Moving from puree's to finger foods

[NadeneR]

Hi BW'S

DD is now 10.5 mo. She eats like a star and LOVES her food. She gets quite vocal to let me know she's ready to EAT.

I started her on puree's at 6 mo and have gradually tried introducing finger foods - toast, O's, fruit, veg & meat. However she either just plays with it, spreading it around her feeding table and entire dining room, or she gives it a try and totally chokes or gags on it. I even finely mashed up some Basmati rice and mixed it with her chicken and veg "stew" puree last week and she gagged so much I thought she was going to vomit. She does that with everything that's not a totally smooth yoghurt-like texture. So she gets absolutely none of it in.

I made a pasta and minced beef dish last week and fed her some of the pasta off my plate and she ate that quite ok (even cried out when I didn't keep it coming quickly enough). A little success there, I guess.

How do I go about getting her to eat something other than puree's? I've read so many of the recipe ideas on this forum and the first thing that springs to mind is "Talia's probably won't eat that", even though those recipes all sound SOOO yummy.

Any ideas on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance.

Nadene

[bennysmama]

So stuff from your plate is okay?  Sounds exactly like my little monster    

With that in mind, I started with both of us eating the same finger food from my plate....then popping bits of it on to his plate.  Stuff that worked well included little squares of toast and butter, chunks of cheese, wedges of roast sweet potato, chunks of avocado.

xx

[squeakersmum]

Sounds bizarre, but when I began introducing lumps in food if it was too thick Ben wouldn't take it.  So I often had to add a little water.  I guess so that there was more liquid around the 'lump'!

Also, when we started doing lumps - if I gave them to him on a spoon before he had had opportunity to pick whatever it was up and play with it/ try feeding it to himself - he gagged!?!?

[NadeneR]

Some nice ideas, thanks ladies. I'll try feeding off my plate again and see what she does with it. Does it matter that my food has salt in it? That's why I've been hesitant to feed her what we're eating.

Bennysmama, what do you do with foods like avo that are slippery to pick up (other than being entertained by their efforts -lol)? I also notice that our lo's differ 3 days is age, yours born 16 Nov? Mine 19th.

Squeakersmum, because she's so sensitive to textures, I'm very careful that her food is not too thick, but maybe need to make it a little more sloppy when adding lumps. I'll definitely give her a bash at getting food to her mouth first before just sticking on the spoon for her. Maybe her gagging is a cry for her independence, lol.

She only has 5 teeth currently, 6th one will probably cut today or tomorrow. I see a lot of the finger food ideas under "Finger foods 6 - 12 months" say "no teeth necessary". Some of those food ideas and recipes seem great, but I can't imagine that they can be eaten without teeth. Shouldn't I just try to stick to foods that she can mash up between her tongue and palate for now?

Thanks again for the help and tips.

Nadene

[bennysmama]

Hi there,

If I plan to feed Benny stuff from my plate, I don't salt.

Slippery foods?  To start with, I had to pick them up and let him have a bite first.   If he likes it -eg nectarines or peaches- its amazing how good his little pincer grip gets     I've also read that some BWers roll slippery fruit in rice crispies or crushed cheerios/oats to make them easier to hold.  Or I've seen a little mesh feeder thing (you pop the wedge of fruit inside the mesh and LOs can hold the plastic handle). 

Sorry, but DS isn't born in Nov....where did you see that? **slinks off to check profile and make sure haven't made big oopsie**

xx

[NadeneR]

My Oopsie! Sorry, my mistake. Squeakersmum's baby and mine differ 3 days, wrote that under the wrong name.

I made a meal for DD today with pasta, chicken, grated carrots and grated zuccini / courgettes and cheese sauce. I did puree, but not very finely. She gagged a few times, so I added a bit more water. She still gagged so I eventually gave up. I made a big batch, so I  pureed the rest a little more finely. I'll see how she goes on that tomorrow.

Her pincer grip is developing well. Gave her some peas tonight and she picks them up nicely, but that's where her efforts end. They don't go near her mouth, she just plays with them, or finds it entertaining to turn the entire bowl of peas upside down on her high chair tray. Lol.

I'll try the mesh feeder, sounds like a nice idea. Saw one at a baby store last week, so will definitely get one. Also the crushed cheerios seems like a fab idea, thank you.

From what age can baby eat food with salt in? Also, when is it safe to introduce egg? There are so many nice recipes that contain egg, but I'm still avoiding them.

Thanks for the help!
Nadene

[b0nni3]

My LO was the same. I think some of the LOs have a harder time with the texture that is in-between mash and solid lumps. What I ended up doing was just giving my LO finger foods while still giving him a coarse mash. Then slowly I just eased into chopped up adult food (e.g., 2/3 of the meal is mash and 1/3 of it would be chopped up table food), and bypassed the whole puree-with-lumps-in-it phase. Now my LO just eats whatever we eat but chopped up into real small pieces with scissors.