When is it safe to start finger foods?

Question

My daughter is 7 mos old and I have tried small peices of bannana and smashed cooked carrots but she did all right but she acted like she was gagging on them and or choking sometimes I think. So I haven't tryed it again I did this about thanksgiving time and she was only 61/2 mos old then I tryed a bitter bisket and she liked it but got a small chunk off of it and I took it out of her mouth it scared me. She can grab things with her fingers too. and they say you can start them then. So when is it a good time to start finger foods, and what is the reaction to them when they do eat small peices of food? and what are good starter foods? Thank You

Answer 1

I started mine with tiny veggies at about 10 mos. Every child is different in this arena. However if she gagged, don't be so quick to say NOPE. She is simply learning what her body can handle as far as swallowing. Up to this point everything has been liquified!

Also, Gerber makes a great line of baby foods with texture to help your baby delve into eating solids. They have mashed up bits of carrots etc. pieces of pinapple in the Hawaiian Delight. So she will get her smooth food, but with some bits she can practice chewing. If she has teeth in the front and is interested in the biter biscuits allow them but keep a close eye.

I Hope This Helps,
Amy

Answer 2

My daughter is 7 1/2 months old and so far because she doesn't have any teeth and she isn't so good with thick foods, the only solid food I give her are the gerber puffs. At first I broke them in half but now she does fine with them whole. She can pick them up and put them in her mouth. She usually sucks on them so they melt but there have been a few times she has gagged. Then the puff comes back up and she sucks on it again and then it goes down. Experimenting is the only good way. I know it's scary but you'd be surprised.

With my first I put it off for a long time and then while at a wedding (she was 8 months old) someone gave her a pretzel. I didn't know it until she had almost the whole thing down. Now she had four teeth already but she mostly sucked on it and used her gums. They can surprise you. Just slowly introduce really mushy stuff or try stage 3 foods and she how she does with the food pieces. Goodluck!

Answer 3

Babies are going to act differently when they get a textured food in their mouth that they never had before. Sometimes my 5 month old daughter gags on her jar food and I think its because sometimes she swallows to fast or it may go down in the back of her throat. As long as the pieces are small enough you have nothing to worry about, its just something new for her. Yes it is true about the grabbing of the fingers is the right time to give them cheese, crackers, toast, meat, etc...Good luck

Answer 4

I have never given my son baby food, only table food as I do baby-led introduction to solids. http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

Larger pieces are much easier to deal with than small pieces. It allows them to decide how much they want.

Fruit is good. Broccoli "trees", potato/yam wedges.

My 9 month old still chews and spits out a fair bit, but that is because he isn't really into food, he is such a little boob man. But when he is *actually* hungry he can make a surprising amount of food disappear with no mess.

Answer 5

Cheerios I think are the best starter food. I think I started my boys on finger foods around 8 months.