Well as new parents, everyone always reads books and surfs the web for the most recent posts by parents, magazines, authors, etc, on when to introduce new things to your baby. The reality is, trust your instinct.
1. When to introduce... PUREES : There is a lot of debate about this topic, however infants should not be eating purees until they can hold their head up and sit up independently (6 months). Recently, parents have been coming into my office with the advice from outside sources to feed purees at 4 months. This may work, although it does have the potential to create more aversions, tactile defensiveness, and negative mealtime environment. Bottom line- Between 4 months- 10 months (or 12 months), your babies PRIMARY nutrition should be from formula and/or breast milk.
2. When to introduce...CUPS: An open/sippy cup should be introduced when you are beginning to introduce purees (so ideally at 6 months). Cup drinking is an important milestone to teach your child jaw stability, tongue lateralization (moving tongue side-to-side), lip closure, etc. Your child will not be successful with this, but try to spend some time teaching them how to do this.
**Helpful tip: Use a dixie cup filled with an inch or less of water/formula/breastmilk to begin. These are small and easy to manage if your little one decides to spill it all over the place.
3. When to introduce...UTENSILS: I can't tell you how many times a 2-year-old walks into my office and their parent tells me that they have not introduced utensils yet. It is so important that you begin to offer a spoon (for exploration purposes) at 6 months (or when purees start). It can be messy, so if you want to only do this one meal a day, then that's fine as well. By the age of 12 months, children should be feeding themselves 100% of a meal (with exceptions of course), using fingers AND utensils.
4. When to introduce... MELTABLE SOLIDS: The first question you might have is, "what are meltable solids"? This is a "solid" that melts with moisture: graham crackers, Cheerios, Gerber puffs, Saltine crackers, Biter biscuits, yogurt melts, Mum Mums, Rice cakes, etc. These are GREAT first finger foods to introduce because they will melt in your child's mouth. These should be introduced (provided your child has had all kinds of purees and is moving them in his/her mouth without spitting them out with their tongue), by 8-10 months of age.
**As always please post questions and comments below**
Your blog is great! I wish I would have found this a few months ago. I am a physician and really appreciate finding advice from someone with training in the topic. It is very stressful as a first time parent to start finger foods. Thank you for some helpful ideas!
ReplyDeleteThis is great advice. My little one is 6 and a half months old and doing great with baby foods. But everyone is always asking me if she is eating regular foods, teething biscuits, etc. She doesn't have a tooth yet and so I feel more comfortable waiting until 7 or 8 months. It's good to know that that's okay and I'm not stunting her development.
ReplyDeleteMy little boy is just 24 weeks, and I have been doing a lot of reading about baby-led weaning, which involves just handing your baby a large chunk of food to explore, as they would a toy. All the sites claim this is natural, and there are many videos out there of 6 month olds eating/licking/gnawing on big slices of pear, or whole broccoli trees. My little one is uninterested in food being presented on a spoon, and I thought this would be a good approach to try, even though I was nervous about him choking. All the websites say they won't choke; that they will just gag the food out if they get a piece that is too big, and that this is normal and natural. They also say that babies cannot move food from the front to the back of the mouth without first learning to chew. So I gave my son, a half of a banana to "explore". At first he just touched it, but then put it in his mouth and seemed really excited by the taste. He sucked on it for a minute, then, suddenly, he managed to bite off a huge piece (about grape sized). He just pulled the banana away from his mouth and looked stunned. I totally panicked and swept the food out of his mouth, which I think scared him. He then gagged the last few remaining bits out (like he is supposed to according to the sites). I then mashed some of the banana up on his high-chair tray for him to play with because I didn't want to end on that note. But now I feel totally freaked out about feeding him, and I am worried I scared him (and myself). I don't know what I should do. Should I switch to purees, or rice cereal? Should I just wait a few weeks before trying anything again? I don't think I have the guts to hand him another big piece of food, but is lumpy mash okay at his age, or should I puree it? What do I do? I don't want to create an issue, but I am scared to start feeding him, I am scared he will choke. Any advice is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to say ALWAYS trust your gut. Even though you are a first-time mom, you are the MOM and you know best. With that being said, 6 months is usually a perfect time to begin to introduce solids. My recommendation is always to begin with rice cereal, then oatmeal, then orange veggies, green and finally fruits. The reasoning for this is mostly because of allergies. During this time you can offer MELTABLE SOLIDS, teething biscuits, mum mum crackers, Rice Krispies, etc.
