When Did You Let Your Baby Start To Eat Finger Foods… Cheerios And Such?
25 December 2009
My son is almost 7 months old and has two teeth. My friend said I could give him some baby finger foods the kind that dissolve but Im kinda scared about it. When did you start this
Babies can have finger food like Cheerios when they can pick them up with their index finger and thumb. If they can handle this technique then they should be able to chew the food without any problems. You should always watch your baby when eating finger foods because of the choking hazard. When in doubt, ask your doctor.
I would probably start with saltine crackers or gerber graduates puffs( my son hated the strawberry apple they smell very aritifical but the sweet potatoe ones are good). Just make sure you pay attention to him when he is eating. My son is 13 months almost and he still doesn’t care for stuff thats too hard he just progressed to eating stuff with soft carrots and noodles. I’ve also tried the gerber graduates melts and he liked those. Try babycenter dot com for advice on what finger foods to feed.
6 months.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/676279…
After six months, Mrs Rapley said babies were capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it.
Therefore, feeding them pureed food at this time could delay the development of chewing skills.
Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.
Mrs Rapley argued that babies fed pureed food had little control over how much food they ate, thus rendering them vulnerable to constipation, and running a risk that they would react by becoming fussy eaters later in life.
She blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.
She said: “Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby’s development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.” http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro…
Won’t he choke?
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have developed the ability to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. The ability to pick up very small things develops later still. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get small pieces of food into his mouth. Spoon feeding, by contrast, encourages the baby to suck the food straight to the back of his mouth, potentially making choking more likely.
It appears that a baby’s general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to ‘help’ the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid foods takes place at the right pace for him, while keeping the risk of choking to a minimum.
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Fruit and vegetables are ideal, with harder foods cooked lightly so that they are soft enough to be chewed. At first, meat is best offered as a large piece, to be explored and sucked; once the baby can manage to pick up and release fistfuls of food, minced meat works well. (Note: babies do not need teeth to bite and chew – gums do very well!)
There is no need to cut food into mouth-sized pieces. Indeed, this will make it difficult for a young baby to handle. A good guide to the size and shape needed is the size of the baby’s fist, with one important extra factor to bear in mind: Young babies cannot open their fist on purpose to release things. This means that they do best with food that is chip-shaped or has a built-in ‘handle’ (like the stalk of a piece of broccoli). They can then chew the bit that is sticking out of their fist and drop the rest later – usually while reaching for the next interesting-looking piece. As their skills improve, less food will be dropped.
===========http://www.gerber.com/Products/Veggie_Pu…
Gerber Veggie Puffs – Sweet Potato
Ingredients
RICE FLOUR, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WHEAT STARCH, SUGAR, WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR, DRIED SWEET POTATO PUREE, TRI- AND DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, NATURAL FLAVOR, ANNATTO EXTRACT COLOR, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS (FOR FRESHNESS), ZINC SULFATE, ALPHA TOCOPHERYL ACETATE (VITAMIN E), ELECTROLYTIC IRON.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixin#Aller…
Allergies to annatto
Annatto has been linked with many cases of food-related allergies, and is the only natural food coloring believed to cause as many allergic-type reactions as artificial food coloring.[17] Because it is a natural colorant, companies using annatto may label their products “all natural” or “no artificial colors”.http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/f…
Annatto (160b)
Annatto orange-yellow colour is a vegetable dye made from the seed coat of the tropical Annatto tree (bixa orellana). In Australia it is commonly used in cereals, snack foods, dairy foods including yoghurts, icecreams and cheeses, snack foods and a wide range of other foods.
It is the only natural colour that has so far as been found to cause as many adverse intolerance reactions as artificial colours and to affect more consumers that artificial colours. It has also been associated with rare allergic reactions.
Adverse reactions to annatto can include skin, gastrointestinal, airways and central nervous system reactions.
Headaches, irritability and others
The Food Intolerance Network has received many complaints about this additive, including headaches in adults and children, headbanging in young children, and irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance in children and adults as well as the full range listed above plus arthritis. Reactions to annatto can occur the same day but are more likely to be delayed than reactions to artificial colours, and are therefore more difficult to identify.
I started giving my baby cherrios at 6mos. His gums are hard, so he’ll no problem with it. I’m sure he’s eating baby food, so he should have it down pack. I suggest you google baby feeding guide. It’ll tell you what foods to at a certain age. It helps out a lot. I keep my posted on the fridge.
ETA: I started giving her bigger finger foods at 8-9mos.
Usually about six months old, when they can hold tiny objects and put them in their mouths. Cheerios are okay, since they can be “gummed” and will dissolve or turn mushy from the baby’s saliva. Just be sure not to give him or her anything too big or hard enough to choke on.
around 8-9 months I started giving my children finger foods. I was nervous about this also, but you just have to watch them really carefully.
Baby here didn’t have anything other than finger foods from the very beginning (6 months).
Went great.