Self Feeding Solids

Re: Self Feeding Solids

• r0zz member

  September 2014

  BB girl has no teeth (8mo) and gets impatient w her purées so she usually ends up drinking them from the jar.
  She really wanted "food food" so I gave her a bit of sliced bread and let her hold it so she can bite into it herself. I also feed her noodles which she loves and rice mixed with a little broth. And sometimes I'll cook some peas and small bits of carrots for her. I also give her puffs and melts but not too much or else she gets really hyper.
  She chokes or coughs a little here and there but I try not to panic. They're learning how to eat new things so it's all part of the learning process. I just make sure that I'm always supervising her and have water at hand.

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• ASmallWonder member

  September 2014

  Kiddos don't need teeth for solids  They won't even get their chewing teeth (the molars) until a year or older and they are definitely well on table food by then.  Just make sure whatever you give can be mashed between their gums (which are crazy strong).  Steamed/baked fruits and veggies, breads, shredded cheese, soft meats/chicken - it's all ok.

  Formerly known as elmoali

  
  

  
  

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• TeacherVicky member

  September 2014 edited September 2014

  He doesn't need teeth, their gums are quite hard.

  
  

  I usually give DD what I'm having. If it's meat, I'll shred it or cut it up in small pieces. Otherwise I just put whatever it is in her tray and let her eat it. If it's big fruit, I'll cut it in long, thick "fries" so that they are easy to grab and hold. If it's a harder fruit, like an apple, I will steam it just enough to soften it.

  
  

  ETA: When we have pizza, I give DD my crust. She happily chews on it while we have dinner. 

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• BeachBum678 member

  September 2014

  DD started around 8 months. Once she figured out she could feed herself, she flat out refused purees. I give her things like scrambled eggs, pancakes, shredded or ground meat, beans, toast with different spreads, etc. A baby's jaws are much stronger than you might think -- as long as the food is appropriately sized and prepared, LO can eat pretty much anything.

  

  

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• megsue114 member

  September 2014

  somerandomchick said:

  We self-fed from 6 months... letting LO always feed themselves and control how much they eat etc is called Baby-Led Weaning. They will gag a lot at the beginning but that's normal--learn the difference between gagging (you don't need to intervene) and choking (do intervene!) or you'll drive yourself bonkers.

  
  

  Generally any food they can't handle, they'll work on it for a bit and spit it out. Once DD started really eating solids (9-10 months) she has less patience for just chewing on and playing with hard-to-eat foods, she'll reject them pretty fast.

  
  

  No whole nuts, and I'd recommend for stuff like grapes and cherry tomatoes to cut in half. But bits of your meat (having fajitas at the restaurant we'd scrape up the tiny pieces of meat stuck to the pan for her, once she mastered pincer grip... before that we'd give her a big strip and she'd gum the end happily). A strip of bell-pepper, cooked or raw. A slice of avocado or banana--you really don't need to mash it. Put some cooked beans or cheerios on front of LO to let them pick em up. Scrambled eggs. Bread can be hard for LO to chew... a tortilla she'll mainly end up with a gooey wad that she spits out eventually. Crusty good bread she'll gnaw on until she gets bored. Bits of your lunch meat. Olive slices and shredded cheese out of your salad. Orange or mandarin slices are really good--early on DD would basically just bite into it and let the juice run everywhere... a lot of it ended up on her instead of in her belly. Celery... celery is hard to bite a too-big chunk off because it's fibrous, so they really just gnaw it off bit by bit. Cooked broccoli.

  
  

  Just give LO whatever you're eating and its fine

  
  Considering allowing a bit of BLW but terrified of choking. Did you ever have to intervene? If so how often?
  

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• Designermomma member

  October 2014

  Thanks y'all! He's becoming a pro. He really likes bread/pizza crust. I tried boiling carrot sticks to soften and he loved those too! We just took DS to his 9 month check and dr said he can have egg yolks and meat now too. He also popped out 4 teeth in the last few weeks. What a relief!

  

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