Post by spaghetticat on Jan 3, 2013 20:21:02 GMT -5
I know this sounds stupid. Bear with me.
I am terrified of doing something wrong and having her choke. I feel like this is something so simple, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Maybe it is the drama with my MIL, but I get so much anxiety over feeding her and MH is constantly saying, "Watch her. It's too big. She's going to choke." I have been giving her bananas to gnaw on and she stuffs huge chunks in her mouth.
Every book says to just give them Cheerios or tiny pieces of food. When I give her tiny pieces of veggies, she can't pick them up. But she likes holding a huge piece and gnawing on it. I know you guys give them what you are eating. So how do you do it? Can you please just give me a crash course in Feeding-Your-Kid-Without-Killing-Them-For-Dummies?
If you're too nervous, start with puffs. They will dissolve in her mouth if she has trouble with them. They're also good for her to work on picking up small pieces. When Andrew first started with finger foods, most of them would end up in the pocket of his bib. I would just pull them out od the pocket and put them back on the tray. Once he got better with those, I felt safer giving him bigger/messier foods.
I do small pieces and have him pick it up (with his right hand mostly for some weird reason) OR he can grab it from my hand. He has problems with getting it right off of the tray for some reason.
Post by spaghetticat on Jan 3, 2013 20:40:56 GMT -5
She is a pro at puffs. She loves those things. But with other foods, it's like they are too slippery or too sticky to pick up.
This is what I am talking about. If I give her small pieces, how small so she doesn't choke? If I do big chunks, do I take it away when it gets too small? I know I am overthinking it. But I am starting to dread meals because I don't know what to do.
She is a pro at puffs. She loves those things. But with other foods, it's like they are too slippery or too sticky to pick up.
This is what I am talking about. If I give her small pieces, how small so she doesn't choke? If I do big chunks, do I take it away when it gets too small? I know I am overthinking it. But I am starting to dread meals because I don't know what to do.
I take it away when it gets too small bc I get nervous too. I was really anxious when I started feeding solids, and I just tested out what made me comfortable and what seemed to work for him. One of my favorite things to give him is half a pita cut into 4 triangles and spread with hummus. He sucks on it instead of taking off chunks and swallows pieces when it gets nice and soft. Would you be comfortable with something like that?
I give Zoe a big ol' chunk. She's figured out she can't handle huge bites and started taking smaller bites. If it's too big, she spits it out.
This. I actually get far more nervous with small pieces than the big chunks
Same. And DD solidified my fears by choking on a blueberry when she was around 10 months old. She had been fine up to then with the big chunks! Also DS doesn't really have much of a pincher yet so chunks it is.
for me, reading the intro to the Baby Led Weaning cookbook (the regular book has too many chapters- the cookbook gives you the basics) helped a lot with my fears of choking. It suggests 3inch sticks so that they can hold onto it and still gnaw on an end (that will stick out of their fist). We started with that
Solids are making me seriously nervous, too. I have been forcing myself to try to let her have more finger food because I think she is ready (she's good at picking up her food and trying to put her food in her mouth). I am a nervous wreck though, so you're not alone. I tried some chunks of melon the other day and just took it away when it got to small. Tonight I did plan hummus on mum mums and I steamed zucchini sticks. The zucchini sticks were a big hit. She could feed them herself and they mushed when she chewed them so I didn't worry too much about choking. I did take them away when they got too small. If you're not sure about what hummus she can eat because of her restrictions could you mash some of your own chickpeas with a little bit of olive oil or something like that? I can't think of what's in hummus off the top of my head but plain hummus has very few ingredients you could probably make your own very easily.
Mine likes the big chunks too, so she can grip them. She spits a lot out. So sometimes she freaks me out by biting off a huge bit ... I see it go in her mouth and try to remain calm, but it comes back out. She rarely even gags anymore.
Sticks of veg roasted are a win, sweet potato, carrot etc.
She's getting better at grabbing small things now, so I can put shredded meat in front of her and some will end up in her mouth.
Spaghetticat, have you had any incidences that worried you, or is it general anxiety? Kai has gagged a fair amount but I never felt he was choking. He gets pieces of all sizes and he spits out whatever is too big. It's hard to not rush in with the fishhook when he bites off a big hunk, but he's learned what to do. But I think some babies take to it easier than others, so I'm wondering if you've had anything specific happen.
Post by thedahliharpa on Jan 3, 2013 22:29:20 GMT -5
I'm sorry you are stressed. We have done no table food because we are moving through the challenges so slowly. She does well now with mashed peas, bananas, avocados in terms of chunkyness so I guess we could move on to other stuff. We progressed equally cautiously with H and somehow along the way it just worked out.
Spaghetti, I haven't tried it myself, but I read that if you want to stick with smaller chunks you can coat them with Cheerio dust (pulverized Cheerios) to make the chunks easier to pick up.
I just moved from puffs to really small pieces that were pretty impossible to choke on. Things like toast with applesauce or puree on it or little shreds of chicken. She chews the heck out of everything, so once I saw that she was really good at chewing, I upped the size a bit. I still tear them pretty small, but she's gotten remarkably good at picking things up and getting them in her mouth. We have almost no waste anymore. The girl like to eat. It also occupies her for a longer time. I can give her big pieces of soft things like avocado and she does pretty well, but DH gets pretty nervous, and there's no point in stressing him out when she does well with smaller stuff.
Mine is a gagger and will stuff everything in there and then gag. So I have to watch him really carefully and it's stressful. He usually feeds himself for a while and then gets sick of it, so then I feed him small chunks of food.
This whole age period can be really stressful. It's so much better when you don't have to worry about gagging all the time and they can feed themselves safely (for the most part)
Post by charlielove on Jan 3, 2013 23:36:18 GMT -5
I am not a fan of the big chunks, though I know it does work for a lot of people. The one terrible experience I had with choking w/ DD1 was with a big chunk of food, so I know I am extremely cautious.
I cut things up into pea size pieces right now. She is really good at picking them up. With more slippery things, you can grind up Cheerios or graham crackers into a dust and coat them. I did that with things like avocado and mango for DD1 and it worked really well so I'll do that again. She will probably get the pincer grasp down soon, have her practice by offering Puffs or just small bits of food, and she'll get it in no time. And I get the anxiety...I thought I'd be a little more relaxed about it all the second time around, turns out I'm really not.
Yeah, I am not at ALL relaxed about it this time either. In fact I think I have even MORE anxiety after doing the upside down back thumps on DS1 so many times
If you want to just to purees, just do purees. Your kiddo will not eat them forever. I PROMISE! A nervous parent is a way bigger deal than having your child "learn" how to chew at an early age.
C25K...it works Seaside 5K...........40:45(2012) Turkey Trot..........41:30(2012)/37:08(2013)/37:40(2014) St Pat's 5K..........39:27(2013)/38:48(2014)/35:12(2015) Belair Town Run......38:09(2013)/36:27(2014) Back To Football 5K..37:36(2013)/43:44(2015) Balt Run Fest 5K.....34:59(2013)/41:50(2014)/35:54(2015)