Yet Another Table Foods Update

This may get a bit rambling. We've had a lot of success in the past week with finger foods so I just want to record some of them, in addition to my continued anxieties.

As Ethan grew closer to the one-year (!!!) mark, I began to be more concerned about his problems with table foods, especially since it seemed every time we had a breakthrough we had a setback soon after. We FINALLY seem to have hit a good stride, though, and Ethan will now eagerly eat off our plates. However, he still refuses a lot of foods in finger-food form, which is quite frustrating since I want him to have well-balanced meals.

His new favorite discovery is meat. In fact, he will turn up his nose at vegetables, fruits, cheese, etc. and just gobble down turkey or chicken. He's getting pretty good at feeding himself off his tray. I can even put a bunch of small pieces down at once because he still usually plays with his food before popping anything in his mouth, dropping half of it before consuming. Anytime we're eating, he refuses to go in his high chair, instead insisting on sitting in my lap so he can cry if I don't feed him off my plate. As a result, in the past couple of days he's had pieces of bagel at breakfast, chicken and turkey in various sauces, potatoes, rice, and even a bit of potato chip (courtesy of his daddy). Unfortunately, he refuses even the vegetables that come off our plates so his diet has been lacking. I can usually get him to eat a banana or two for his breakfast and will often mix in some fruits or veggies into his yogurt with his dinner, at least, so he's getting some still.

While I'm glad he's seeming to get the hang of finger foods, I wish he would be open to more variety. My dad sent me an article this week that hypothesized (based on the experience of a pediatrician) that a child's willingness to accept new foods shuts down at 13 months, meaning the 15 tries it generally takes to make a baby like a new food suddenly becomes 90 tries. Yikes! So hopefully Ethan will come back around to the vegetables he used to love in puree form. I'm going to try him on some new fruits and things like black beans in the weeks to come. Once I get the foods in his mouth, he's usually OK with them, but he just flat out refuses them at first. For example, I finally got him to eat a cherry tomato quarter because he opened his mouth for more chicken without looking up! After initially spitting it out, he then opened his mouth for more tomato and ate it happily! So I guess there may be hope after all.