Hellobee Boards

What about cooked lentils, baked beans in tomato sauce (the canned ones). My 9 month old loves beans and it’s good for the pincer. Grasp. My first basically didn’t eat anything and refused to let me spoon feed so never got any iron aside from the very little that was in my breastmilk. It took until about 15-18 months before the food intake increased and I think most of the calories before that point, starting at 11 months, and sometimes after we’re from cows milk.

My 9 month old is getting over spoon feeding, but I can sneak bites in while distracting with heerios or giving an extra spoon for playing with. Also, giving a reusable pouch of breastmilk mixed with baby cereal worked well.

I’d say first always remember food under one is just for fun so don’t stress too much.
He is still so young that maybe trying to back off the “kid” foods (grilled cheese, puffs, Cheerios, toast, etc.) and only offering heartier options might be an option (retraining his taste buds). And of course if you do offer kid foods you can always make sure to boost the nutrition (always whole grains; sneaking veggie purées into baked goods). Unless he’s getting like no protein he’s probably fine iron wise (breast milk/formula should have enough; plenty of people skip infant cereals since the recommendations have shifted away from them).
Some favorites for my kids when they first started table foods (7-8 months so safety wise he’d be ready):
Pasta (whole wheat) and meatballs
Any kind of soup (kale white bean was a big hit which was awesome, chicken with long grain rice and extra veggies, and also puréed soups)
Muffins of any variety (sweet potato blender muffins; egg cups with quinoa, broccoli or spinach, and cheese; banana oat muffins—always with 100% whole wheat flour, cut the sugar, add flax)
Pancakes (again whole wheat and oatmeal and sneak in flax)
Raisins. So many raisins.
Beans (try kidney beans for the iron; mine just eat them drained and rinsed)
Fruit (does he like just regular blueberries and raspberries? They’re easy to grasp and super mushy to eat. Fresh peaches and fruit cup peaches too.)
Peas (from frozen)
Fish (salmon; tuna salad; swordfish)
Cheese
Scrambled eggs with cheese (one of them would eat it with spinach or broccoli)
Smoothies (good sneaky veggie option)
Chicken
Cheese
Yogurt (Greek)

@LCTBQE: Oh that’s another good point. I read an article, that I’ll try to find, by a child nutritionist about how to get kids to eat things. She said she puts butter and cheese on veggies and even sugar on fruit! She said that the fat and sugar is worth it for the nutrition of veggies and fruit. And you can slowly “wean” by reducing the amount (particularly the sugar).
Let me look for it now.
ETA: here it is.
https://www.parents.com/kids/nutrition/healthy-eating/get-your-kids-to-eat-better/

@MsBAM: baby food jars of beef casserole, puree pears or peaches, weetbix, PB sandwiches, French toast sometimes, yoghurt. He might have two bites of something else but will then turn it away. So different to my first who could never get enough food!

I read several places that you may need to offer a food 15 times before a baby will come to like it. I'm constantly reminding myself this with my 8 month old who eats almost everything but seems to have no interest in random staples like banana. She's finally just started taking a few bites of banana recently so I think it's worth trying!

On the other hand, she would just eat bamba if I continued offering it. I would probably cut back on baby's "favorites" at least temporarily to help encourage him to eat other things.

@SweetiePie: @MsBAM: Yes! I agree with sweetie pie. Our babies are the same age and I just keep giving him the same thing. He’s still breastfed and I supplement with formula. It will take time. Also, I’ve noticed teething plays a role in what he wants to eat. So I’ve backed off alittle. Just give it time and make it fun. He may need to be fed more milk at this time anyway.

@cake2017: All I ever did with my first was jars and pouches. I didn’t even ask my Ped, she just proactively told me that the only reason to make his own food was if I enjoy doing that sort of thing. Otherwise the baby food these days is essentially the same.

With this new baby I might make some simple things myself - like steam and purée carrots - just because I’m curious. But for the most part I’ll still just do store-bought, especially when we get to mixing a bunch of stuff.

My kids never really got into BLW or self-feeding until wayyy after age 1 - like closer to 1.5 years old. They ate the basic baby finger foods and threw almost anything else on the ground. I kept offering because, you know, nothing says first world privilege like willingly wasting food.

While they threw their food down, I would feed them some sludge we made at home. I basically just started pulsing whatever we were eating in a small food chopper and fed it to our kids, but went easier on the seasoning. We did spaghetti and meat sauce, basmati rice and a mild coconut curry, risottos, etc. Basically, it was a carb, meat, veg, with some broth or sauce of some kind, and pulsed it into a thick sludge. I think the fact that it was seasoned made it more flavorful and appealing and I could know they were eating a more well-rounded meal. Around age 1, I could load a spoon and give it to them to try and feed themselves and the novelty of that helped them be willing to eat stuff.

DS1 was my incredibly picky, not willing to eat anything, nor drink formula or milk child and I don't know how he didn't wither away, except he's still alive now at 3.5. He doesn't eat a huge volume of food still, but he eats a huge variety (like the kid ate a plate of steamed broccoli this weekend), so all I can say is keep wasting that food and offering it up. DS1 literally refused to eat sandwiches or bread or toast until after 2.5 and now suddenly PBJs are his favorite at 3.5 Like, you really do have to just keep offering the food and throwing it away (our compost pail is intense).

DS2 has a great appetite and ate everything we offered him as a baby - like EVERYTHING - and now at 2 is actually pickier than DS1, although he eats a good amount of whatever he DOES choose to eat. He basically just wants carbs all day.

I would say find what he DOES like to eat and then daisy-chain all the other crap into it. DS1 loves sticky white rice. So we started adding quinoa and millet and whole grain brown and black Japonica rice and now that mixed grain rice is our standard. I'd mash some scrambled eggs and shredded nori and some soy sauce into the rice and make tiny little balls he could pick up and eat. Then I'd make risotto with all sorts of crap in it and he'd eat that.

He didn't like pasta...but then he was okay with boxed mac n cheese. But only the next day after it clumped together because it was easier for him to pick up. So then I would make it with yellow squash grated finely on a box grater and boiled with the pasta to hide veggies. I did that with carrots, broccoli, zucchini, etc. And I'd add extra butter, heavy cream, and parmesan to it to make it nutrient dense.

Basically, don't give up and keep trying. And don't bother making homemade veggie purees - just buy the pouches and be done with it. My kids liked the Happy Baby chicken or turkey meals a lot and we fed those for a while.