Help Starting Table Foods

[Mom to M&M]

Marisa is continuing to do well with her purees (knock wood) - she'll eat either Stage 1 or Stage 2 fruits and veggies either as is or thickened with oatmeal (which I make pretty thick). She'll eat the chicken soup I make if I blend some of the chicken and carrots with her pureed veggies. She'll also eat puffs, cheerios and pieces of bread as finger food. And this is great, I know!

However, lumps are a no go - by this I mean small piece of chicken or whatever in her purees. And I can't really blame her because the mixture of smooth and lumps seems weird to me too. But we do want to progress beyond purees - so should we just concentrate on finger foods for now? I did buy some MSPI safe chicken nuggets - should I bake them soft and give her small pieces as finger food? Or better offering by fork? What about hamburger meat - we want to trial beef starting Saturday - maybe small chunks of cooked hamburgers? And are we best off giving a good amount of pureed fruits and veggies first (since she'll let us for now) and then offering finger foods after that? Should table foods be mainly by fingers or fork at this point?

If so, should we start trying small pieces of soft fruits and veggies? So far she's refused to try those and won't pick up and try soft cooked pasta pieces...

[*Natasha*]

Hi Karen,

How is she going with finger food? If all is going well then give her well cooked pieces of vegetables,fruit,pasta she can hold and then just keep also giving her smoother stuff at this stage. Also try making it lumpy slowly over a week or two and see how you go that way. Anything Marisa will and can hold you can give as finger food. Catherine loves chicken nuggets i am going to make my own soon and freeze them as they are good to give as finger food. She went through a stage where she wouldn't eat lumpy food but we are back on track again 

[Mom to M&M]

She does well with Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and sometimes with small pieces of wheat bread or toast. But she won't pick up small pieces of pasta, fruit or veggies  so far. Any hints? Have tried rolling the fruit in crushed cheerios but still no go. And the pasta just seems to freak her out.

[meenaljain]

Hello,
I saw this post and I have a question regarding bread and toast. I read several posts seeing that people give bread and toast as finger foods. What kind of bread(wheat, white, etc) is good for a 7 month old with no teeth yet? Also how big of a size. Dont they choke on it?

please let me know.

Thanks

[Mom to M&M]

My DD (almsot 10 months) has no teeth either. We give small pieces of wheat bread - sometimes toasted, sometimes not. She gums them up and swallows but I am always right with her in case she gets it stuck. The pieces I give are generally about the size of two cheerios I'd estimate.

[Mom to M&M]

Tried small pieces of soft cooked ziti noodles today. She tried it but didn't like the texure or something and just let it fall our of her mouth and then wouldnt' go near it. She only seems to want puffs, cheerios, bread and french fries so far. Any ideas to get her to like/try the softer stuff?

[*Natasha*]

Can't help you with the soft stuff as Catherine is at that stage yet. Have you tried rolling it in cereal first to make it easier to hold? At the moment we are doing: cheerios,sultanas,cheese,bread/toast,biscuits. I have tried fruit and vegetable she isn't interested at this stage so i will just keep trying.

[JennŠ]

Mine was not interested in pasta until she saw me eating it.  Then she crawled over and got in my face until I gave her some.  She had already finished her own supper, so it was not hunger.  Otherwise, her table food eating is kinda hit or miss.