Is my daughter daughter ready for stage 3 baby food?

Question

My daughter will be 8 months next week. She has been enjoying phase 2 for the past couple of months but recently she has been really watching me when I eat and moving her mouth like she is chewing. I read in a book I have that 7 month olds should be able to feed themselves a cracker. Is that true? She only has 2 teeth! I am so nervous she will choke!

Answer 1

try giving her some Gerber fruit puffs small bites of a cracker. she should do fine with those my daughter does and she only as 2 teeth also you could also give her small soft pieces of cooked potatoes really anything really soft and that would be easy for her to mash with her gums.

Answer 2

yea just stick with the stage 2 foods, my neigbor started "chewing" around then too...

i think when she was 9  months we got some stage 3 foods and she wasnt to thrilled, she didnt seem to likeit.

i remember she was 10 months old and i had her out for breakfast and she had tiny tiny pieces of pancake, a a little big of scrambled egg witout any problems.

so i would wait another 2 months and then try tiny tiny pieces of super soft foods  

Answer 3

Ya they sell tons of baby snacks she can eat with just 2 teeth. all in the baby aisle.

Answer 4

God don't be nervous, by 8 months my kids were eating lots of people food, shoot I didn't even buy babyfood after 6 months!

Answer 5

i think it would be best to wait until she has more teeth to prevent choking

Answer 6

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.

Tipping a baby backwards or lying him down to feed him solid foods is dangerous. A baby who is handling food should always be supported in an upright position. This ensures that food that he is not yet able to swallow, or does not wish to swallow, will fall forward out of his mouth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/676279...

Solids best

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."  

Answer 7

by 8 months, she could be self feeding herself many things!!  The number of teeth really has nothing to do with how she eats...she will chew with her gums.

Try giving her some soft fruits..watermelon would be a great one to self feed.  She won't choke!!

Answer 8

My daughter is 13 months and only has 6 teeth (none in back) and she eats everything we eat. They can mash food with their gums. It should be fine to start her on 3rd foods.  

Answer 9

Yeah she should be able to eat a cracker. My son loved the club crackers. It was a ferfect width for his mouth. Just watch to make sure she doesn't shove the whole thing in her mouth or if you are worried break it up. My son did terrible with the stage 3 foods. It gagged him all the time. He was good at chewing and had a lot of teeth but he couldn't take it. So he just started eating what we did. I would wait for your little one to get a few more teeth but try a few things like crackers and stuff to get her used to chewing.

Answer 10

Girl I know EXACTLY what you mean.  My son is 10 months and just recently I have finally started letting him eat solid foods on a regular basis.  In fact, he's now to the point now where he eats just about whatever I eat.  I don't think he likes babyfood which is a shame bc I have a carload of it in the pantry. LOL. My baby only has 5 teeth but he manages to mash up his food with his gums.  Just be careful and always watch your baby when eating.  Make sure you chop up their food into tiny bite size pieces to prevent choking.  I remember everytime my baby choked I would freak out and be ready to do the heimlich manuever..lol. I have relaxed a lot since then (and have also taken an infant/child CPR safety class). Anyways, good luck you're baby will let you know when they are ready.  Just start slow.