How Soon Is Too Soon?

My boys are 5.5 months and have not started any solids, only breast milk. This evening we all went out to dinner and my chubber kept grabbing at EVERYTHING on the table and trying to stick it in his mouth. We thought (well, DH more than me) it would be funny to see what he's do if we gave him a piece of bread to gum. He was attacking that thing! I felt bad because as soon as I saw that he was tearing pieces of it off, I took it from him so he wouldn't actually 'eat' any. My question is, are they too young for teething foods? Would I have needed to start them on cereal or something first? This might be a silly question I know, but he just looked so happy and cute chewing on that breadstick

 

I would go to the store and get a few of the mesh feeders. They kind of look like little rattles with a mesh bag on top. You can put food in the bag and they can gnaw on it without getting chunks that are too big. All three of our kids loved them and we are constantly getting comments about them at restaurants.

Once you have the feeders, start with a simple food like gerber fruit puffs and use only those for a few days. If there is any allergic reaction, then you know you need to wait. Unless your family has a history of allergies, he'll probably be fine though.

If you make your own baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays, the frozen cubes fit perfectly into the mesh feeder as well. All you have to do is steam and blend almost any kind of plain veggie or fruit to make it edible for the baby.

 

You're close to the 6 month mark, so it's probably ok.

I've found that my babies hate being spoon-fed mush, but love to eat things they can teeth on/gnaw/gum bits off of. Apple and avocado slices, banana chunks, and toast are big hits in my house. (If you don't want to give wheat for allergy reasons, you could always give them rice cakes or something.) I had come across this before we started solids and thought "Hm, kind of interesting, but I'll just try the 'normal' way" - but turns out my babies had their own ideas about it! So anyway, self-feeding is just fine!

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Dec 1 2007, 11:58 AM) [snapback]516516[/snapback]
You're close to the 6 month mark, so it's probably ok.

I've found that my babies hate being spoon-fed mush, but love to eat things they can teeth on/gnaw/gum bits off of. Apple and avocado slices, banana chunks, and toast are big hits in my house. (If you don't want to give wheat for allergy reasons, you could always give them rice cakes or something.) I had come across this before we started solids and thought "Hm, kind of interesting, but I'll just try the 'normal' way" - but turns out my babies had their own ideas about it! So anyway, self-feeding is just fine!


I am so confused. I just assumed babies would choke or something if offered bread etc... Does this mean that I can let my 6mos. old Jack and Lily gnaw on a piece of bread when we are out to dinner? I guess avocado would be safe because it is so soft but what if they swalled a big piece of banana chunk or something. I would like to try this with Lily - what other foods are okay?

Sorry to post hijack - thanks!
Amy

 

QUOTE(ahmerl @ Dec 1 2007, 09:37 AM) [snapback]516611[/snapback]
I am so confused. I just assumed babies would choke or something if offered bread etc... Does this mean that I can let my 6mos. old Jack and Lily gnaw on a piece of bread when we are out to dinner? I guess avocado would be safe because it is so soft but what if they swalled a big piece of banana chunk or something. I would like to try this with Lily - what other foods are okay?

Sorry to post hijack - thanks!
Amy



I think it all depends on the baby, my DD was eating table foods around 8 mo she loved pieces of banana, bagels, whole cooked peas, pancakes, hard ends of bread (she loved Panera rolls when she was teething) cheerios, saltines... Meanwhile my nephew by the same age would gag on the tiniest bit of texture.

I think any foods she has already tried pureed in their more soft cooked solid form would be okay in small bits.

Choking is always going to be a possibility, no matter what I guess, one mom posted about her DD choking on a puff.

 

QUOTE
I am so confused. I just assumed babies would choke or something if offered bread etc...


I'd thought so too, but the article makes an interesting case against that:

QUOTE
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.

It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that weaning takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what helps to keep him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will almost certainly have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting foods into a baby's mouth for him overrides this natural protection and may increase the risk of choking.

Tipping a baby backwards or lying him down to feed him solid food is dangerous. A baby who is handling food should always be supported in an upright position. In this way, food which he is not yet able to swallow, or does not wish to swallow, will fall forward out of his mouth, not backwards into his throat.


I keep an eye on my kids when they're self-feeding, and have taken an infant CPR class. But I've noticed MUCH less gagging and difficulty when they're feeding themselves than when I was still trying to feed them purees. They would gag when I spoon fed them sometimes, but now if they're having trouble with a bit of bread or whatever that they've bitten off, it either falls out of their mouth or they spit it out.

When I first read that article, it sounded like some weird fringe thing, but I've been amazed at how much of it seems to hold true with my babies.

 

I think it depends on the baby as well. The girls did good with table foods earlier than Dax. He still sometimes chokes himself eating cherrios and I definitely wouldn't give him anything larger than that. The girls did start regular meals of solids before he did though.

 

We started with steamed fruit in the mesh feeders at around 6 months. James did very well with them, Evan was not a fan (he's too lazy to hold anything to his own mouth!). Mum Mum teething biscuits dissolve almost as soon as they hit the babies mouth (I've tried them myself) so they're a great thing for them to nibble on from about 6 months (supervised, of course).

 

As long as you are there, let them try things. Babies are smarter than you think and can do better with food. Just let them try.

 

As soon as my kids could grab it and get it in their mouth I let them try and eat it. They love holding saltines at a restaurant, or a piece of bread. I agree that mesh feeders are great. I worried a lot more about when it was "ok" to let babies have things with my oldest. Now I just play it by ear, and if they're interested I just give it a try.

Reyna