Solids and self - feeding

Lily is 7 mos and 1 week old. She did really well with solids when they were introduced per ped's instruction around 4 mos. She quickly proceeded through from rice cereal to almost every stage one and stage two fruit and veggie. Right around the time I started to introduce some of the stage 2 "dinners" or meats she also started with Cheerios.

Developmentally she has been consistently early and can now pull to stand and get to sitting from both back and belly. She reached these milestones at about 6 months 2 weeks (going to sitting from belly or back) and 6 months 3 weeks (pulling to standing. Oh yea, she has also been crawling and only holding with one hand when standing.

(Her brother, Jack; however, cannot do anything of the sort and is happy to sit there for hours playing but if he falls onto his belly he needs help back up and he certainily cannot crawl or stand).

Anyway, once she got the hang of feeding herself the Cheerios, Lily really started to lose interest in her solids. It is like all of a sudden she won't sit still or is pursing her lips or pushing the spoon away and even cries she is so frustrated. Yet, the minute I clean her up and put the cheerios in front of her she goes to town. I have just in the past week started to give her whole Cheerios without splitting them in half and she seems to be doing just fine. She is also able to drink water out of a sippy cup and seems to enjoy that as well.

Lily has always been very independant and her temperment has really changed for the better now that she is able to crawl and sit and be a bit more independant in her play. I have a feeling she is just sort of frustrated with being fed and is obviously game for self-feeding(Cheerios). I also put fruit and veggies in the mesh feeder and she just "eats/sucks" them right out of there.

Does it sound like she is aiming for self-feeding? If so, is it too early? Do I go with age as a marker or developmental milestones? If she can self-feed, what can I try? I am so afraid to cut things into little pieces as I don't know how little to make them and anytime I let her gum on something big (toast, etc) she manages a big piece off. I do notice that she sort of chews her cheerios. By the way, she only has her two bottom front teeth.

Any advice is appreciated - feeding them both solids at the same time is frustrating enough, she is making it even more miserable for both of us!

Amy

 

WOW Lily sounds like she is doing awsome! As for Jack, my boys are the EXACT same way. My Jack is all over the place, crawling then sitting, pulling himself up on everything and James is perfectly content to army crawl everywhere or sit and play or clap his hands. We are in the same boat with solids, as soon as I started giving them puffs and little bits of finger foods they started losing interest in being spoon fed. It sounds like she is ready to start self feeding. I would just go with her milestones, she is obviously ahead so I would go with it. I have started cutting up little pieces of frozen waffles, pancakes, banannas (which are really hard for them to pick up). I was just going to post about some finger food suggestions so maybe I'll get some answers for you. I know what you mean about the big pieces, everytime I try giving them something too big to choke on they seem to gum off a huge chunk and then I get really nervous and pull it out of their mouth. Good Luck

 

QUOTE(Ericka B @ Jan 9 2008, 05:59 PM) [snapback]564601[/snapback]
WOW Lily sounds like she is doing awsome! As for Jack, my boys are the EXACT same way. My Jack is all over the place, crawling then sitting, pulling himself up on everything and James is perfectly content to army crawl everywhere or sit and play or clap his hands. We are in the same boat with solids, as soon as I started giving them puffs and little bits of finger foods they started losing interest in being spoon fed. It sounds like she is ready to start self feeding. I would just go with her milestones, she is obviously ahead so I would go with it. I have started cutting up little pieces of frozen waffles, pancakes, banannas (which are really hard for them to pick up). I was just going to post about some finger food suggestions so maybe I'll get some answers for you. I know what you mean about the big pieces, everytime I try giving them something too big to choke on they seem to gum off a huge chunk and then I get really nervous and pull it out of their mouth. Good Luck



Thanks Ericka,

This might sound like a silly question but, are you heating the frozen waffles firts or are you just giving them to them out of the freezer? Also, how would you describe the size that you are cutting them to?

Thanks,
Amy

 

Amy,

That Lily is a firecracker isn't she? It sounds like she's definitely ready to start some more finger foods... I don't think 7 months is too early at all. If she's doing fine with cheerios then you could probably start offering some bites of soft fruits and vegetables to see how she does with that. I had to let my boys pick up the pieces out of my hand at first because the tray was too slippery and everything stuck to it. Once they got the hang of the pincer grasp they got much better at picking things up off of the tray. You could also try little bites of pancakes or waffles... those seem to have been the easiest things for my guys to pick up when they first started finger foods.

Good luck... finger foods are lots of fun... and be prepared for lots of mess too !!!

- Carrie

 

I heat up waffles, pancakes and french toast and cut into small pieces.

My dr. told me the girls can choke anything larger then a dime and smaller then a quarter so I try to use that as my rule when cutting things up.

 

I cut the pieces the size of my fore finger finger nail. I've been doing that since 7 mos. and my girls only had their 2 bottom teeth too. I understand your fear completely! It was an occomplishment when I wasn't biting cheerios in half!! You will be surprised on how they can mash and chew without teeth! really! grilled cheese, I cut the crust off and cut into small pieces, my girls loved this and it was easy for them to pick up. I still get nervous of them choking, but not nearly like I used to when my girls were your babes age. You'll and your babes with be pros in no time. Offer her more finger food and see her reaction. She's deffinately ready and sounds like she's quite the achiever!! Canned veggies are soft and easily mashable with gums. This gives you piece of mind and the babe practice with something a little healthy to pick and self feed. Good luck and have FUN!

 

Dax prefers to self-feed as well. It sounds like Lily likes the independence and there's nothing wrong with that. Use soft foods and cut them to pea size and she'll be fine. I also keep the Gerber puffs and dried fruits/veggies on hand because they're easy to just plop down in front of the baby and let them eat. With the mesh feeder, you can freeze baby food into ice cube trays and put that in there as well.