eating: is what plunket say gospel?

Sorry - this is a bit like Laurie's thread, but i didn't want to hijack.

I have just had my 8 month check with DD at Plunket and brought up the fact she doesn't eat much. Plunket were quite horrified and told me i must get her to eat proper finger foods/meals and leave off on the milk.

She will only eat purees or heavily mashed food (and will suck on Marmite toast). She will only eat sweet things or veggies/meat mixed with fruit puree

According to Plunket she should be on proper food now, and eating more or less what we grown-ups do (in finger food form).

I have just had a big stand-off with DD refusing to eat chicken and veggies (actually from an 8 month plus jar - not my own cooking!) even when mixed with apples. She ended up gagging each time i approached with the spoon and more or less cried herself to sleep in the high chair and so i have given in and given her a bottle of milk.

Part of me just thinks that all babies are ready in their own time and she is only just 8 months old on Saturday. She is putting on weight nicely and has moved up from the 3rd to the 15th percentile.

Am i ok to just chill out about this and let her take her own time with progressing to finger food?

I've had mixed experiences with Plunket. Cuppatea is right - they are not consistent at all!!!

Ava is 8 months 2 weeks old and she gags on the 8-9 month jarred foods. She has limited finger foods and most of it we hold for her. She eats grated cheese by herself and holds cruskits with marmite on them, but everything else we hold for her. And we havent tried toast or bread or strips of meat yet.

Most Plunket nurses recommend that you dont start solids until 6 months now anyway and i dont see how you can go from pureed foods to pretty much adult foods in less than 2 months!

Dont worry about your DD will get there!

I agree with the others for sure, another thing to try is maybe giving her a little bit of what you are eating when you are eating it. Its not the best habit in the world I guess but if I'm having some fruit/crackers/yogurt/sandwich etc etc and Hayden is interested (ie all the time) then I'll break / bite off a piece for him and in the begining I'd pop it into his little bird mouth but gradually encouraged him to take it from my palm and put it in his own mouth. Still for the life of me cannot get him to eat a grean bean or florret of broccoli but I still over them at least once a week and am hoping he'll get used to the texture etc. He is eating the 10mth jars now and they are really lumpy and he's fine with them so I suspect he just doesnt like greens very much but I shall persever!!!!

Anyway back to what I was saying, if you remove them from the highchair battle ground which might be associated with a little bit of stress for her she might like sharing your food a bit more and feel special / like a treat etc and in time will break down the fear / dislike of all things lumpy

I definately agree with the other mums on this one. Babies will do it at their own pace and there is nothing to worry about. Just keep offering her finger food, like grated cheese and vegemite on toast and she will get the hang of chunkier stuff.
My DD was eating finger food before she would eat mashed food, so I guess its just their preference. Shes a great eater now (shes 2) so you have nothing to worry about.

I only have one son, and he's not ready for solids as of yet, but I really believe Plunket is full of a lot of hooey! As long as she's putting on good weight, then fantastic! And she is eating sooome foods, so what's the rush? I got this webite link from someone else's post and I really trust this site cuz it has sooo much good information and was really helpful for other questions I had about raising my DS. Check it out: http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html .

ETA: I'm sure Catriona is doing great!

Edited by Niecey

Sounds pretty normal for an 8mth old to me, after all it's only been what? 2 months since she started solids. It would be ridiculous for her to be eating what you do, she doesn't even have all her teeth at 8mths!
Just keep doing what you are and don't forget to challenge her with new tastes and textures. It doesn't matter if she won't eat them, try for a couple of days and then if she still doesn't like it leave it for a couple of months and then revisit that food.
You could go from pureed to mashed food now if you are really worried about the texture thing.
You can offer her finger food but let her determine how fast she progresses with the finger food.
Don't let food become a battle ground this early or you might end up fighting about it for the next 10ish years! Just relax and enjoy watching her explore all the new flavours and textures, there is nothing funnier than the expression on the babies face when they find something they don't like!

Ignore Plunket, I have certainly started to. Finley is a big eater so I was told to throw him bones and chunks of steak to eat when he was 6 months, which I have ignored.

I am introducing finger food just as something to hold for now as he looks so keen when I'm eating, have you done something like put plain pieces of cooked pasta in front of her, Finley thought it was great, picking them up, mushing them up and chewing a little bit.

Go at whatever pace suits her.