Confused about introducing lumps - any advice??

[Fergie12]

My lo has been on solids since 17weeks as he is very big for his age.  Was 19lb at 4.5 months.  He eats well and so far the only thing he does not seem to like is turrnip.  My health visitor came round to see us a couple of weeks ago and said that i should think about introducing slightly lumpy food as it is important for his development.  The problem is that whenever i try and give him even the smallest of really soft lumps in with his usual food he gags so much that he is sick.  He is not 6months until next week and so i know he is still quite young.  I don't want to damage his development by not introducing slightly lumpy food at the right time, but im not convinced that he is ready for it.  Do you think it would be ok to keep giving him the food still very smooth for a while longer?  And also does anyone have any tips for introducing lumpy food and when did they do it??

Thanks

 

[Seona1973]

I didnt really do lumpy food, I just introduced finger foods alongside puree and when ds ate a good amount of finger foods I phased out the puree.  I wouldnt worry about giving purees still as strictly speaking if you were doing everything by the book you wouldnt even have introduced solids at this point anyway. (I am not saying you shouldnt have given solids already btw - I am just pointing out that there is no rush for lumpy foods/finger foods to be given)

[b0nni3]

I agree with Seona, my LO didn't start solids till 6 mo and we didn't do lumps till about 8 months. also my LO didn't take to lumps gradually...it was like, all puree, and then mash with some bits, and then all of a sudden at around 10.5 months he just started eating small pieces of grown up food (like rice, big pieces of pasta, even corn!). I remember we went through a phase of him not really liking the stage 3 baby food (very chunky) but stage 2 was too runny for him. So I wouldn't worry about the lumps. You could try doing finger foods like Seona suggested to see how he likes it - steamed carrots or green beans are good. They just slowly need to get used to having different textures in their mouth, but again, there's no rush.

[Fergie12]

Thank you very much for your replies.  I probably wouldn't even have thought about lumpy foods at this stage if it was not for my health visitor mentioning it.  I don't think he is ready and so am just going to go with mother's instinct and stick with the pureed foods for now.  I like the sound of what you did Seona, which was to just introduce finger foods and then phase out the puree. 

Thanks again