ReplyDeleteI would be careful with what you read, especially if it does not come from a trained professional. Basically, what you want to avoid with "first tastes" is scaring your little one. I always recommend to wait to introduce large chunks of food, because if your child chokes, you are going to overreact (its natural) and most of the time, the child will be even more scared to venture out and try foods. Also, you need to progress through the textures in a gradual way in order to allow your child's muscles and movements to develop. A 6-month old child does not always have the appropriate reflexes to clear their airway when they are choking, so I guess I do not agree with the "child-led weaning" and allowing your child to have large chunks of foods (at least not at 6 months before you have introduced all your purees).
At 6 months, your child's cheeks are lined with taste buds, so mainly we offer smooth purees to allow them to explore taste without having to feel the texture as well. If your little one is already a little scared of texture, then I'd go back to square one and start with the cereal. You can also probably offer him some of the "meltable solids" I was talking about, like rice krispies, mum-mums, and teething biscuits. If your baby is fine with the texture then a mashed consistency is fine.
A great book that is worth reading is the American Academy of Pediatrics- Your Baby's First Year- this is what your pediatrician is going to go by, and this is really the most reputable resource out there.
If your little one is still scared of foods, ask your pediatrician to refer you to an occupational therapist who is certified in feeding and swallowing. It is amazing how many children come into my office that had a bad experience at 6 months and it never got resolved and so they are scared of eating.
How do you recommend teaching a baby to use a sippy cup? My daughter is 10 months old and has been offered a sippy since we started purees (at 6 mos). She has 8 teeth and loves to chew on things, so the soft-tipped sippy cup she bites and pulls: I am afraid she is going to pull off a piece of rubber, so I no longer give that one. The hard-tipped sippy she gnaws on and is not interested in sipping on it. (I have even tried it with the valve out, but she is only interested in watching the water pour out with the cup upside down like that). She can drink from a straw sippy, but more enjoys pouring it out too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what size pieces are recommended for finger foods? I am a first time mom and I am really scared of her choking. She can self feed and chew puffs, Cheerios, etc, but I am hesitant to give her pieces of other foods; she gagged on a small piece of toasted bagel this morning and it was only about pea-sized piece. I think it scared me more than her, and sometimes, I think she coughs just b/c she doesn't want to eat, but it scares me either way!
Thanks for this blog! Your information is really helpful and I appreciate being able to hear from someone who works with children professionally!
Thanks for reading my blog! To teach sippy cup drinking, I usually recommend taking the stopper/valve out- but it sounds like you already did that. If your daughter is able to drink from a straw sippy cup, then go with that. There is no reason that she needs to drink from a sippy, actually a straw promotes more oral motor strength and is better for her teeth. At 10 months, the sippy is really for exploration, and learning. By 12 months, I would expect your daughter to be drinking functionally (all her milk/formula) from the sippy cup, so as long as she understands the concept, you should be fine. You can also try putting her milk/formula in the sippy, because maybe she's not so interested in the water/juice at this age.
ReplyDeleteYou are on the right track with the size of pieces, however I would give more of a mashed consistency and see how she does. At 10 months, she should really be eating what you are eating, just modified into a texture that she can handle. Toasted bagel might have been too complex for her, try something like crackers with sunbutter, or cream cheese, or hummus. Also, you can try grated cheese, or small pieces of baked apple.
Hope that helps- many of my readers are wondering about finger foods to offer- so stay tuned for my next post and I'll go into more detail about that.