NCDR - those who make LOs food come in!

monona9

I make about 90% of DD's food. I am reading up on wholesome baby food website and planning out the next few "foods" to try and now in the 8-10 month range there are suggestions of finger foods. I am kind of freaking out. I don't know why but I'm terrified of giving her something she can potentially choke on. Am I being crazy? Can I just give her purees forever  lol (kidding)

Can some mamas tell me what you do in that stage of soft cooked finger foods? What are the signs that she's ready for that? How did you make the transition? She only has 2 teeny teeth on the bottom and that's it.

TIA

SarahC720

D has two little teeth and eats lots of finger foods....

puffs

cheerios

little pieces of bread

avocado pieces

whole wheat egg noodles cooked more than I would cook for myself

I mash up black beans and then form them into little balls.  She LOVES them, but they get a little messy

banana slices

ripe pear

steamed haddock - I just break off flakes and she eats them herself

baked sweet potato fries

....I'm sure there is more than I can't remember.   If you are really nervous, just try something yourself first.  Gum it around your mouth a little - without using your teeth and see how it breaks up.  If it gets mushy fairly quickly then you should be OK.  And give small pieces.  baby steps!!  HTH

MWoodside

I just started putting some softer items on her tray pretty early on (7ish mo).  For a couple weeks she just played around with it (it's messy) while I fed her, then she started grabbing it with her whole hand & getting it mostly in her mouth.  Soon she mastered the pincher grasp & now she hates when I try to feed her anything.

I started with softer things like avocado bits, ripe pear bits (raw pear), steamed apple bits, etc.  Once that went well I moved on to more firm items like steamed beet bits, cantaloupe bits, steamed green bean bits, steamed peas, etc.

We introduced cereal around 8.5ish mo for the iron since she doesn't get her needs met by my milk at that point.  Then we added in meat bits & then egg yolk (in with cereal since that is not tasty alone).  DD adores cheese bits, cottage cheese & yogurt.  She gets at least 1 of those things daily with a meal.

They don't need teeth to chew so you don't have to worry about that.  If she's even bitten you BFing think about how hard she can clamp down with those gums, lol.  Just make pieces small enough to avoid gagging as much as possible, but not so tiny she can't grab it.  Good luck!

monona9

SarahC720:

 baby steps!!  HTH

lol for sure. I know she loves to eat and is probaby ready, but I'm not. 'll try some of the things you said. Thanks for the help.

luvbeingmom

dd had only her two bottom teeth for the longest time before she got anything else in, and even those took a long time for them to come in...

she managed just fine with those two little chompers. all the soft foods worked great for her and she just mashed and gummed them until she could swallow them...

your lo will be fine! 

monona9

MWoodside:

They don't need teeth to chew so you don't have to worry about that.  If she's even bitten you BFing think about how hard she can clamp down with those gums, lol.  Just make pieces small enough to avoid gagging as much as possible, but not so tiny she can't grab it.  Good luck!

lol very true! Thanks for putting me at ease. I think she will love cheeses & yogurt too, if she's anything like her mama. I'm kind of excited now to start all these new things, but still slightly nervous lol

xmeli554x

FWIW, we're doing BLW with Ethan, and any time he's gotten a piece that's too big, he just spits it out of his mouth.  Just trust your LO's instincts!

MWoodside

also babies have a SUPER sensitive gag reflex. my dh is easily freaked out by it buti just watch her super close and she spits things out that she hasnt chewed enough yet. the high gag reflex helps the not choke. dd also loves graham crackers. earths best makes good baby sized ones that are organic.

blissfully_caffeinated

She'll be fine. Just give her bigger pieces. You don't want to do tiny pieces because they're hard to pick up and she could potentially aspirate them (but that's very very rare). She doesn't need teeth. She will gum them. Baby gums are tough! DS still only uses his teeth to get bites off. He chews with his gums. I gave soft finger food from the beginning (around 6 months). DS has 6 teeth all in the front. He uses them to take bites of things like sandwiches and apples but doesn't chew with them.

spfclr

If you have a lot of baby food in the freezer I would suggest trying to use most of that up first - once I started offering one or two finger foods per meal she quickly got over being fed with a spoon. 

In addition to yogurt (which she loves despite it being on a spoon), cheese, banana, avacado, kiwi, scrambled eggs (I do give her the whites, hopefully that's not too bad?), bread, and pasta I'm doing steamed fruits and vegtables - I like the cottage cheese suggestion.  It's very messy and often requires an outfit change

pixy_stix

ZB has been eating whole brains for a while now.  :oD

We just give her stuff that's soft enough that she can gum (i.e. no raw hard vegetables), and small enough that she won't choke should she swallow it whole.

monona9

I gave her some small pieces of bananas yesterday and it was so cute. She looked around and played with it for a while and then saw me eating some banana so she tried to grab some and bring it to her mouth. She got some in there and moved it around and was fine *phew*

Thanks ladies for giving me that push I needed to get started!