Raw apple/carrots etc

[Catz]

At what age would you give your baby raw apple, carrots and other 'hard' finger foods?

DD (8.5 months) is pretty good with soft finger foods and has had banana, melon, steamed apple, steamed/very ripe pear, bread etc. When she started nursery last week I asked them not to give her any hard finger foods and specifically mentioned raw apple (have heard some horror choking stories about it). I want her to try these at home first because I want to check that she's OK with it and not leave it to a stressed nursery worker with lots of other children distracting her attention. When I was there for her settling in session today they brought her a bowl of long, thin slices of apple. Am pretty that they did this when I asked them a few days ago not to. Putting that aside, would you give your child these foods at this age? She has two bottom teeth and the top two have just come through.

Thanks.

Toast/breadsticks/cheddar-type biscuits would be fine at this age.

I would definately hold off raw apple at this stage. Lightly steamed veg - carrot sticks, cauli and broccoli florets might bridge the gap for you?

Racking my brains for more 'hard' finger foods.

I give DS 8.5 months a whole peeled apple to munch... he just kind of shaves it with his bottom teeth so it all turns mushy.

Thanks for the replies. Ah yes we've tried steamed broccoli too, she loves that (eating it and crushing it in her hair!)

Mmelody - would you be happy with the pieces of apple? I think it'd be more likely to break off in large pieces rather than mush...

grated carrot and apple ok

DS is almost 11mo but has had slices of raw apple for ages, certainly since that age. He loves it - bites a bit off, chews it, may swallow some of it but most comes back out so he can put another bit in.

Oh and he has no teeth, or didn't until a weeny bit of one poked through this morning!

Thanks for the replies. Hmm seems to be a bit of a split on pieces of raw apple etc. Don't want to seem too PFB to the nursery but would rather than than this Although that case was clearly at a nursery with some extreme failings.

Oh Flowery! A tooth! Woohoo! Am still waiting on dd2's first tooth and she is nearly 14 months now! Am thinking that she is never going to get any now......

there will be no stopping Little Flowery now!!!

Woohoo indeed!

I was also thinking it was never going to happen and resigning myself to a gummy grin til the age of 6.

I'm sure your dd's is well on it's way...[smug]

raw carrot I can't remember when DS had that first...probably he was quite old...but raw apple he had from the start virtually , certainly within a month of him starting blwing. I just made sure the apples were quite ripe, almost over ripe & the wedges were peeled. Within a few weeks he was happily munching on whole apples & pears skin & all as he already had 2 bottom teeth before he started solids & was able to scrape & bite them ok

mine ate apple at that age, raw. i don't think i ever cooked apple for him actually

apple was the only thing dd ever had anything approaching a choke on... so i waited until she could take the whole thing to scrape on. which turned out to be at nine months.

slices of apple, though, if they're thin, that makes more sense. i just didn't think of it.

Depends on the type of apple, I think -- different varieties have quite different textures. I think very thin slices of apple are a negligible choking risk, really (and an idea I shall file away until BLW time, as wouldn't have occurred to me)