When Should I Start Hand Foods

My son is 13 months old and we started giving him table food and hand food like Gerber cookies and puffs by 8 months. It might also depend on how many teeth she has. He had 5 teeth by then so he could eat most anything, I just cut it up really small.

If she has no teeth, you can still give her the disolvable stuff and soft stuff she can gum, but I wouldn't give her cookies unless they get mushy when she gums them too.

I hope that helps and happy eating!

Gerber has these little treats that dissolve in their mouths. They are wonderful for that age. They begin the transition to finger foods and are easier for them to eat when they have few teeth. I started my 10 1/2 month old on them when she was about 7 months. She is now eating everything we eat. Good luck.

We started with steamed broccoli stems and mashed potatoes mounded up in front of Sierra on her Bumbo tray. (We skipped cereals - it's hard for the young digestive systems of babies to process cereals without discomfort. Also, I learned that purees are mainly for 4 to 6 month olds with pediatrician OK and that a 6 mo old can handle all types of finger foods with their incredible gag reflex - even without teeth!)

The approach is called baby-led weaning. I call it "Finger Foods From the Start." (I found out about it on Mamasource!)

Check out http://babyledweaning.blogware.com
It's a very informative and funny blog from a Scottish mom about her adventures with solid food.

There's a Y! group too. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW
"Baby-led weaning is an approach to the introduction of solid foods which involves babies from around six months of age feeding themselves with their fingers, thus avoiding the need for spoon-feeding and purees. Babies who are allowed to take control of their eating in this way seem to enjoy the process enormously and to become
less fussy eaters later. It's also less work for Mum! Join the group to share the experiences of those who are using (or have used) this method."

Sierra is the BEST eater. She's not picky at all and she even has multiple food allergies! She loves to try new things, especially if we say "oooh yummy (fill in food here)!"
Bottom line is that she is in control of what she eats and how much. On 2 occasions we tried to spoon feed her and she clamped her mouth shut each time. But when we placed finger foods in front of her for her to pick up she was much more happy and she actually ate her food!

I will be posting more food pics at our blog. (I'm way behind on our blog. Sierra just turned 15 mo and I'm posting 9 month entries!)

S.

Baby Sierra updates can be found at our Pregnancy and Birth Blog:
http://360.yahoo.com/ut96grad
Latest entry 7/1/08

I say around 8 months is perfect thats about when I started with my son. Just keep an eye out for choking!

My daughter is 8 months and eats puffs stars, cheerios, and bits of chicken ham, turkey and some veggies. Once she started to feed herself she no longer wanted spooned foods. I started at 6 months with the little star puffs and broke them up first then gradually gave half then whole and so forth. Good luck, T.

My one year old has been eating finger foods for a long time now - probably since about 7 months. The fruit and veggie puffs are great cause they dissolve in their mouths and it's pretty hard to choke on them. Fruits and veggies that are soft are good too, like banana, canned green beans (or just cooked), cooked carrots anything like that. Mine have also gone to regular table foods usually by the 9th or 10th month too. Small bites of course, and neither of mine are big fans of meat till they get to be 18 months/2 years (we've yet to see about my one year old...)

We're in similar circumstances, as I have a 13 and 9 year old and an 18 month old! Partly it depends on how many teeth your little one has. And is she eating any chunky baby food yet? What about pieces of soft fruit, such as bananas? I find that bananas are a good starting point to determine their readiness for hand foods, because it is softer and gets them used to the idea of eating real food. My little one is still bad about holding cookies, crackers, etc. because ultimately she tries to shove the whole thing in her mouth!

I think as soon as she can pick up things with her little fingers is a good start if not earlier. They have gerber snack that come in a tall cylinder style canister that is plastic...One I think is called fruit puffs or something and they kinda look like cereal pieces but they are puffy and they melt away in the childs mouth so she doesn't have to chew or crunch. They also have cheese ones. They are great and my little one loved them. Good luck and God bless!!

We started finger foods at 8 or 9 months, but my daughter had 5 teeth by then.

She's probably about ready to start. I started my son on finger foods at around 7 months (blueberries, cheerios, peas, in addition to puree), and table food at 8 months. The dr. had recommended table food at 9 months, but he was starving! He wanted substance (not little packages of puree). So he's been doing that for the last month and a half. It helped a lot, because he's pulling up and using a lot of energy. He eats more than my 2 year old!

now is fine. mine were having the gerber cookies at 4 months and were completely done with baby food all together by 9 months. the would eat the gerber graduate meat sticks and i would peel them and cut them in quarters and it worked out great. also the peas and anything soft they can gum.

Get one of these; you'll love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Designs-2-U-Baby-Safe-Feeder/dp/B00...

Around 8-9 months. Basically when you notice they can pick things up with their thumb and fingers, then they're ready. Just make sure the food is cheerio size and easy to chew or gum :)

Go ahead and give it to her! My daughter is almost 7 months and has been gumming those zweiback things for a several weeks already.

I just took my 9 month old for her check-up and the pedi said to start giving her table food jsut really small. She has NO teeth. She said that she could gum it.