The Trials of Table Foods

Ethan is not doing well with starting table foods. Maybe it's because he just loves his purees. Maybe it's because of his ultra-sensitive gag reflex. Regardless of the reason, most attempts at getting him to eat finger foods have failed.

Sometime after he turned 8 months, I decided to try him on some chunks of food he'd already eaten and loved. I started with bananas. I diced some banana up into tiny pieces and convinced him to try one. He gagged so much that he vomited three times. After that, I was scared off for about a week before deciding to try puffs. The first couple of attempts led to more gagging, so we gave it a rest for a couple of weeks. Magically, he then seemed to "get" puffs and hasn't had any trouble ever since. I held off for a while on trying any other bits of finger foods because I feared making him vomit again and him losing all the calories he just drank.

I asked the pediatrician for suggestions at his 9-month appointment. We tried whole grain bread. Between the gagging and the refusal to eat it, I think he got down just a couple of pieces after multiple attempts at different sittings, toasted and plain. I tried bits of peaches and plums, but he wouldn't even let me get those near his mouth, much less pick them up for himself. One night during dinner, I offered him a piece of roasted potato. Once I finally convinced him to try it, he actually seemed to like it! We've had luck on a couple of other occasions with roasted potatoes, so I began to think maybe he was getting this table food thing after all.

The other morning, I made him scrambled egg yolks, since that's sort of in between table foods and a puree. He wasn't sure what to think of the toddler fork I fed him off of, but he seemed to do OK with the actual eggs. He only ate about half of it, but there wasn't any gagging. Finally! He seems ready! I excitedly got blueberries at the Farmers' Market this morning and sliced them in half just to be sure they weren't too big. And he absolutely refused to have anything to do with them. When he finally opened his mouth to let me slip one in, he made a face, chewed once or twice, and then began gagging. Thankfully, he didn't vomit up anything but the blueberry, but it was hardly a success. After that, nothing I did could make him have any interest in the rest of them. I even tried putting puffs on his tray amidst the blueberry halves, but that only resulted in a game of "Find the Puff!"

I'm at a loss. I know he'll eat them when he's ready, but I wish I could find something that would appeal to him as much as puffs do. Any suggestions?