camie - thank you for your message, i really appreciate it! i know there are only a few people in this group, but in case you have any input i'll post my issue here.  my 10 month old daughter will only eat pureed fruit and gerber puffs.  until very recently, she used to eat a lot of gerber cereal but now she is refusing to eat that.  she will not eat finger foods like meat, fruit, veggies, cheese, etc.  she only plays with it with her hands.  if her food has any lumps at all, or is thicker than a soupy consistency, she gags and sometimes makes herself throw up.  the doctor says she's fine because she's a very healthy weight. everyone says to just be patient and keep offering other foods but it is very frustrating and depressing that she is not eating foods with more nutrition (since she also does not drink much milk at all) and variety. if you know of any tricks to get her to eat different things i would appreciate it!

Yes, I have been there. Keep in mind that at 10 months the independence and preferances are just starting, so she can be influenced, just not forced. Right now we are having this issue with real meat (not processed chkn nuggets or fish sticks, i mean real hamburger and chkn and steak) My son will eat it sometimes and sometimes will make himself throw up. When he started "baby cereal", i call it oatmeal, he was the same way. I had to backtrack to the bottle, making the oatmeal so watery it could be sucked through the bottle. Then i made it a little thicker each time, but only slightly as not to make my son aware of what i was doing. Then we got rid of the bottles again, and used the bowl and spoon. But again i had to slowly increase the thickness. Then, when it matched the consistancy of baby food we started trying to feed him that again. I had great success at first...then he developed his prefereces in taste and out went the veggies. Point is, i would try slowly and very slightly changing the consistancy of your pureed foods. When you gain some progress you will hit a point where she notices, do not start over. Take one step back for a day or two and try again, a little less thicker than before. Also, with the milk you can try that nutrasure i believe it is called. In our walmarts and target they can be found in the baby food isle. They are drinks and snacks that are high in the vitamins, proteins, fibers, etc that our children need. The have milk like drinks that are flavored like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. I know the flavors made me cautious, like i was feeding him sweets. But 100% fruit juice has more sugar in it than these. Finally, i would suggest that in her age, mabey she is ready for something new. It seemed that every time my son stopped wanting an old classic food i was glad to have on our list, he picked up another favorite in the same catagory. For example, i use to feed him the gerber cereal too, the bananna flavored stars, and he loved them. Then one day he stopped wanting them, acctually refused them. So i ate one for the first time and noticed the texture and hardness. Then i ate a cherio to compare. There is a big difference to me. So i gave him a couple cherio's to try and that was his new favorite cereal snack. We have done this several times! Right now his cereal is apple jacks, and i am working on moving to mini wheats. ;) BUT, still to this day he cannot eat a yogurt that has chunks of fruit without gagging! It is a lifelong battle that you have to outwit your child. I got him to eat homemade chkn potpies full of real veggies twice, then he picked one appart and he has never eaten another...You have to just keep growing with her and trying new things. But at her age, she will try and control meal time, so keep your rules strong and try and wiggle in change when you can. Try the red labeled (original) yoplait yogurt (my son loves the key lime pie cause there is no chunks), and try fruit bars, and a bigger kid cereal like cherios. If all else fails, my best kept secret is to have her eat with other children around and introduce your new foods then, giving some to both children. That is how i got my son to eat PB&J for the first time...let me know if this helps, and how it goes if you try it out! Good luck girl!

THANK YOU!!! that was very helpful.  i will try new things and try to be more patient and not get frustrated so easily.