Is is time to move to finger foods?

[shresmummy]

Hi, DD is nearly 10 months old and when she was about 6 months I started pureed solids on her. SHe took to it really well and ate well. I BF so she was on 4 milk feeds a day and also used to wake up at least 1 time during the night. She has never been a good napper and has never STTN yet 

Recently since end of May she has fallen ill a few times and been on antibiotics. plus she was teething. Lately she has just become SO fussy with feeding and she was never like that. THe minute I Take the spoon to her mouth she starts whining and pushes away and mealtimes are becoming so traumatic for me!!

She has also been fussing for her milk feeds. During her first viral infection at the end of May she absolutely refused all BFs so I had to give her EBM. Plus I'm thinking of starting to wean so have also been giving her formula. She used to have a full feed of formula bottle before bed but now absolutely refuses everything.

Does she need more spaced out milk feeds or does she need more solids? but she's refusing all her mashed stuff. SHould I move onto finger food now? She has teething rusks a bit of cheese stick but I haven't really tried anything else. I'm really scared of choking because she has 6 teeth now and can take out quite a big chunk off say a piece of toast / cheese stick. so I just put my finger in and pull it out. AM I not letting her experiment properly in my haste?

Here is our feeding routine: Please could you help me get it right? thanks!

Wake - anytime between 7 - 7:30 AM
E - BF upon waking, or sometimes if she has fed at 5AM during NW she has BF at 8AM
     Breakfast anytime around 8 - 8:30  (has mashed pear/avocado/ + yoghurt + bit of rice cereal added for consistency)

S - AM nap usually anytime from 10:30 - 12 varies each day

E - Formula bottle after AM nap. Always fusses for this one, if she takes any it will only be around 2.5 - 3 oz. rarely full feed. Keeps fussing and pushes bottle away. Then I try lunch around 12:30-1 anytime. (has a combination of baby pasta/rice + cheese + lentils + pumpkin/spinach/sweet potatoes/ and a bit of rice cereal added for consistency). Used to eat well but now fusses a lot!

S - PM nap usually antimre from 2:30 - 4 varies each day

E - EBM bottle top up after BF upon waking from PM Nap. Usually doesn't fuss too much for this milk feed. I BF first and then give her EBM Bottle. Dinner around 5:30 (has only rice cereal mixed with veggies. No pasta or rice). Again is fussing a lot now. Never used to. Then get ready for bed and usually around 7 PM I give her a bottle before bed. She used to drink it all off (about 5 oz) but now just pushes it away and doesnt want any. Sometimes take BF

Night feedings -DFs never worked for her. so I just wait till she wakes anytime betwen 11 and 2 then feed. Sometims she doesn't want a feed then instead wakes at around 5 for a feed.

Does my feeding routine need a tweak? Is this fussing normal? I'm worried because she's not gaining enough weight.

IF someone can help me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks a lot!

[jana224]

I would let her experiment with finger foods.  I undertand the whole being scared of choking thing, but if you cut stuff up small enough you should be fine.  Babies have a natural gagging mechanism that will make them spit up if they're tackling too much.  My DD was on finger foods at 6-7 months (cheerios, soft fruit, toast, soft veggies, etc.) with NO teeth, and even now at almost 12 months she has 3 teeth and eats exclusively finger food... I feed her NOTHING on a spoon.  She eats grilled cheese, manicotti, tuna on toast, cup up fajitas, macaroni and cheese, grilled chicken breast, broccoli and cauliflower trees.... anything we eat, she eats.

You might find that if given room to experiment, eating and food will become a very fun part of her routine.  I know it's hard to "let go"! 

[~*Nicole*~]

My DD is 10 months and has 6 teeth as well. She has been doing really well with finger foods since about 6-7 months and at this point much prefers to feed herself than have me do it. I guess it's an independence thing.

I am also very afraid of choking. To reduce the risk I make sure to only offer her correctly sized pieces of food. I wont' give her a whole large piece of toast for fear she will take too big of a bite and not be able to chew it correctly. I break her food up and only give her a few pieces at a time. She does very well with pastas, pancakes, eggs, chicken, ground beef, soft fruits and veggies, cheerios...I was even letting her take bites of my sandwich at lunch today. I basically stopped buying baby foods in the jar because she started to spit all of them out. At this point it's all finger foods with me sneaking in a couple of bites with my fork.

I would just read up foods that commonly cause chocking hazards; nuts, grapes, etc. and make sure to avoid those. Otherwise, let her try food with you nearby to step in if she needs assistance!

[shresmummy]

Hi ladies, sorry it took me a few days to get back to this thread! Thanks a lot for your advice

I had actually started giving DD different finger foods for a while now, and she does enjoy it. But I still have to give it to her. If I hand her a piece of toast she just shoves the whole thing into her mouth and that's where i guess the choking hazard comes in. She loves cheese

The problem I find though is that she's still not able to pick small things up by herself properly (such as cheerios/ little bits of fruit which are slippery). SO I have to feed them to her with a fork.

The other good news is she's pretty much recovered now and I think it was the antbiotics that were causing problems with her appetite. She's back to eating normally, thank goodness!

DD still finds cheerios a bit of a problem though, she tends to gag and splutter. I wonder if it's too hard for her.

How are you Lo's in terms of picking up things such as cheerios or other small things. I think DD just needs to practice some more. She gets impatient too quickly

[jana224]

It took Avery about a month to learn to pick up small things on her tray like Cheerios or small bits of cheese... but with practice, it wasn't a problem.  She too would shove a huge amount of food into her mouth, like half a banana, but she learned that too much food in the mouth = not being able to chew/swallow so she now puts manageable bites in.  Practice practice practice, really does make perfect.

[~*Nicole*~]

Definitely practice makes perfect. DD still shovels too large pieces into her mouth on occassion but will take them out once she realizes (or spit them out eww) and then find a smaller piece. She also had trouble with cheerios at first but then realized she had to gum them for a bit in order for them to dissolve so again it was with practice that she got better.

[~inbalance~]

Practice practice practice!  DS was picking up food from the first time I gave it to him at 7 months, but they are all different!

Grapes or hotdog rounds are prime choking size, so avoid those.

If I do larger sticks or spears of fruit/veg, I make sure it's really well done so if he does take of a big chunk it pretty much mushes up on its own as he's chewing.

You'd be surprised how well equipped babies are to avoid choking, I was so worried in the beginning but after observing DS he instinctively 'knows' what is too big to swallow and gags if there's too much in his mouth.  He is a chipmunk, and will shovel food into his mouth (crams in pieces of fruit, veg, toast, cheerios all at once!), but usually realizes it too much and spits most of it back out.

Good luck!

[*Liz*]

Cheerios took my lo a few tries too - but they really do dissolve quickly so I think it is more likely that your DD is struggling to manipulate the food in her mouth. DS used to choke on them too.

They do tend to ram it all in at once - but as Martina said - they just spit it out again or go diving in with their little fingers to fish it out. When DS sticks a whole toast finger in I just sit by him and watch closely in acse he needs me. 50% of the time he chews it for an age and eventually manages to swallow it, the rest of the time he fishes it back out again.

I think whenever you try something new they will gag a bit - but its just the learning process.