Introducing "real" food

peanutbuttermarshmallow

DS is 7 months old now and we've been doing purees since he was just over 5 months. He will eat mum mums as a snack occasionally.

 DH tried giving him an arrowroot cookie last week, but DS bit off a (small) chunk and started gagging on it, then spit it out. DH said he was "choking" but I'm not sure that was the case because he only gagged for 10ish seconds.

 Then the other day we went to MIL and she gave him a chunk of banana (after asking permission). DS was holding it and put it in his mouth and scrapped off a piece of it and started gagging on it. Again, spit out after 10ish seconds.

 DH is opposed to giving him anything but purees or mum mums now because he's worried about him choking

 For those who are just doing purees, when do you start introducing real food? And how? Like, for example do you just give them a chunk of banana or do you cut it up?

Latham12

We waited till she was 7 and a half months and started with puffs so she could learn how to chew, and it worked. She never gagged on a puff bc they dissolve. Then we gave her yogurt melts, half at a time then when she got those down well a whole one. When I give her avocado I dice it up pretty small, and for bananas I slice like when you put them in cereal and then quarter the diced pieces.

BootsyLou

I cut the food up into very small pieces and then let LO feed herself.  Some things she's had are chicken, banana, avocado, sweet potato, green beans, puffs, mum mums, yogurt melts.  She eats pur?es too but I'm starting to notice she's showing a preference for feeding herself.  She's 7 months old for reference.

greeneyedjess

From the BLW school of thought, you should give them steak fry sized pieces of food.  Make it big enough so that when they grab it in their fist, there's still some food hanging out on the end for them to get in their mouth.  Don't be freaked out too much by the gagging, it's totally normal.  Babies' gag reflexes are much more towards the front of their mouth, as a protective mechanism.  When I give G bananas, I just tear off a chunk and mash it in my finger a little before giving it to him.  Yesterday, I made him some apples with cinnamon and vanilla and he LOVES them...they're cut into roughly 1" square pieces but are cooked very soft.  I didn't want to go from purees straight into BLW but I'm slowly transitioning.  When I make his food now, I just leave some chunks in whatever I'm making instead of making it totally smooth.  And I give him stuff to experiment with-like big strips of red bell pepper, which he loves.

 There are a ton of videos on YouTube showing BLW, which helped me feel more comfortable with giving him actual pieces of food.

tamararachel2

We are in the same boat right now. I gave DS2 a puff about 2 weeks ago and he started gagging and DH freaked out on me saying he was choking. So I break up the puffs and yogurt melts into smaller pieces. He's more into playing with them over anything else. I still think he's yet to actually feed himself, but since he turns 7 mo tomorrow I think I'll start giving some to him more often. I did hear that avocado and bananas are good first "real" foods so I'll try that out soon enough. GL!