Finger food help

[girlygirl]

Hi
My daughter is 8 and a half months and Im just so scared giving her finger food. What did everyone give as finger food and do they chew natuarally? Sorry its a silly question.....
I gave Rhiannon a bit of apple to hold a few weeks ago and she was sucking it well for ages then she bit a bit off with her gums, she has no teeth yet. and she chocked on it, was chockking for ages. I managed to get it out but it was scarey.
I know you can give toast fingers but do they try swollow it?
Some one at my stay and play are giving scrambelled egg on toast at 5 months???!!!
HELP!!!

 

[nazmomi]

Charlie is a couple of weeks older but has been having finger food for a while. He has things like cooked carrot sticks, breadsticks, cheese, cucumber etc.
We did have a few coughing incidets in the beginning which unfortunately is just something that happens in the first cpl of weeks as LO gets used to chewing and textures etc.
Remember though when your LO is doing a big noisy scary coughing noise it's not that bad as it's helping to dislodge what is in her throat, and if she has trouble you can put her over your knee and give her a slap on the back.
If your LO was really choking there would be very little or no noise and it would look like they were gasping for air. In which case you would again put her over your knee, give her a slap onthe back and if needed call for help. ( dont panic tho as this doesn't happen with most babies when weaning).
As log as you stay with your LO all the time she is eating she will be fine. Good luck

 

[flowergirl]

Cooked but not soggy broccoli, roasted parsnips, sweet potato, toast with puree on it, bread with puree on it, malt loaf, pitta bread, peppers (cooked) carrot sticks (cooked), cheese... anything really!

My Lo is still not really eating but does gum everything I give her and some goes in but most just comes back out the front at the moment. She does naturally do the chewing motion and does cough and splutter a bit but I just keep an eye on her- she always coughs and is all dramatic and then reaches for the food that made her cough to have another go!

 

[Magic Monkey]

Cherry tomatoes cut in half are a fave in our house, we started with cooked carrot sticks, toast, rice cakes, those Organix crisp things.

 

[loz]

I've been giving Emm a half banana to hold and gum this week. She manages to gum small bits off and eat or spit out!!

 

[poppy160]

Pasta is a good one, cooked vegetables, fruit. Sometimes Ella has a biscotti or a rusk as treat. Toast fingers was the first proper food she tried..to be honest my LO has choked a fair bit, but coughed it back up which is a good sign. They should only have finger foods if they have the coughing reflex to get it back up should they start choking on it. Keep at it, she'll get the hang of it..Nice to see you back by the way

 

[Bee]

We've tried banana and toast so far - and he just gums them to death

I've not tried anything else yet - going to use up all the fruit and veg in the freezer that I made them move onto cooked sticks of veg.

 

[Bloom]

DD tried peach segments today that was good as they went all mushy.

 

[girlygirl]

Hiya

Thanks so much for your replies. I have tried Rhiannon on bananna this week and she mainly just sucked it
I will keep trying her on it till she gets used to chewing and will then progress onto toast...but it is still scary.

What cheese do you all give btw?? Cheddar? Ill leave that one for a while but just wondered as its quite hard cheese.

 

[Sherlock]

You need to let your LO discover her gag reflex. Babies have this as thier safety net so they don't swallow too big bits of food.

We started weaning LO this past week and have started him off with cooked carrot sticks and broccoli florets. He has also had sticks of pear, cooked apple mashed up and pieces of banana.

If you give veggie sticks well cooked your LO will probably start off sucking them and bits will come off and she can then play with it in her mouth and will gag if its too big. The food is soft and she'll learn to chew then also. FWIW she may well keep sucking on the banana. I'd be inclined to give that for a couple of days then move on to the coked veggie sticks. Our LO had banana for two days and veggie sticks also. By the third day of eating carrot and broccoli he was picking it up, putting it in his mouth and biting and chewing. I'm sure you just need to get a little bit of confidence and let your LO try these things. The only way she will learn is from experience. She is at the age where being able to chew foods is important. I'd really start going with it and letting her learn.

And ditto what nazmomi said about gagging and choking. Your LO needs to have foods to learn how to chew and get used to the textures etc. The sooner you can start with this the better. If she gags please remember this is a good thing and shows she is doing things right and learning how to tell food is too big to swallow. She'll spit it out and try again. There are developmental stages babies go through and IIRC its thought that the 6-7 month age is where babies learn the chewing/gagging/swallowing process and can then progress on.

FWIW uncooked apple is not a good finger until babies are well able to chew properly. Soft pear is good as it will crumble easily in the mouth and mush up.