XP- how to go beyond purees for 9 mo old

mela-sha · January 2011

DD has been on home made purees since 6 months.

Since 2 weeks, I have been trying to give her teeny tiny sized pieces of bread etc and have this fear that any bigger piece will choke her. I literally break a bread piece into 30 or so pieces which ultimately she gets tired of eating after a while.

1) How big should the pieces be? I read somewhere you could give them pea sizes of food and that to me, seems to be the perfect size for choking.

2) I tried to feed her rice, but she coughed it out violently (I have no idea if that was choking, but it did scare me enough).

3) She can pick up puffs and eat herself but because they melt easily I don't worry about it.

This seems the ideal time to introduce her to table foods and different tastes. How do I go about it? What are the signs that a baby is ready to go beyond purees.

Thanks!

kwinters87 · January 2011

You actually don't need to cut/tear the food into pieces (and I pretty much skipped purees all together). I give Grace a half of slice of bread and let her go to town on it. She does sometimes gag a little bit, but that is part of her learning to eat and she has never choked.

I would recommend doing some research on baby led weaning (also known as baby led solids in some circles)

MellsHells · January 2011

We skipped purees altogether; DD has been feeding herself solids since she was six months old. Like kwinters said, check out baby lead weaning (the book by Gil Rapley was especially helpful to me). Here's her website: https://www.rapleyweaning.com/

Your baby is plenty ready for solids and to go beyond purees. We cut things into chunks that are easy to grip. Like bread, I would just cut into thirds. Think "steak fries." But since the pincher grip has started developing, she's able to pick up smaller pieces to eat, and that is okay too (as I assume your LO is doing!).

BTW, Choking would involve no coughing; it would be silent because no air would be getting through. Gagging and coughing are natural parts of the "learning to eat" process. Baby's gag reflex is further forward in her mouth than an adult's, and she's learning how to move food around her mouth and ultimately, to swallow it. If she isn't ready to swallow it, she'll probably gag it forward and start moving it around again. She'll be more effective than you think, and the gagging will bother you way more than it will her! Although, at nine months, you may not have much gagging. We don't anymore!

nekorayne · January 2011

MellsHells:
We skipped purees altogether; DD has been feeding herself solids since she was six months old. Like kwinters said, check out baby lead weaning (the book by Gil Rapley was especially helpful to me). Here's her website: https://www.rapleyweaning.com/
Your baby is plenty ready for solids and to go beyond purees. We cut things into chunks that are easy to grip. Like bread, I would just cut into thirds. Think "steak fries." But since the pincher grip has started developing, she's able to pick up smaller pieces to eat, and that is okay too (as I assume your LO is doing!).
BTW, Choking would involve no coughing; it would be silent because no air would be getting through. Gagging and coughing are natural parts of the "learning to eat" process. Baby's gag reflex is further forward in her mouth than an adult's, and she's learning how to move food around her mouth and ultimately, to swallow it. If she isn't ready to swallow it, she'll probably gag it forward and start moving it around again. She'll be more effective than you think, and the gagging will bother you way more than it will her! Although, at nine months, you may not have much gagging. We don't anymore!

This is very important to keep in mind! We do BLW and give LO hunks of food and remebering this always helped me.

Like all P said we give bigger chunks of food. I would think the smaller ones would be even more chocking hazard. My LO has no teeth and eats amazing and gets he chunks off. Good luck

DarcyLongfellow · January 2011

You have to do what you're comfortable with :-) I totally understand the fear of choking.

What I did with DD was start with puffs (which I initially broke into four pieces each). Once she could handle the puffs whole (I bought the Happy Baby ones, which were fairly large), I started giving her Mum Mums. Mum Mums dissolve quickly like the puffs, but they're long crackers. At first I gave her small pieces of Mum Mums, then I gradually worked up to bigger pieces. Then I started giving her cheerios -- the same size as puffs, but harder, so she had to chew them. I figured she wouldn't choke on them because there's a hole in the middle!

Then, I just started giving her small pieces of all sorts of food. At one point I admitted to her pediatrician that I would break each pea in half when I gave it to her. He laughed at me (in a nice way) and said a whole pea was fine. But, if you need to break peas in half at first, just do it until you feel comfortable giving bigger pieces.

mela-sha · January 2011

haha on breaking the pea. thats totally something I would do.

thank you for the links. I will definitely look more into BLW.

thanks so much for the replies.

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