Ello everyone!
My son is 7 months old now mashallah. I give him mashed pureed foods that i make myself, mashed fruit, some fruit yogurt but i want to give some finger foods ie baby biccies, pieces of naan or even toast. Or maybe just fruit slices that he can suck on and eventually eat when soft.
I have tried to give him but when he swallows a small piece, he starts gagging and brings up his milk and starts throwing up. I get too freaked out and totally stop.
What do i do? How do i start? Btw he has no teeth yet! Baychara! 
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
same as mines .. 8 months and no teeth.
there is not much u can give till they have teeth, thats my experience, better than having the food come out again.
but what u can do, mines love it and its good for the gums ... when you boil chicken for yakhani .. take the leg piece ... the lower part, take away all the meat and the soft bones and give it to him .. he will love to chew on it. Its just a start so that they get a feeling of biting without teeths.
And then there are these soft biscuts for babies, they melt in the mouth.
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
hehe - thanks Saadia.
Thats what i have been thinking - surely when the teeth come out inshallah, he will be able to chew but i guess not with the two front teeth. So you are saying till then just give them mashed pureed food? I am making some stew for him which consists of meat, courgettes, carrots and mushrooms. Have also added some onions and chicken stock. Will puree that and try and see if he likes that or not...
Good idea about the chicken leg bone...thank you...will def try that.
I have the biccies but he takes a huge chunk which i have to take out of his mouth...tut!
Dont you jst love these munchkins...hahaha
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
hehe love them .. even without teethy.
My first daughter had her first teeth by 4 months and rest came out failry early, so she was able to chew lots of stuff before turning one, but now my second one has still no teeth, so thats why she gets mashed and pureed food.
the front teeth are for biting but not chewing .. so we'll have to wait for the back ones for finger food.
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
some kids dont get their first teeth until they are a yr old and my nand's son went even further than that.. he popped his first at 15 months! but he ate everything.
that doesnt mean ure child cant have anything solid... babies dont need teeth to be able to eat or chew.. tey use their gums. so dont stop giving ure baby solids just cuz they dont have teeth. u cant be stil feeding ure baby of a yr old or more just pureed stuff...
its normal that he is gagging... dont stop giving hims olids just cuz of that... he will eventually learn... if u stop them now they will get hooked on purreed food for a long time not wanting to chew.... his proper meal times should be pureed stuff, gradualy introduce a bit more texture like ultra small chopped pcs of veggy etc.. some babies dont like paste with chopped stuff in it so then let him try the chopped veggies or chicken all by itself
my son used to gag and throw up his feeds but i didnt stop giving him a fruit slice or chicken pcs.. he eventually learned that he had to bite little by little. and chew with his gums.
i also bought a product by nuby.. its like a teether but the front is a net pocket that u can open adn put in fruit... so teh baby sucks on it and gets all the good stuff without the pulp.
keep at it.. ure not doing anything wrong nor is ure baby. practice makes perfect. u can also put food in his mouth ureself. like a banan pce.. or a pce of grape (sliced never whole),
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
oh and dont take a big pce of anythign out of his mouth.. babies are very smart and the fact taht his gag relux works means he cant choke. just keep an eye on him
mine would stuff his face with everything on his plate and attempt to eat it.. at first i would keep taking it out but then read somewhere babies know what they can handle and waht they cant.. parents should not put fingers down their mouths or throats... so then one day i just let him stuff his face.. he did.. and started to go red in teh face adn gag... there is a diff betrween gag and choke... i could see him workign tryign to clear his mouth.. .eventually he threw out a bit of it with his tongue.. and then resumed to chew teh remaining bit and ate it. slowly he learned how muc his mouth can take :D
its was the hardest thing sitting there watchign ure baby gag.. but its a natural learning process for the child to knwo te limits themselves rather than have aprents set them up...
to take care of the throwing up feeds due to gagging... make sure 2 hours of lapsed before u let teh baby practice self eating... my son would keep throwing up and i didnt want him to stop praciticing .. so i made taht rule... slowly the time decreased and now he can self eat after i have done feeding him...
not all babies throw up after gagging mind you..each baby is diff
but my son was like ures.. gagging always resulted in throwing up. until i tried taht 2 hour rule and let him get better at handling solids :)
Thanks Khawateen for your reply.
It is quite scary to watch your child's face go red and thats something im not used to but Alhumdullilah, i gave my son some baby biccies (just minute pieces) in his mouth and he was chewing.
The 2hr rule def works and i actually add another hour to that. That way, he cant bring up milk and only the food that he has swallowed comes out. I found some baby cheesy puffs which he had by himself - i was soooo proud of him mashallah...hehe!
i guess inshallah with time, he will learn and experience different textures.
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
my daughter was holding and eating soft french fries .. but all the time I was sitting next to her, so if something happens and she chokes, I can help by patting her back, but MA she eat a whole lot a bunch of it without problems.
Re: Introducing finger foods in babies
Hmmm, we have broken the record here I think. My daughter is almost 16 months old and no signs of teeth :) but she eats everything alhamdolillay. We started solids (pureed food) quite early on, at about 4 months and she was having little bits of finger food by 6 months. I could never watch the gagging either, just make sure the pieces you give her are ultra soft in the beginning and eventually they do learn to chew. I didn't have the problem with my daughter, she was a natural at chewing with her gums, but my eldest did give me a lot of trouble. He would gag on EVERYTHING!!! and he's still a super picky eater.