Mushing down grown up meals or just chop it up a bit?

[Racers]

DD is 7m, weaned on a mix of yoghurt/fruit purees and finger foods. Last night I set aside a little portion of spaghetti bolognaise and offered it to her today. It went down very well! My question is, when people say to mush down things like this, is it because the baby won't eat lumps (mine will) or is it to help the digestion? She only had a few spoons so I'm hoping that if it is the latter, it won't be too much of a problem. Thanks

Hi, I always mashed with a fork, leaving few lumps. Ds never minded the lumps though!

I think it's more to do with babies not liking lumps so if your's doesn't mind, then lucky you

Thanks - sounds like just chopping it down a bit for her is enough then. I am lucky, she's good with lumps, finger foods and starting to grab the spoon and self-feed. Messy, but good

it's just so the baby doesn't have to do any chewing isn't it? cos you've done that bit for them.

But they can do a lot of "chewing" with bony gums even before they have molars, so it's not always necessary IME (esp with something like spag bol that's quite squigy anyway).

Yes, she amazed me by starting to chew after just a few tries of finger food. She gnaws at my hands quite regularly when playing so I know that her gums are rock hard!

DD always liked lumps and finger foods, so very quickly we moved onto just mashing and chopping. She didn't get teeth until 13 months yet this never stopped her eating anything at all.