Handling Challenges in Transitioning Your Baby to Solid Food

This post is brought to you by Plum Organics®. All opinions are our own.

How do you deal with major challenges in transitioning your baby to solid food? Check out our tips!

 

Transitioning your baby to solid food isn’t supposed to be hard. Most babies just sort of naturally go through the stages to solid foods. By around 10 months, they’re ready for fingers foods. It’s not supposed to be a challenge. Unfortunately, my son completely missed that memo.

I kid you not, I thought Jacob was going to start preschool still eating stage 2 baby food! Transitioning my baby to solid food was more than a challenge! It was an epic journey! The thing is, he transitioned from a strictly liquid diet to cereal, stage one and stage 2 without a single problem. The moment I added any sort of chunks or real texture to it, though, he stalled.

How do you deal with major challenges in transitioning your baby to solid food?

When I say “stalled,” I mean he completely refused to move on from that stage 2 food. We were well past his first birthday and moving towards his second birthday. I finally got him eating cereal puffs, but that was as far as it went. I knew he couldn’t spend the rest of his days eating puffs and baby food. By his second birthday, I admitted I needed help. How did I handle it? Here are my tips, from personal experience.

  • Talk to your doctor…sooner than later. I assumed that Jacob stalled because he was a preemie. Then I thought it was no big deal, he’d move on when he was ready. By age two, I finally admitted that he should be eating more than just stage 2 baby food and talked to my doctor. He recommended an Early Intervention Program.
  • Use free therapy resources. Jacob was already in the Early Intervention Program because of his speech delay. I found out that they offered occupational therapy for eating challenges. They brought in a magnificent therapist to help me and Jacob transition to solid food. The program is free of charge to parents of all income levels.
  • Keep a log. During those challenging months of transitioning your baby to solid food, you’ll be experimenting like a mad scientist, trying every flavor and texture imaginable. Keep a log of your baby’s reactions. Even if he refuses it, make note of his face. Did he like the smell? Did he seem intrigued by the texture but not the flavor? Every detail matters.
  • Try different textures and flavors. Speaking of textures, try everything! Maybe your baby will surprise you and like the crunch of cereal or smoothness of a peach. With Jake, his delay seemed to be as much about texture as taste. Thankfully, Plum Organics has an incredibly diverse variety of both flavors and textures, so you can experiment away while making sure your baby is getting the best ingredients possible.
  • Make it fun. Jacob’s therapist turned every session into a game. They played color games, where Jacob tried several foods of a single color. She let him thread cereal onto a big string or get messy with whipped cream. I know we grew up hearing “don’t play with your food,” but this made a huge difference in getting him to try new things.
  • Try, try again. Just because your baby refuses, say, zucchini, on the first try doesn’t mean he’ll never like it. Try it combined with different flavors next time! Plum Organics makes this easy by repeating flavors in many different ways. Also, if you find something your baby likes, try it mixed a different way next time to expand his palate.

By age 2.5, Jacob was eating some solid foods finally. He’s always been a picky eater, but that part is all my genes. He enjoys a variety of textures and flavors. In fact, he loves things that I wouldn’t touch! Yes, it’s frustrating when you face challenges transitioning your baby to solid food. Just hang in there, though. You WILL get through it!

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Did you have any challenges transitioning your baby to solid food? How did you overcome them?

19 thoughts on “Handling Challenges in Transitioning Your Baby to Solid Food”

  1. That sounds tough! My nieces transitions without difficulties but it would have been stressful if they didn’t.

  2. I didn’t know that kids have a problem with this. The most I got was a dirt look but he ate everything I gave him. I did discover over the year that he did not like peas, which is funny now because those are one of his favorites now.

  3. Wow, I had no clue that some babies don’t transition into solid foods as easy as others – I just naturally assumed they’d be curious to have ‘grown up’ food and go for it. That is so cool that an Early Intervention Program even exists, and how they make it easy for all parents to take advantage of.

  4. Bonnie @ wemake7

    This is a really great post and information. Thanks for sharing this giveaway. Plum Organics is a great company.

  5. I do not yet have kids but this is great information to know, I know my mum says when we were babies it was no problem transitioning from liquids to solids. We love food that much and wanted what everyone was eating lol

  6. My daughter-in-law gave her little one things over and over and now she eats most any veggie you can think of with glee (she’s about to be 2). It really did help the transition by offering things to her again and again as she was switching over to solids.

  7. Fi Ní Neachtáin

    My son is now two but do you know what, I can’t even remember the stage of him transitioning to solid foods! I do remember him taking a big bite out of a salmon fishcake once and me being amazed :) Now he’s older he’s become so fussy :( Thanks for sharing your experience with Jacob.

  8. My oldest two did great transitioning to solids but this toddler of mine has been a different story even know we have a hard time getting her to eat more than one or two bites of a meal. As an infant she didn’t want anything to do with anything solid.

  9. My son did okay transitioning to baby food, it was moving to eating table food and what mom and dad were eating that was very challenging. These are great tips!

  10. What awesome tips you’ve listed and I’m sure it will come in handy with parents everywhere. Thanks so much for sharing, when my little ones were small, I kept a log as well. You have a cutie patootie.

  11. Hi Nicole – what a sweetie Jacob is! And, these are excellent points – I wish I had kept a journal of what my son ate – he was not and still isn’t a picky eater – I did make his food fresh for him and he loved it – and never was sick – except at teething time – So nice to see that you take such great efforts for you little guy!

  12. I am not a parent, and did not know that this was even a problem, but I do understand that our diets are very sterile, often lacking all of those good gut bacteria. The problem is with how to acquire all of those good ones, and not those bad ones – I feel like strengthening the immune system is key.

  13. We skipped baby foods and did baby led weaning for both kids. Thankfully neither has had eating issues,so our transition from nursing has been rather uneventful. Pinning this to my parenting board for just in case!

  14. My girl was fairly easy about it as well, it was all about texture really. To this day tho, she will not eat anything with potatoes.

  15. I was lucky. My boys had no problem transitioning from baby food to solid food. My younger son couldn’t wait to get his hands on solids! :)

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