How do you know if you can move your child to table foods?

Question

i was wondering if i could introduce my son to any table foods.. he is almost 6 months but he has 3 teeth, sits by himself and crawls and he is showing some true signs to walking soon! (my bro walked at 6 months so i know its possible) Despite his age what are the signs he can start eating table foods?

Answer 1

start him on the easy stuff, mashed potatoes, smashed up beans, and when he good with that ,,, small bites of beans, potatoes... then you can progress... as long as he not choking..let him go... my son loved cornbread crumbled up with smashed beans and the juice .. it made a mush he was six months old...

happy feeding

Answer 2

Heres what my mother did... When the child starts reaching for things to chew on give him food! Like boiled potatoes and yams. You can mash them or let them get really soft so he can mush them himself. When a child starts chewing on things that means that he is ready to eat by himself.

Answer 3

All mammals are protected by the same thing -they can't get food in their mouth, chew it/gum it, move it back in their mouth with their tongue and swallow it until they are old enough to digest it. So when your son can pick up food and eat it, he is ready!

Also all chewing is done with molars, you can't chew with your front teeth -and almost no toddlers have opposing molars when they start table foods and they manage fine. Gums work great for chewing. Pureed and strained baby food is a hold over from when formula (homemade cows milk and corn syrup, and some of the first commercial formulas) were so inadequate that pureed foods and cereal had to be started by 6-8 weeks in a very specific order to prevent malnutrition.

http://www.llli.org/FAQ/solids.html
Babies who are ready for solids can usually feed themselves. Mothers often report that they knew their babies were ready when they picked up food from a plate, chewed it, swallowed it, and wanted more.

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#choke
It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that weaning takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what helps to keep him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will almost certainly have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting foods into a baby's mouth for him overrides this natural protection and may increase the risk of choking.

[...]

Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.

Answer 4

Yeah, teeth - pretty good sign to phase in solid foods.

Answer 5

if he is crawling the you can start simple with cereals and vegies and fruit
cheerios and see how that goes
progress to soft bread and cheeses slowly