When do you stop pureeing foods?

[jbeamer]

My DD is 6 1/2months and I have been making her foods by pureeing them and also using jar baby food. The Ped. said to start giving her crakers and teething biscuts to help her with gripping foods and bringing them to her mouth. My question is...When do I start giving her more "table food" and not so much mashed/pureed stuff? How big are the pieces to start with? What do I offer? For instance, meats. Right now I puree chicken or use a jar of baby food, when will she be able to eat that without me pureeing it? The Ped. said that many babies do not even get a first tooth until 12mo. and by then most are on table food. Can that be right? How do they chew? I am really confused on how to graduate her on food. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

Jen

[kaitlinsmommy]

I posted on this last night but dd erased it so here I go again. I just went with my gut on this issue and I'm sure it varies with every child. I still puree baby food for dd because she eats it well but she also eats almost everything we eat, including chili, soup & guac. We had lunch at Quiznos yesterday and I asked for a side of some chicken pieces that I just tore up a little smaller and fed to her.

I gradually starting giving her small chunks of table food around 8 months and she did well. She has 5 teeth and just gums the food before swallowing it. I know she can't chew like us but it seems to work.

Finger foods that work well for us are cheerios, Goldfish crackers & Teddy Puffs (from Whole Foods). Just a heads up - cheddar goldfish, multi-grain cheerios & teething biscuits stain so you might want to use a bib if she's feeding herself these things.

I've tried bananas & avacado pieces as finger foods too, but she still prefers I feed her these with a spoon. I was a little nervous handing my baby a big cracker for the first time but they seem to do fine sucking on it so it's soft & then swallowing. Just go with what you think she's ready for and have fun!

[agomalley]

Hi,
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. My DS just turned 6 months old. We just started him on cereal. Do you have the Super Baby Food Book by Ruth Yaron? I really find it helpful in knowing what to give him. I just read the 6 month section and it said that you should still be pureeing food, but that they can start with crackers/biscuits etc. You may want to check it out from the library. It has a TON of information and I find that I use it as a reference book rather than a sit down and read it through type of book.

Good Luck,
Anabelle and Ryan 4/9/03

[egoldber]

They only need teeth to chew things that are truly hard or tough, like raw vegetables and stringy meats. Their gums are quite strong and perfectly capable of mashing most foods. My DD had ZERO teeth until 14 months, well after she was exclusively on table foods.

I would just offer her more textured food periodically. Try using a fork to mash foods rather than pureeing them to add texture. Offer small pieces of food that dissolve readily (like crackers and Cheerios).

But I didn't start solids until my DD ws close to 6 months, so we experimented with cereals until she was 7 months anmd then she moved very readily to foods with a lot more texture.

I've never read the Super Baby Foods book, but I hear it is very good. I really like Ellyn Satter's "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense".

HTH,

[KimberleyDawn]

Sorry to butt in here but I had a similar question. William is doing great with feeding himself Cherrios, scrambled egg yolks, brussell sprouts (sp), tofu, cheddar cheese, baked beans, and baby cookies broken into bite size pieces. He now has his 2 bottom teeth so I'm terrified to give him crackers or whole cookies because won't he bit off a huge piece and choke?
Kim

[egoldber]

I always broke the food into smaller pieces. (For example, I would break a saltine type cracker into 4 pieces.) I didn't give DD whole crackers or whole cookies until she was well over a year old. Or I just used smaller crackers, like oyster crackers or Goldfish.

HTH,

[jbeamer]

My DD actually sucked off a piece of a teething cookie today and started coughing because it was stuck in her throat. She has no teeth! That really surprised me. So much for the teething cookies. I guess part of it is just getting used to bigger pieces of food in her mouth and how to swallow them. Cherios freak me out. They are so tiny. I think I'll wait to try them. Thanks for all the advice so far.

[cinrein]

If you put a cheerio in your mouth and not chew, it actually gets soggy pretty quick. I tried it ;)

I am endlessly entertained by watching Anna sloooowly pick up a cheerio with her thumb and index finger and bite it into smaller and smaller bits. I read that cheerios are good for babies to practice picking up small things. They also are small enough to not block the windpipe.


Cindy and Anna 2/11/03

[egoldber]

My ped said to think about a grape. That's the size and shape you need to worry about. Big enough to block their windpipe and too solid to dissolve on its own.