Feeding FAQ: 12-18 months – Other

How do I feed a one-year-old with no teeth?

In weaning advice, a lot of the suggested food introductions are based upon the child having teeth at 9-12 months. My one-year-old still has no teeth and I am concerned that having to remain on lumpy or pureed foods will set up ‘bad’ eating habits. She shows signs of being bored with the jar options, but won’t touch mum’s home- cooking! She does eat some finger foods, but gets frustrated when she can’t cope with certain consistencies, such as toast. She loves raisins, cucumber, soft bread, the inside of a jacket potato and is just starting to eat small pieces of cheese, but the ‘non-baby’ foods she will eat as finger foods are limited. Do you have any thoughts or tips that might help, or should I not worry and simply continue as we are until she gets her teeth? A typical day’s meals are milk at 5.30am; breakfast at 8am (Weetabix, small amount of fruit puree, small amount of bread); lunch at 10.30-11am (small jar savoury, small jar fruit puree, small pot yoghurt, maybe some finger foods); after a sleep of two hours, she’ll have milk, cereal bar or raisins at 1.30pm; a snack at 3pm (biscuit or a breadstick); tea at 4.30pm (small jar savoury, small jar fruit puree, small pot yoghurt); milk at 6.30pm and water throughout the day.

Considering your baby has no teeth, I think she is doing very well to be eating things like raisins, cucumber and soft bread. I would advise that you keep introducing her to different types of foods of a similar texture; for example, fish fingers with the batter removed or pasta penne dipped in cream cheese or a tomato sauce. Try serving eggy bread instead of toast, as this will be gentler on her gums.

I would also suggest that you offer your baby a selection of softly cooked vegetables every day, even if she does refuse them. I used to find that, by putting a few vegetables on the high chair tray every day while I was preparing lunch, even the fussiest babies would eventually start to eat some vegetables, rather than throw them on to the floor. By offering vegetables before the main meal, there is more chance that your daughter will accept them more readily. It may take two to three weeks, but in my experience, with perseverance, I found that most babies would eventually eat at least some of the vegetables. For these small amounts of vegetable tasters, I would suggest that you buy good quality bags of frozen organic vegetables, available in most supermarkets; these could include sliced carrots, peas and cauliflower florets. Babies of this age enjoy looking at different colours and feeling different textures, so it is important to keep offering a variety of vegetables.

I would also suggest that you try to encourage your baby to take more savoury and less sweet food. Try replacing the lunchtime fruit puree with a larger jar of savoury and perhaps follow with a bread stick and piece of cheese, or a savoury biscuit, instead of the yoghurt.

Once you have increased the amount of savoury food she is having at each meal, you will have more success at getting her to eat your own home-cooked food, which of course would be much better for her. When you attempt to do this, cook recipes that are similar to her favourite jar recipe, and gradually replace the jar food with a teaspoonful of home-cooked food every couple of days. By doing this slowly, you will have more chance of getting her to accept home-cooked food.

Finally, do look at the amount of milk and water she is drinking. Excessive amounts of fluids can result in babies of this age becoming fussy about their solids, regardless of whether they have teeth or not. Your baby needs a minimum of 350mls of milk a day and a maximum of 500mls. If she gets fussier about her solids, try to keep her intake to nearer the minimum amount required. This will still supply her with all the nutrients she needs from milk, particularly as she is also eating yoghurt and cheese. I feel confident that once your baby’s teeth start to come through, she will begin to accept a wider variety of finger foods. The most important thing at this stage is to encourage more savoury foods than sweet ones, so that in due course she can enjoy the same food as the rest of the family.