No finger foods at 8 months?

[LionRichie]

My baby choked at 3mo (on snot from a cold - lovely!) and stopped breathing. Because of this, I am finding it really hard to give her any foods that she might choke on.

She is now 8 months 1 week and is eating stage 2 textured purees (although the silly baby still gags a lot on even the teeny lumps and is showing no sign of chewing).

All her baby friends are feeding themselves finger foods and my mother is 'commenting'. So I pulled myself together and a few weeks ago started giving her sticks of soft carrot or cucumber, chunks of avocado, baby rice cakes etc.

The only thing to make it to her mouth (rather than being crushed/thrown on the floor) has been a rice cake...and a big chunk broke off, she didn't know to chew it, so she panicked and swallowed it in one go. She didn't choke but there was a lot of gagging and coughing and eye watering.

I don't know what to do now. Do I keep trying but with small cubes of soft food that she can swallow whole? Any suggestions? I am worried I am messing up by not trying harder to get her to gum on finger foods like other babies but I am so scared.

She needs to learn to handle lumps. At the moment she eats like we would soup- sucked straight off the spoon to the back of the mouth.

I wouldn't go with small lumps of finger food. Her fine motor skills are probably not there, but also it doesn't teach her the skills of moving foods around her mouth and biting. I would go with a combination of more textured puree and the less scary finger foods - banana, avocado, etc.

So like finger sized pieces of soft fruit? Or bigger slices that she can grip in her fist?

About the size of a chip.

I know it must be scary. The issue is that the method of eating lumps is totally different to smooth thin puree. She has to learn the mouth skills. just let her play with bits like banana that won't be too heart stopping for you.

Cool thanks. Have been giving her chip sized pieces of food but she doesn't actually put them in her mouth. Which is amusing as everything else goes straight in, but she's always too engrossed with squishing food items to actually eat them! Will keep trying.

Don't stress if it takes a while. Just keep giving her the chance. Eventually she will be done exploring with fingers and shove it in!

Does she see you and other people eating finger food when she is being offered it. Does she realise its food?

Not sure she does! I eat it with her but clearly she's a bit slow at catching on.

It will take her a while to get the food into her mouth. And then she learns to chew and swallow. Just keep giving chunky chip sized food to her. Easy ones (for you to make) are soft stoned fruit (peach etc), citrus, pears, chips, toast fingers and omelettes.

The stage 2 purees are still basically like liquid. DD2 is 7mo and I have some ella 7mo yesterday. It's so much thinner than ready brek! DD2 feeds herself so that ella pouch basically mostly fell to the floor :) Ready brek tends to stick onto the spoon.

Don't worry about other babies. Some might be stubborn souls like both of mine. They won't be spoon fed at all. As a result they are very good with finger food and textures. That's all they eat after all. Neither of them ever gagged, let alone choked.

Oh and DD2 still doesn't swallow much. Most food ends up as small lumps on floor or high chair. and in the case of ready brek, in her clothes, face and hair!

Just keep offering and encouraging her. She will get it at some point, I promise, but there's a wide variety in the age when babies 'get' certain foods.

On the other side, DD was lazy and as soon as she realised food as nice she wanted to be spoonfed all the time as it was quicker and easier for her. But she learnt to feed herself and eact bits of solid, it hasn't made the slightest bit of long-term impact on how she eats.

I found this transition in weaning the most fustrating. They seem to eat nothing but just make a mess, everywhere! It's exhausting but just keep putting it in front of them and she will slowly get the idea.

This and toilet training are my most 'loathed' (not really but you get what I mean!!) stages of both my dds. Fd2 was slightly easier however I still have to tackle TT with her......

Agree with weaning and toilet training being such chores!

I feel I'm cooking and cleaning 3 meals a day for DD2. And breastfeeding every 3 hours. It is so relentless.

Some kids just don't get it - DS1 took ages to manage to get anything into his mouth with his hands, and was probably 2 before he could actually get a sensible amount of porridge or yoghurt in from a spoon! He didn't really eat any significant amount of anything until he was over 1 (and was still BFing at 3!)

In contrast DS2 I don't think I've ever fed - he figured out spoons and forks unbelievably young (very motivated - rather enjoys his food), and was completely uninterested in BFing before he turned 1.

They're all different, she'll get there, just keep leaving some out and let her practise.

Thanks guys, will be patient.

Lion I made the mistake of giving purees with lumps in them rather than finger foods to DD. Purees with lumps are actually much harder for babies to deal with than finger foods because they look smooth but also have bits in them so the baby has to use two different techniques to deal with them.

Don't worry at all if it isn't getting into her mouth. Just keep offering and one day you will find her chomping away. Does your DD sit at the table while you eat? It is great for them to see us eating so they copy.

I was worried about choking too, but babies' gag reflex occurs when food is much less far back in their mouths so it is actually quite hard for them to choke. Just make sure the pieces aren't too small.

The only choking incidents I had with DS was when he had been stuffing his mouth with more food before he swallowed the last bit. It isn't always obvious that there is still food in their mouths.