"can't chew without teeth"

[magpie17]

Is this true? My MIL told me that you have to purée food when weaning as babies can't chew food until they have teeth. I am sure I have seen toothless babies eating chunks of veg, toast, cheese etc but she told me I must be mistaken.

My DS isn't six months so not weaning yet anyway but I have some sensory issues with 'mushy' food and really would rather stick to lumpier textures (appreciate that I might have to just get over it if purée is the way I have to go) but I don't want to give DS anything he can't eat because of not having teeth. It all sounds weird to me because surely a baby doesn't have a full set of teeth until much later and I am certain that I have seen babies eat 'proper' food before that...

[MsMargaretCarter]

Babies can definitely chew. The teeth are all there, they are just not through the gums yet so the gums are plenty hard enough to assist with chewing! Look up baby led weaning :-)

[Buttercup27]

No you don't have to puree foods for babies with no teeth.
Have you ever been bitten by your baby (while putting teething gel on). It hurts. Babies guns are really hard and tough.
We did baby led weaning as ds refuse purees (I bought a new mixer and lots of pots but ds was just not interested ).
One day he took food from my plate and that was it. The start of baby led weaning.
We basically gave him exactly the same things as us (he did get very messy) but loved it as he had control.
Did exactly the same for ds2.

[CMOTDibbler]

Just feel their gums, and see how hard they are! You can give babies of 6 months anything you eat apart from honey, whole nuts, and shark. Nice big chunks so they can pick them up and hold them, but they are pretty happy just grabbing anything

[SoupDragon]

If you were to stick your finger in their mouth and let them chomp down on it, you would soon change your opinion about no teeth = no chewing :)

[GreenSand]

When weaning was from 4 months, purees were required.
Now weaning occurs closer to 6 months, pureeing isn't essential. Certainly, I never pureed for my kids. Well cooked carrot, broccoli, boiled potato in shape of a chip and bananas were early foods, iirc. But we very quickly just gave some of whatever we were having, cut into battons if we had a choice, and let them get on with it.

[magpie17]

Thanks for the responses, I knew I was right! DS loves to chew my fingers (and anything else he can get in his mouth) and I was sure his gums were hard enough. I am really keen on BLW as an approach because of the mush aversion and also because I am lazy, but well-meaning MIL looked at me like I was bonkers when I told her about it. Most of my friends have done spoon feeding mush initially so I feel a bit unsure about BLW.

[GreenSand]

Xposts.
My Mum was horrified when she first saw DS1 eating.
However, a couple of years later, watching him wolf down something, she admitted her horror was misplaced, and it worked for us.

[VeryPunny]

She needs to tell that to DD who didn't get teetth until 9 months and happily are loads of non puréed stuff before then!

[lornathewizzard]

Don't worry, my MIL thought we were batshit for wanting to do BLW too. Now DD is 16months old, MIL is always impressed with how much/well she eats.
My advice is do your research so you feel confident in your decision. The book by Gill Rapley is good. And get DH on board.

[moggle]

Agree with all the above! Especially that until they have molars, they can't do much chewing with teeth.

The only thing I would say is without any front teeth I do need to break some foods up into smallish bits for my DD to eat to prevent too much frustration. EG she will happily eat a cheese and pickle sandwich made from 1 slice of bread folded in half, but if I present her with the whole thing, or just cut it in half, she will take a couple of bites and then get fed up and throw it on the floor. If I cut the sandwich up into pieces about an inch or so square, or into fingers, she will get through almost the whole thing, as I think she feels more in control.
At 12m she's now just got one single front tooth and still can't do much biting, but she does enjoy nibbling on a rice cake instead of just mashing it to death, so snacks are starting to get a bit quicker!