When my daughter was handed to me at 18 months of age, she had never been given solid foods. Her entire nourishment was watered down formula via a bottle propped in her mouth with the nipple cut extra large so that she would drink it very fast as the orphanage workers did not have a lot of time to spend feeding each child. Getting her to even try any type of solid food was very, very challenging. Because she had never even seen a spoon before, even that site of a baby spoon terrified her. I hear from families all the time experiencing this same issue with their newly adopted child.

The advice that the professionals gave me was to simply take her bottle away and when she got hungry enough she would eat. Well, that just didn’t make sense to me. That bottle was her lifeline for 18 months, how could I take the one constant comfort she knew away? Also, she would let me hold her and feed her the bottle and that helped her bond so much. But I had to get her to accept solid foods. My mom and I devised a plan. It was December and I had my house decorated with a little hanging snowman from the ceiling. I’d sit on the floor with my daughter in my lap and with a jar of baby food and a tiny spoon hidden beside me. My mom would stand up and make the snowman move, and this would cause my daughter to open her mouth and laugh out loud! When she opened her mouth to laugh, I would sneak in a tiny bit of food on that spoon! She started to cry. Then, when she realized that the food tasted good, she kept opening her mouth like a little bird and I kept feeding her! I remember telling my mom, "Quick, get another jar, she’s about finished this one." So, with a little bit of fun and creative thinking, we got her to enjoy solid foods without stressing her out and she hasn’t stopped eating since! Oh, and I never did take the bottle away from her. One night, a few months after bringing her home, she just decided she didn’t want it anymore and she gave it up on her own with no stress, with no battles, with no insecurity.

Once my daughter decided solid foods were really good, she needed to learn how to chew foods with different textures. This was really tough because she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn to chew early on. In fact, in her orphanage, the children were not even allowed to put their fingers or hands to their mouths, and there were no toys to explore or mouth---and putting hands and feet to their mouths is so important in the development process of a child. Once she was on solids, my daughter decided she loved mashed potatoes. So, I started putting one tiny little candy sprinkle on a spoon with the potatoes. At first, she would spit it out and gag. But eventually, she would accept it and try to chew it. We moved from smooth pudding to tapioca pudding. Before I knew it, she was eating rice, noodles, chicken soup, vegetables, meat, etc.

I never did find anyone who could give us really good advice on transitioning to solid foods—we just tried to keep it fun and creative and that worked for us! There is a book out now entitled Just Take a Bite by Lori Ernsperger which I have read and which some families may find helpful and it can be purchased from www.amazon.com and also from the www.sifocus.com website.