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I'm having trouble with a couple of things. #1) My son turned a year a couple weeks ago. He still will not chew his food. I show him, his teacher shows him, his dad shows him and we have been for a while but he just doesn't chew his food. If it is a soft boiled carrot chooped up in small pieces, he will not chew, he will swallow it and then throw up. #2) We are supposed to start giving him his milk in a sippy cup. I tried twice, he freaked. Both times he forced himself to throw up and started crying and screaming. Same milk he drinks from a bottle. Same sippy cup that he drinks water and juice from just fine. Any suggestions or is this something that I just have to wait and be patient? I would feel more compelled to be patient if he wasn't actually throwing up from these things. ”

Asked by oceans mom on 12th September 2008

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He just starting getting molars on each side, and besides being grouchy, he is starting to chew!! Hooray. I still can't get him to even attemp milk from a sippy cup, he forces himself to throw up. I was just informed by his teacher that he will be moving to the larger class soon because he is walking almost perfectly but that they do not allow bottles in the older class!!! Only sippy cups!! I nearly burst into tears. I told her the problem and she is going to work on it everyday, too. My husbankd seems to think that once he sees the other kids doing it that he will too. I hope he's right!!

Flag as inappropriate by oceans mom on 10th October 2008
About the chewing: my daughter wasn't big on it either. Wanted to get stuff into her belly ASAP! I found that she'd chew dry Cheerios for the fun of it. So I gave her those at the end of each meal. I would feed her stuff that wouldn't kill her if she swallowed whole, such as mac & cheese, oatmeal, and boiled veggies cut up very small. And I made sure that she was getting enough milk to make up for not digesting much else during that time. Gradually she embraced chewing - but didn't really chew everything until she had molars.

About the sippy cups - my younger daughter wasn't impressed with them when I first introduced milk in them at around 12 mos, so I held off for a few weeks and tried again. With the second try, I also moved the milk-drinking activity to a new place. I phased in the change, one "bottle" at a time over a period of weeks. Other than that one initial delay, we had no problems with the transition. I kept the girls' bottles around and encouraged them to use them for their dolls. They would sometimes suck on them (empty) for a while, but other than that, they've never looked back.

I would not worry about rushing the child to transition. It will not kill him/her if the transition comes later than what the doctor recommends. There is nothing magical about the age of 12 months. Every child is on his own personal timetable, and I feel doctors should respect that.

Flag as inappropriate by SKL on 6th October 2008
Hi I can tell this bothers you a lot. I can only tell you about my experience. My daughter is 21 month old now and I started giving baby food when she was about 6 month. From the start I homemade all her baby food, believe me is a money saver and you can make the food at the consistency that you want. I would steam the fruits (peaches, plums, pears, apples, etc.) and I boil the vegetables (pumpkin, potatoes, squash, etc.) and with a fork I would smash the vegetable until I got the consistency I wanted. If I wanted it softer I would use little of the water that I use to boil the vegetable to make it softer. At least with mine daughter at the beginning I had to start her slowly, because if it was too chunky she would not like it. So I try and if I saw that she wasn’t going to eat it I would smash it a little more. Also, start giving your baby little pieces of your own food, so he can start experimenting and getting the hang of it. Now she eats everything.
About the sippy cup, my daughter was the same. She would drink her water and other liquids from the cup, but not the milk. Now she drinks it from the cup, but if she asks for a “bibi” her bottle, she wants it in her bottle.

Flag as inappropriate by Maria on 18th September 2008
I'm still working on it. He's moving his mouth in a chewing motion now but not actually chewing the food. He swallows it and then moves his muoth up and down. It's a start at least. He is allergic to milk but we learned that early on and he has been on soy from about 3 months. The milk thing hasn't been resolved int eh sippy cup yet but I do plan on buying new sippy cups, maybe ones that are completely different from the ones he already has as to not confuse them or something. I know the problem is that he doesn't like changes to his routine. He gets upset on the rare occasion that Dad puts him to bed instead of me, he doesn't like anyone but me to give him his baths, he doesn't like when his usual things are changed. Genesis, you are totally right on about that one! He needs to control something so he gets very upset when he doesn't have control. Poor little guy!

Flag as inappropriate by oceans mom on 15th September 2008
My friend`s daughter refused to chew her food until she was about 18 months old. It does eventually happen, though! Is there anything else going on that might stress him out? He might be resisting change just because he`s so little it`s the only thing he can control. I personally wouldn`t worry too much about it . . . he will eventually start to eat proper food.

For the sippy cup . . . have you tried giving him milk in a regular cup, without a lid? He might enjoy drinking like a big boy. My firstborn never drank from sippy cups, he went straight to a regular cup and that worked well for us. Something to consider.

I think the main thing is to not get frustrated about it yourself. Try to relax and realize that it`s not the end of the world if he wants to stay a baby for a bit longer.

Flag as inappropriate by Genesis on 14th September 2008
hmm with the chewing, my aunt just found out that her 1 year old wasnt eating food because he was VERY allergic to milk! go figure! his stomach was just so upset from the milk that any food he was eating HURT really really badly (even worse than the milk!) they actually took him to a 'swallowing' doctor (many jokes about insurance paying for a doc of that nature!) and they have figured it all out and he is doing MUCH better.

so hang in there! ask your pediatrition!

Flag as inappropriate by Kate on 14th September 2008
Wow I can tell this is very stressful for you. My son was a choker. Everytime he had to chew anything he choked on it. I switched back and forth with the second and third stage baby food, I even mixed them so the third stage baby food was thinner, till he felt more comfortable chewing. Also it kind of helped to eat infront of him. He always wants to try what we are eating regardless of what it is. It kind of prompted him to chew his food more instead of choking on it especially if he liked what he was eating.
Personally my son didn't like the soft sippy cup spout. We tried a couple of different kinds and finally found he likes the hard ones . Go figure! We had trouble with switching him from a bottle to a sippy cup, but my boyfriend worked with him everyday till he finally got the hang of it. It's pretty much trial and error and a lot of patience . I wish you luck though.

Flag as inappropriate by CarisCastle on 14th September 2008
Yeah, unfortunately the sippy cups that we have already have the soft nipple-like rubber and he wont drink from it. I tried again this morning. I thought that maybe trying cold milk instead of the usual room temperature would help, since the water that he usually drinks is cold. I thought maybe this would solve it but, no, that didn't work either. I am going to look at various sippy cups, though. Maybe if one looks more bottle-like than other that will work.

Flag as inappropriate by oceans mom on 13th September 2008
Hi. I have no advice for the chewing issue. I wish you luck. I had the same problem with my daughter. We started giving her water in the small disposable sippy cups while she was still using a bottle for milk. She would not drink milk from them. So, like Evansmom, we use the Nubys. You can get them at Walmart or Target. She used it for milk the fist time. I also started giving her water in a regular cup when we started the water in the sippy cup. She would rather use a regular cup, but she likes to play with the contents. So now the sippy cup is more for us than her. She is 14 months. Good luck!

Flag as inappropriate by ramseyquipp on 12th September 2008
I don't know on the chewing, but have you tried those sippy cups with the soft spout. They are called Nubs or something like that. The closest thing to a nipple. That really helped with the transition from the bottle for my son.

Flag as inappropriate by Evansmom on 12th September 2008