Alternative to Rice Rusks

BabyBugutsky

Anyone have any suggestions on what to give as a snack other then rice rusks? My kiddo loves rice rusks but I'm worried too many a day will be harsh on his tummy.

He's already eating four meals a day (standard three and then a bit of oatmeal before bed) and still has two to three 8 oz bottles. His meals are usually oatmeal or rice cereal and a fruit and veggie mix. 

Anyone have any suggestions on what else I can give him? He's just shy of 9 months. 

shelbydd

Are you doing table food yet or just baby food purees? For snacks we do puffs, Cheerios, small cubes of cheese (in moderation, don't want them getting constipated) yogurt melts, lil crunchies (the Gerber Cheetos looking things) I'm always looking for more ideas as well!

BabyBugutsky

@shelbydd we are still doing thicker purees. I'm so nervous to give him food pieces! I don't know what size to cut them and every one tells me different sizes are good and bad! What size do you cut the food? How do you prepare it? I'll definitely have to try cheerios and some of the other ones you listed! Did you ever worry about choking? 

xJKxOR

For snacks we like doing Cheerios, puffed wheat, raspberries (full: they break apart easier without much chewing), long slices of peppers (basically just sucks them but feels good for teething too), or frozen yogurt drops (I took yogurt, spooned small drops into a cookie sheet and froze them). 

dmbfan46835

Well shit. I guess I should be giving snacks! I didn't even think about snacks! We do solids 3 times a day and the rest of the time it's just bottles of BM. Whoops!

shelbydd

BabyBugutsky said:

@shelbydd we are still doing thicker purees. I'm so nervous to give him food pieces! I don't know what size to cut them and every one tells me different sizes are good and bad! What size do you cut the food? How do you prepare it? I'll definitely have to try cheerios and some of the other ones you listed! Did you ever worry about choking? 

Yes, absolutely! I worried a lot about choking when we first started introducing things other than purées. We started with puffs, which I tried myself first to see and they really do dissolve crazy fast. he had a few gagging spells.. It's basically impossible not to jump and want to try to help them when they do it but I promise gagging is totally normal and trying to pry it from their mouth or get it out doesn't help. We did that for a couple of weeks until I felt comfortable and we didn't have issues with gagging. I moved up to yogurt melts and lil crunchies. When those weren't an issue I introduced some table food during meals (steamed veggies mostly, they make individual portions of cubed carrots, peas, green beans, etc.. That they have in the canned isle but they're in plastic sealed containers. It's all precooked so you can heat it in the microwave or serve room temp and most of them come in perfect sized cubes/cuts already) I did a lot of those type of things before LO had teeth. If I'm cutting stuff myself I do most stuff about the same size that puffs are (depending on what it is, like cheese I definitely do smaller than puffs but things that are really easy to mash I do about the same size) we have since introduced meats like ground beef and small bits of shredded chicken. He does really well with it all and we haven't had any choking spells happen at all. The gagging really doesn't happen anymore either. And Cheerios are actually one of the more recent things I introduced. He loves them but I worried since they don't dissolve like puffs do. But he's had no issues.

anyway this got way longer than I intended! My best recommendation to make you feel comfortable because I was in the exact same boat, worried, is to start slow and see how LO does! If he does great with puffs for a little bit, then do something like peas, guaranteed he'll halfway mash then with his fingers just trying to get them in his mouth lol. 

mrsmctaggart6

I have to second pp, I was worried about choking at first but I've slowly eased into a mix of puree's and Blw, she's had strips of cheese, crackers, small pasta steamed carrot and zucchini chunks, she's even started gumming small bits of well cooked steak and chicken. She also has toast strips with fruit purée spread on it & strips of omelette (very thin!) i have also been making her Popsicles with yogurt and fruit purée to help with teething, no choking incidents... She's had all the normal Cheerios and yogurt melts & puffs too...

CEW225

I'm glad somebody posted this because I was needing ideas too!  I want to branch out with food, but LO doesn't have teeth yet, so that part concerns me a little.

BabyBugutsky

Thanks ladies for all your replies! I have so many ideas now

LeeAnn326

I'm in the same boat. My DS doesn't have teeth, but I want to move away from purees and towards table food. My doctor recommended pastina or cousecous, so trying that this week. I made him pasta a couple of weeks ago, but the tomato sauce was too acidic and gave him a diaper rash. So I'm going to try flavoring with mixed veggies and rotisserie cicken or Parmesian. For a snack, we tried bluberries (squished or cut in fourths), kiwi, and toast. Looking for more easy eats. 

jlemons-2

We feed her anything and everything. This kid loves to eat! We made Japanese chicken wings the other night and she ate almost all of mine. (I obviously didn't give her the whole wing but shredded the meat off). She also loves turkey burgers and watermelon. We give her loose meats, shredded cheese, strawberries, zucchini, stir fry, the options are endless. Pancakes and French toast are also easy eats because they are super soft but hold together well

ETA: I don't remember who suggested it but I did give her a strip of park chop to suck on. It was scary but she loved it and it went well

BabyBugutsky

I'm so glad I started this thread. So many great suggestions!! Thanks ladies!

ForeverEverAfter

We do BLW, and LO eats nearly everything we do. For something to chew on, I cut a piece of toast with peanut butter into thin strips, or extremely thin slices of apple to crunch on (1/8"). She only has 2,bottom teeth, but that doesn't stop her, baby gums are strong and can chew up anything you can squish between your finger and thumb. Gagging is normal as they learn to move the food around. Just keep a close eye, and don't intervene unless they're choking, or the piece of food they're gagging on is sticking out. Sticking a finger in to get a piece of food when gagging can cause them to actually choke.

melalinga

My baby loves vegemite toast cut into strips! I give him little puffs too, rice crackers,  watermelon, he loves mashed banana,  yoghurt, grated cheese,  bits of tuna.. he loves anything

chelseajeanene

I started cutting up small fruit salads and Noah goes nuts for it. I used banana, honeydew, blackberry and blueberry. I can't wait to try more combos. I've also given macaroni and cheese, teething wafers, puffs, little crunches, cut up watermelon, and a couple licks of peanut butter off of my finger 

callistosmile

Since you started with traditional weaning, you'll want to make sure anything you give your baby is very very soft, like steamed veggies or fruit. Your baby learned to swallow before chewing, so now he has to learn how to chew the food. Making it really soft will help in case he tries to swallow it before chewing it up. 

missliz53

Obviously every baby is different, but I have found the perfect length of finger food for us is about an inch or the length of the first joking of my index finger. It makes it easy for lo to get into her mouth, but it's short enough that she can't take big bites. 

Nirolosa

Note: babies have a naturally trigger happy and strong gag reflex. Of course pay very good attention to them when they eat, don't dismiss any choking. However remember that some times it really is more show than substance!

That bit of info helped me a lot since my boy can be agressive with shoving an absolute ton of food into his mouth at once so we're allowing him more solids but in limited sizes and amounts (pasta's in small pieces, cooked veg crushed or sliced to smaller than his wind pipe etc etc).