Food Preferences at 10 Months

by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., author of Feeding: The Brazelton Way

There may be more trouble to come. This period is the beginning of food preferences. One mother confided desperately, "He won't eat what I've gone to the trouble to fix for him. He just tastes it, shakes his head 'no,' and then pushes it aside and won't eat it. I could kill him!"

"Why is it so important to you that he eat it?" I asked.

"I go to so much trouble to make him a nice meal. When he won't take what I've made him, I feel like he's rejecting me! And anyway, I want him to have a rounded diet! He hardly lets me feed him any longer!"

To respond to these three passionate concerns, we offer the following suggestions:

1. Don't go to any extra trouble to prepare your child's food if this will make you take his refusal personally. A baby this age will be more interested in the same old routines and tastes. You may need to offer the same new food ten or fifteen times before he decides to try it.
2. A 10-month-old is headed toward the time when many babies won't accept a well-rounded diet. Milk and vitamins will help supplement what he will eat. Rather than fretting, or pressuring—which won't help—you should talk with your pediatrician to be sure that your baby's growth is on track and that he is getting all the nutrients (including iron) he needs.
3. You are about to be pushed away as a nurturer. I'd urge you to respect his need to be more independent in the feeding area and to set up his feedings so you can enjoy the steps he takes toward self-feeding. Otherwise, you may be headed toward food battles that you aren't likely to win.
4. Feed him foods of different textures and different tastes that he can pick up to master by himself. But introduce them often, and without pressure. Don't expect him to try them the first, second, or even the third time!

Excerpted from:

Excerpted from Feeding: The Brazelton Way © 2004 by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Joshua D. Sparrow, M.D. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Perseus.

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