meat like taco, spaghetti, and various casseroles. At 12 months he ate what we ate usually unless we were lazy and made like a frozen pizza, then he ate healthy leftovers while we didn't lol.

If there wasn't a meat, the "main" part of his meal was a veggie. Breakfast was usually bananas toast Cheerios, oatmeal and banana, or banana blueberry fritters and maybe toast or Cheerios.
Lunch was usually a dairy, fruit, veggie or meat, and dinner was pretty similar.

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@stargazer123 Thank you, these are great suggestions!

 

[foundspirit88]

@justanotherabdullah I stress about it too! My boys are 9months (nearly 10). They have porridge in the morning...then they have a smoothie with me after their morning walk (whatever I have I just spoon some into them and they love it!)..they munch on a snack like strawberries or raspberries or banana...some baby biscuits as a treat. Dinner is mixed veggies (not pureed but finely mashed). I stressed a lot but I think they are only showing signs now that they want to feed themselves. They devoured a punnet of raspberries today so I'm going to try more finger food This week. Check out solid starts on Instagram...it is pretty good for ideas.

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@foundspirit88 Glad I’m not the only one! Thank you and I’ll be sure to check that out on Instagram.

 

[mashal]

@justanotherabdullah Solid starts also has an extremely helpful website. Basically any time I wanted to introduce a new food I would google “solid starts + (that food)”. It has great info graphics for how to safely cut/prepare all sorts of foods for different ages.

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@mashal This is perfect, thank you!

 

[rjerps]

@justanotherabdullah Ugh this is the WORST food stage. I felt so stressed at our 6 month doctors appointment when she said the babies should be eating three meals a day.

What's worked for us (my twins just turned one and I have a 3 year old as well):

• Meatballs/meatloaf
• Shredded meats
• Canned tuna
• Bean dishes
• Short/medium pastas
• Diced potatoes
• Corn
• Peas
• Pears
• Berries
• Cut grapes
• Cut grape tomatoes
• Peanut butter toast (cut into strips so when they drop it the whole slice isn't lost lol)
• Hard boiled eggs
• Sandwiches or quesadillas you can cut up into strips
• When all else fails, Cheerios and shredded cheese.

It's so annoying, but it gets better! By the time they're 1.5-2, they really can can pretty much eat whatever you're eating.

 

[justanotherabdullah]

@rjerps This is super helpful, thank you so much!!