When / How Does Baby Learn to Chew

[NEWMOM2009]

My baby is just turning 10 months. She has not yet learned to chew with her gums. She has been fed the Stage 3 foods and is able to swallow the ones that don't have big lumps, like the fruits, squash&zuchinni, corn, etc.

But when I try to feed her the lumpier ones that have things like peas or big chunks of potatoes, she gags, chokes, and throws it all up. She only has 1 front tooth. How can I help her learn to chew?

Thanks

[BeachBum]

My oldest son did not do well with the chunks in the purees. I think it was more about the expectation of the food being smooth than his inability to chew.
He did much better with the gerber puffs, small pieces of sweet potato, avocado,etc.
My boys are 8 months now and we are doing broken in half Oatios and little pieces of banana and ripe pear.
It is very scary offering finger foods. I'm so afraid of choking! But that is the best way I know how to do it.

[JanBaby]

We started with the Gerbers Puffs because they were the only thing I could find that dissolved. I was and still am so afraid of her choking. She does great with those (shoves as many in her mouth at a time as she can) and they give her Cheerios at day care. We just started her on steamed veggies tonight - squash - and she just kind of pushed it around her mouth. I don't think she was really chewing much when we started her on the Puffs but she chews now ... sometimes even when she doesn't have food!

[Momof3Labs]

To help her learn how to chew, I think that you need to give her foods that she can chew. At 10 months, she is probably more than ready for finger foods. Stage 3 foods are not the answer - babies have a hard time sorting out the puree from the lumps in their mouth. My boys never liked stage 3 foods - we went straight from purees to table/finger foods.

[DrSally]

To help her learn how to chew, I think that you need to give her foods that she can chew. At 10 months, she is probably more than ready for finger foods. Stage 3 foods are not the answer - babies have a hard time sorting out the puree from the lumps in their mouth. My boys never liked stage 3 foods - we went straight from purees to table/finger foods.

I don't like stage 3 food b/c I do that that it is hard if you're expecting something smooth that you can swallow and then there's the stray chunk. I also don't like them b/c they tend to have a lot of allergens or other things that I'm not ready to give yet (egg, tomato, berries, etc.). We also went straight from stage 2 to table foods. I found that DD learned to chew by giving her chunks of real food.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

they learn to chew by watching you. Feed her at the same times you are eating so she can see you eat and chew. And give her things she can chew like the puffs or cheerios.

My baby spent about a week exploring my mouth with her fingers and then her own mouth. We call her our little scientist because she tries to figure everything out. After she did that, she started eating but she only wants to feed herself.

[Katigre]

Babies learn to chew by practicing - and for most babies, that will involve gagging.

Here's why: For adults, the gag reflex is at the back of the tongue so if we gag we think it's close to choking. But on a baby, the gag reflex is in the MIDDLE of the tongue. When a baby is learning to chew and move food around in their mouth, they will inevitably trigger their gag reflex b/c food always ends up on the middle of the tongue when you eat. [The gag reflex moves back on the tongue the older a baby gets, so by 18-24 months it is at the back of the throat and thus the choking-prevention is no longer as big a factor, but by then kids can eat regular foods easily without choking so it's not as necessary. I think it's so cool how the body develops that way to protect when needed and move out of the way when development is gained!)

This is completely normal, and the gag reflex *prevents* choking b/c it is further up in the mouth to keep food far away from the windpipe. It can be noisy, it can freak parents out if they don't know what to expect, but if the baby is feeding themself (not having food put in their mouth for them) then they will figure out how to manage it and chew without gagging fairly quickly. I actually find that pureed foods are more likely to cause gagging/choking for DD because they spread around the mouth more and you can overfill the mouth rather easily compared to solid foods where she can only fit in there what she can bite off.

I would recommend steaming some veggies like broccoli spears and carrot sticks and put them on her plate for her to pick up and gnaw on. Also try slices of ripe pears (leave the skin on - that helps the fruit not be a slippery and hole together) or slices of kiwi (again, leave the skin on, it's edible and also helps it not get to slippery to hold).

You want the pieces to be the size of steak french fries or potato chips - big enough to pick up in the hand and gnaw on.

Let her experiment with putting it in her mouth, chewing on it, moving the pieces around, etc... Sit with her but try not to worry about choking. If she is sitting upright (not reclined), has good head control, and has normal development then choking is rare - probably as rare as it would be with feeding purees (which can also choke a baby).

If she gags (and that will probably happen the first time she bites off a large piece of the fruit or vegetable) don't panic - stop and watch what is actually happening in her mouth. What you will see is the piece of food on the middle of her tongue and her mouth figuring out what to do with it. If she is noisy, she is NOT choking. Choking is silent gasping b/c the airway is blocked - very different from gagging. If you let her body figure it out she'll move the piece of food out of the way into the side of her mouth, and if it's too big to swallow she'll spit it out. Test it and see - my DD did that all the time (now she bites off the right size to chew, she only has 2 bottom teeth and turns 8 months old tomorrow).

www.babyled.com is the website that talks about this a bit - scroll through the photo gallery for inspiration about what finger foods to give.

If you're really scared about trying regular fruits/vegetables even if they're soft from steaming, then you could give her cheerios or puffs too since that also lets them learn to chew in a different way since they're small and require the pincer grasp to pick up and eat effectively.

HTH!

(FWIW, you don't have to give soft, steamed foods - it's just that some parents feel more comfortable with that. DD eats apple slices which are crunchy but she does fine with them, I actually found that she got off bigger chunks with softer food vs. harder ones like apples where she can only gnaw off tiny bites b/c she only has two teeth).