When can you give raw veges?

[jay2yay]

When is it okay to stop cooking veges and giving raw ones?

[Lemonthyme]

I think the main risk is choking.  I certainly gave raw cucumber around 6 months, raw tomato at around 8 months but raw harder vegetables was probably much later.  I'm probably a bit wary but you could always give him raw grated vegetables like grated carrot?  I have to admit my son wouldn't eat it mind.

Nothing wrong with giving cooked veggies at this age though.

[*Kara*]

Another question - will I ever get over the fear of DD choking?  Ugh.

[creations]

I've tried raw red pepper but he only kind of licked it and seemed annoyed that I'd given him something that couldn't be eaten!  Just recently (9.5 months) he's started eating raw apple properly, before now he only had sort of one try on raw apple and enjoyed gnawing on it but that was because he wasn't hungry and just explored the flavour.

Choking - my friend's 14 yr old choked on a sports drink bottle lid at the school sports field, ambulance, hospital etc.  Very scary.  If it hadn't been for the tiny hole they put in the top there would have been no hope for her.

[jay2yay]

ugh, that's so scary. 14 yrs old too, who woulda thought?

Kara- I feel the same and I think the answer is no!

ok thanks lemonthyme - I actually thought the reason for not giving them was digestion issues but I'm glad to hear it's not. DS is definitely not ready for harder veges. Just this morning he choved a huge banana in his mouth and choked the worse I'd ever seen - I finger swiped the banana out He did real good with whole food at first but now he choves as much as he can into his mouth which scares me.

[*Kara*]

Choking - my friend's 14 yr old choked on a sports drink bottle lid at the school sports field, ambulance, hospital etc.  Very scary.  If it hadn't been for the tiny hole they put in the top there would have been no hope for her.

So scary!  Just yesterday, I was at a good friend's house, she has a DD who is 9.5 months old... she told me that she just choked on a soda cap last week - she must have grabbed it from the table when both parents weren't looking!  So scary

[Lemonthyme]

My son choked on apple at 8 months.  I slapped him on the back on my knee and it came straight out.  I was always of the opinion that kids do it at least once (I remember choking as a child more than once) so I went on a first aid course when he was approx 6 weeks old.  So glad I did.  My OH was on the same course but he froze.  So glad I did it. 

Not saying it didn't take me some months to feed him apple again mind. 

I think it is important to be wary though, some people get terrified of feeding textured or finger foods and it's really important for their speech development.  They do have a really sensitive gag reflex when they're little too and gagging is normal.

[*Kara*]

For sure - my friend's DH froze as well when their DD was choking... he just yelled at her to spit it out.  A lot of good that did.

[Lemonthyme]

Sorry, I shouldn't laugh!  I like to think he'd know what to do if I wasn't there but one time he was doing bedtime and my son started to be sick, proper projectile sick (must have had a stomach bug).  I just heard a panicked call from upstairs.  He'd put him on the floor (in our bedroom with a new carpet) so that our son wasn't sick on him!!!!  There was also the fact our DS was really upset and needed a cuddle even if he was vomiting!  So I picked him up, carried him to the bathroom, getting vommed on repeatedly in the process and stripped his clothes off, ran a shallow bath and got him clean.  Then I stripped all my clothes off (literally sick in my bra!!)  cleaned myself off enough, got him dried and dressed again by which point he'd stopped being sick.  Gave him a good cuddle and got him to bed (he was ok all night, I was checking on him every couple of hours).  So during all this, my husband was stood in our bedroom, immobile. He finally decided to clean up the carpet, proclaimed it was stained.  It took me a day or two to try cleaning it myself (because I believed him) then I tried myself, using the same cleaner and removed every trace.

God men are useless when it comes to things like this.  Why is that?

[creations]

I had a scary choke session today.
Whilst DS sat in his highchair pushing an entire banana and then kiwi quarters down his throat I managed to choke on the smallest slither of kiwi imaginable.  It was horrible I really needed to cough and couldn't breath in enough to get enough air for a cough...I did somehow manage to produce a cough which must have dislodged it some and I sucked in a tiny bit of air which must have also been breathing the kiwi back in!  It went on for maybe 5 mins and with each tiny cough I must have dislodged it enough to get a tiny bit more air in, by the end of this I was breathing lots and coughing a huge amount whilst also trying to tell DS that mummy was fine in a really cheery voice as he looked so worried.  I continued coughing quite a bit for the next hour or so and could still feel something small moving there.  How stupid do you feel when a 9 month old manages his food better than you do??!!

[Lemonthyme]

It can happen to anyone!

[*Kara*]

Good lord Lemonthyme - that is completely what would happen here if the same thing happened with DD.

Creations - chew your food!  Glad you made it though!