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[viet_mom]

Hi everyone. Vietbabe turned 9 months the other day and though she's 28 inches, I can't get her over 15 lbs. She's "clinging to the 5th percentile" on the weight charts. Still has no teeth but still won't let me put pureed food in her mouth and she can't put it in herself (and doesn't want to). She wants to eat food she can hold and put in her own mouth.

I'm having a hard time and I don't want her to drop weight. Any more suggestions (I know I asked before) would be great. At this point, I have had to stop the wonderful homemade pureed food I was making her (organic veggies and chicken of course) and I'm feeding her things that ghastly!!

Here are the things she'll eat. I'd like to add cheese, but she says no to Mozzarella and Chedder (she can't pulverize it to her liking) so I don't know what to try. What about pieces of tofu?

1. Aunt Jemima's mini pancakes, microwaved a bit and then dipped in the homemade pureed food I had been making her (squash, chicken, etc.) but they don't absorb that much of the pureed food. She can really suck in the pancakes.

2. A product by Gerber called "Meat Sticks" and "Chicken Sticks" that are these awful tiny sticks that look like teeny hotdogs that have a light casing around them that keeps the meat together. I peel off the casing. She sucks down that meat voraciously. It's almost like pureed food she can actually hold and feed herself -- they are in holdable "stick form" until they hit her mouth -- then they go to pureed form basically. Perfect. But oh the preservatives and sodium in there, but....there's protein and potassium too.

3. Same product by Gerber but it's mini pieces of green beans, carrots, apples, pear dices etc. I tried to make them myself but they are not as soft as the ones that come in these jars. They're almost as soft as canned fruit.

4. These popsicle-looking things that are long plastic things that have frozen yogurt inside them she can hold the thing and squish the yogurt in her mouth.

5. A banana - can hold it and squish it in her mouth.

6. Rice - usually the "sticky" kind you get at Chinese restaurants but not much goes down the hatch - more on the floor.

Not so successful with these:

Mini waffles (not as easily eaten as the pancake).

Eggs - but not crazy about them even with the Herbs De Provence.

Ground beef (doesn't seem to go down; it may be too hard).

Someone on here suggested I "pouch" chicken breast so it is squishable in one's finger. Do you mean a boneless think sliced breast? And how do I "pouch" it? I tried a hotdog but it's too hard for her and she can't pulverize it.

Thanks everyone!