Finger foods, teething biscuits, Puffs...

Lilly and Owen are not crawling yet (although they look like they are trying), or sitting too great, but can definitely sit up for awhile, especially if they have a boppy for support.

Why do all of these foods like puffs, or cheerios, etc say that babies need to be able to crawl before they can have these foods? I feel like they are ready to start trying out these foods. Of course, they will be in their high chairs under my supervision.

So do I really need to wait until they're crawling to try finger foods?

 

My babies started puffs at 7 months or so. They were army crawling then, and Emma was sitting well, but Jake wasn't. I would give it a try! When I first started with the puffs, I broke them in 1/2 so that they could get used to the chewing, even though it doesn't take much with those! Have fun!

 

I think thats just a guideline - kind of a "disclaimer"...my twins started cheerios around that time (they didn't like puffs till much later)..I have full chair high chairs so we strapped them in and let them have at it!

 

I think it says that for development purposes. Like your baby will do x,y,z before crawling so feeding a table food at that time is acceptable by the time they are crawling since they would have already met specific developmental milestones--at least that is my take on it. Neither of my boys were even army crawling. As long as they sat unassisted and could sit up in the highchair I started them. They were about 7 months. Like the pp said, I broke them in half for a couple of weeks until they got the hang of it.

Rachel

 

I tried these foods before crawling. They had a tough time. They were gagging on them. Now that they are crawling and standing, they can handle these foods great! It all depends on each child.

 

We also gave Puffs to our twins at 7 months, and they were not crawling yet. I could tell they were ready for them. Many children crawl between 7-9 months and usually they are ready for finger food around the same time. Gerber is giving parents a rough estimate of when they should feed Puffs to their babies.

 

I'm another one who started Puffs at just over 7 months. My girls weren't lifting themselves off the floor and crawling until 10.5 months. They did fine with them.

 

I started puffs at 6 months with the twins (Cheerios at 6 months with my oldest, puffs were just coming out those days). My oldest didn't crawl until 10 1/2 months, the twins have been (army) crawling since 9 months. They basically stopped eating jar food at 9 months, except the occassional jar they share for dinner in addition to little pieces.

 

We started them per our pedi at 6 months. Liam has really just been crawling for the last two weeks, but has been having puffs since August. He also feeds himself small bits of pasta, cheerios, etc.

 

It's not that there's anything special about crawling, just that at the time that kids are normally crawling, they also probably have the hand and head/trunk control to eat finger foods. Sarah didn't crawl until 10 months but she started finger foods around 8-9 months, and she did OK. (She didn't really take to them like a duck to water, but she was interested enough to keep trying until she could figure out how to mash them without gagging.)

 

I started wagon wheels at 6 1/2 months and they do puffs(had to wait on the little puffs until now...they were gagging on them but they eat them up now) and biter biscuits (make a huge mess but they are yummy to them) now. Anyway...mine don't crawl...working on it but not quite there yet. I think it's a guideline. Their head control was good and they showed some interest so I gave it a go. I just watch them carefully when they're eating that kind of stuff because they some times get gaggy.

 

B/c in order to tolerate foods like that they "should" have trunk stability to be safe to eat.and if they are crawling they have that trunk stability...however if they are in their feeder seats you are giving them the support they need at the trunk. There are children with disabilities that don't have that trunk stability but are in wheelchairs and therefore able to eat foods like that since they are given trunk stability.