Eating Finger Foods

My son will be a year old in a few weeks, and I started him on finger foods a couple of months ago (in addition to his jar foods/easy solids like rice or mashed potatoes).. he had the same gag reflex at first, but he is my third child so I didn't freak out. I simply sat with him and watched him and only intervened if he seemed to be struggling or looked panicked. Often he would gag but swallow and keep eating like it was nothing. A great starter would be the gerber fruit puffs... they dissolve while in the mouth, but not so fast that he doesn't try chewing. With the way they dissolve though you know it is impossible for him to be choking unless he stuck like 938472 in his mouth at once.. lol. My little guy loves them.

Hi!!

I havea 17 month old who eats ANYTHING so I think I can kind of help you here.
First you should not be giving him grapes at all until he is around 2, I tried with my son and they get stuck because of the shap and the skin, if you want to then you need to cut them in HALF and watch him. Also we started with Apple Sauce,The Gerber Toddler Cereal(comes in 2 flavors) and add milk you can make it as thick or as thin as you want. Great Stuff!!

Then a good thing is to take that cereal and mash up a banana in it for Breakfast then lunch we so pasta, small pasta with sauce or just made in chicken broth(BOTH of my kids love it) then for dinner try green beans or carrots from a can they are super soft, I also mix them in mac and cheese very soft and easy for them to chew. Another good thing is mashed taters, you can add to these ro mix with veggies that are mashed as well.

Try the flavored oatmeals as well for anytime, also has he started with Cheerios yet, dry??? Don't force him to finger feed just yet with reg food, try what I suggested and then when hes snacking or after he east give him a handful of cherrios and let him go to town, we did that for my son and after about 4 times of him staring at them he picked one up and ate it and no looking back!!

Good Luck and I hope I helped!!

N.

My son, who is already two and a half, had the same problem when he was about one. They have an item out on the market it is used for teething with fresh frozen fruit. It lookes like a pacifier with a net as a nipple. You can fill the net part up with fruit, or anything you choose, put it teaches them to chew instead of just swallowing their food. They also get the taste of that certain food. It worked for me, good luck to you!

K., you are definately not alone. The same this happened with my son and he is now 19 years old and is a GREAT eater!!!
He would gag also, pretty much until he was about two years old. Sometimes he would even choke on simple things like yogurt with the strawberries inside. That would be scary. I'd have to stick my finger and pull out the little pieces. Nothing major ever happened to him, but our pedeiatrician explained that some kids take longer than others. He said to continue the soft foods and try like mushing bananas up and giving him tiny pieces of that. Steam carrots until they are really soft and mush those. Something that he won't choke on.

Before I knew it, he was eating solids without gaging.

Don't worry, he will be a perfectly normal boy.

Good luck,
M. (mother of four)

Hello, I am D. Geymayr, Director of Prenatal Plus - Yoga in Miami. I teach Mommy & Me classes and lots of new moms have the same problem with introducing real foods. Don't worry, your baby will eat when he's ready. Be careful and brush up on infant CPR as this is VERY important if your baby chokes. It is taught at the medical campus of Miami Dade College and is Well worth taking to save a life. Organic foods like "Earth's Best" at Wild Oats is a great nutritional way to get babies started on foods. Finger foods vary and they may like some and not others. Pasta with a tad of marinara? Fruit is SMALL pieces? It may just take him a bit more time. Same with potty training...you will see...patience is best. He will not starve himself.
Best to you,
D. Geymayr, R.Y.T., HBCE, CD, CLD
Prenatal Plus - Yoga
www.prenatalplusyoga.com
____@____.com
###-###-####

How are you? Well the way I started my 1yr old with finger food was with these finger puffs which Gerber sells. The come in flavors of banana, cherry of veggie. I would put them on her high chair table and she would pick them up and play with them. I would sit there and show her to put them in her mouth then tell her to chew while chewing my self. After a little while she would catch on and she learned to chew with her front teeth to break the food down then later gum it for swallowing. It took her time to learn and tons of little stars on the floor, but she learned to chew. There are also some wagon wheels you can use. You have to let them learn how to do it so that they like it. You can't force them. Have patience. I had started with her on these since she was 10 mths old. Good luck.

Gerber Graduate snacks are the best. The peanut looking cookies and the snow flake looking stars are great. They dissolve yet they can learn to chew them too. Good luck

TRY THE COOKIES! THEY ARE SOLID, BUT DESOLVE EASLY. BE CAREFUL, HE WILL PUT THEM IN HIS MOUTH AND ALLOW THEM TO DISOLVE AT FIRST, BUT WHEN HE LEARNS TO BITE (WHICH IS THE POINT), HE MAY STILL TRY TO SWALLOW AND CHOKE. BUT A SIMPLE CHUG OF THE ARM IN THE AIR WILL HELP IT GO DOWN. LEARNING AND PRACTICING WITH BABY COOKIES SHOULD HELP. ALSO SMUSH UP THE FINGER FOODS SOME, SO IT IS EASIER TO CHEW AND EVENTUALLY, HE SHOULD PICK IT UP. GOOD LUCK

K.,
Have you tried soggy cherrios? My guy had the same problem and he seemed to not gag on cherrios that were left in the milk. Best of luck.
J.

CHEERIOS!!!!! they are hard so they have to chew it is a great way to get them to start chewing! plus they are good for him!!! good luck

Sounds like a strong gag reflex. You can take him to a specialist who can teach you exercises to help him learn to chew. You can check out CST at the Upledger Institute also. Or, you can do nothing, be patient. Offer very soft very small pieces of food for finger food as he tries to learn. Of course, check with your pediatrician to be sure this is not something that should be evaluated. I have never used pureed foods so not sure if this is just what he is used to, so he doesn't know what else to do. I have always started all my kids on what they can feed themselves. But, a pediatrician or child feeding specialist would know the answer for sure.

Try the Baby Safe Feeder. It was invented by a Dad whose baby almost choked to death on a bisquit.

http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.jsp?itemID=307755&it...

I bought mine at Toys R' Us in the baby section. It's a little annoying to clean, but it was so much better than sitting right there all paranoid, waiting to do the Heimlich Maneuver with every bite of banana.

Start teaching him the motion of chewing with no food. Make it a game to do a you do. Then show him with food in your mouth. Then as he gets the motion down start with a little peice of food and have him show you with his mouth open. When you see it chewed then he can swallow. Just do it step by step first without food then with. It may take time but it will work. Remember after he gets good you need to teach him to chew with his mouth shut.

Lots of luck.

K.

Both of my children started out with corn on the cob. I would soak it in ice water after cooking it to cool it off. Then, cut a slice down each row. They didn't really have to chew anything. Basically, they sucked the corn out of each kernal. It got them used to having something solid before I moved on. It worked marvelously!

Try www.wholesomebabyfood.com lots of advice and recipes.

I use the feeder too. And it was a pain to clean and sometimes to get open. But there are some that have the net that you can change if it gets too iky.

My youngest son, Tyler, who is 18 months old has the same problem. Some foods he's okay with, but the stage 3 baby food he still gags on with the texture. I found that the Gerber Graduates vegetables were soft enough for him to practice chewing with and hes okay with them now. Fruit pieces were never a problem, just anything that is really chunky and textured. Hes eating mostly finger foods now, but I still supplement at dinner with the stage two baby food, usually 2 jars sometimes 3, just to make sure that he is getting what he should be. Although, when you put a spoon of food with any texture in it at all in his mouth he gags like you were trying to poison him and he immediately spits it back out, although if he puts it in his mouth its usually okay. At a year old he was not really eating any textured or chunky food, so at this point I think we've made some headway at least.