My DD is seven months old as of the 9th. She's been trying to get into our foods for a couple months now, and just recently, it's become a nuisance. It's gotten to the point where if she's in her high chair, she screams until one of us takes her out and sets her in our laps, and then she'll practically try to climb on the table to get to our plates. I gave her some sweet potatoes about three weeks ago, and banana and apple sauce a couple times since, but when I tried to give her avocado a week ago she gagged on it, and last night I gave her some broccoli and she gagged to the point that she almost threw up. I didn't mash the avocado as much as I did the potatoes, so she found a chunk, but last night, the broccoli was mashed up pretty well. My DF is getting to the point where he doesn't want to do this anymore because she keeps gagging and he thinks she's choking. Her problem is that she doesn't know how to chew or swallow yet, and I don't know how to teach her. I'm about to give in and just start buying jarred baby food and let her eat that, much to my better judgement. I'm pretty sure she's ready for solids, because she loves playing with them, and really seemed to enjoy the sweet potatoes. How do I teach her to chew and swallow, and how do I convince DF that she's not choking?
You need bigger pieces. She's not going to have an easy time if they are mashed up too small. Gagging is normal, choking is NOT. Letting her work on her gagging, while supervised closely, alone is NOT a bad thing. You can't teach her how to chew and swallow, you can watch her learn herself. Put her in her high chair with bite sized chunks of foods that are soft on it, and let her grab them and eat them herself. Finger sized foods like a steamed green bean, asparagus stalk, or carrot (cut into quarters vertically) would probably be the easiest to start with, as well as cubes of steamed apples, pears, etc. If it's too small, she can't control it. It makes it harder on her. If it's mashed up completely, she's not really learning anything.
So, like 1/2 inch chunck? Or bigger?
Thanks for your help. I probably should have done more research before I started this.
Quoting MaryJarrett:You need bigger pieces. She's not going to have an easy time if they are mashed up too small. Gagging is normal, choking is NOT. Letting her work on her gagging, while supervised closely, alone is NOT a bad thing. You can't teach her how to chew and swallow, you can watch her learn herself. Put her in her high chair with bite sized chunks of foods that are soft on it, and let her grab them and eat them herself. Finger sized foods like a steamed green bean, asparagus stalk, or carrot (cut into quarters vertically) would probably be the easiest to start with, as well as cubes of steamed apples, pears, etc. If it's too small, she can't control it. It makes it harder on her. If it's mashed up completely, she's not really learning anything.
If your going to spend the money buy a little food processer, their like $10. Plus you can use it for stuff besides baby food.
I wouldn't worry too much. Seven months is still pretty young for solids. Mine at that age just mashed them all over and licked his hands. It took him to about 10 months before he started actually eating the food. Just keep offering. Cut the chunks so she can pick them up. She may still just play with it and that is okay.
Ah, OK. Thanks!
Quoting KimmieLu:
I agree with the larger pieces. If you buy fresh broccoli you can leave a longer stalk when you trim it. This gives the baby a "handle" and she can work on chewing the head. Small, squishy pieces of food are harder to handle just because they're not used to moving foods around in their mouths. Bigger pieces they can hold onto make it easier for them to control. Think strips or sticks instead of chunks.
You can give bigger pieces. She just might not be ready for it yet if she is still having trouble. Babies get interested in EVERYTHING we are doing. So them being interested in food isn't a big surprise! I really didn't start BLS until my kids were older.
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- mnmbaby
on Jun. 17, 2013 at 11:07 AM