10 Month Old Questions

Sounds like he is hitting his milestone just fine...I think the foods you are serving are fine. I do keep stage three Gerber/Beechnut as a back-up to food we eat...Just the other night I served tacos...We gave our just 12 month old, the taco meat and spanish rice (very mild flavor not spicey) and he enjoyed it. I also made frozen carrots and made them real soft so he would not choke on them. Applesause for dessert. At 10 months keep it simple as they don't know the difference. I get lunchmeat shaved as well so it is in little pieces and shredded cheese or little chunks and soft veggies. Regular adult oatmeal, yogurt, little noodles called Tibetti or Ditalini noodles with a hint of marinara sauce. Thick and chunky Veggie soup.

I would suggest taking a peek at the AAP website: http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/stages.cfm

It's a nice overview of milestones. Don't worry too much about the talking. If he's babbling and indicating his wants/needs using gestures and approximations (he's using a verbal utterance of some kind). Most kids have a "language burst" around 18 months of age where they go from mostly gestures to "mostly words".

Most speech pathologists would tell you to avoid the "traditional" sippy cups b/c they don't require the tongue to move or strengthen. If he likes them both, then stick with the straw cup.

Foods for little ones are tough, but my son really liked cut-up pancakes, overcooked pasta, gerber "puffs", cut-up & overcooked veggies (squash, carrots, etc). Nothing too spiced, but he liked trying the textures.

At 10 months both of my kids were soley on table foods, so just keep on keeping on! Give him what you're eating for dinner, just cut it up really small. You will quickly figure out his favorites! My daughter ate everything we put in front of her at that age, my son is much pickier! I also used to steam a ton of veggies and then freeze them so I always had veggies to warm up for them at any meal. It is super easy and quick and I knew they would always eat carrots, peas, or green beans! Other easy foods to try are crackers, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, bagels, waffles, cereal bars, grapes, bananas, and pears.

As far as the sippy cup, both are great! Personally, I'd rather just have them off the bottle and onto the cup, so either one is great! I think the regular one is easier for milk though b/c it is much easier to clean.

As far as talking, no worries. By 12 months they recommend about 2-4 words and even if he isn't there, don't worry. My daughter was putting together sentences at 15 months, seriously, and my son is 16 months and probably only has 10 words or less, so just keep talking to him and reading to him!

get one of the teeny food processors, they are quite cheap. Anything you eat for dinner just process it enough for your child to manage in his mouth and give him bites and tastes. they always have issue with texture in the beginning as their little mouths learn how to turn foods around and get them swallowed. Just because they gag at first doesnt mean they dont like the food, they just have to get used to the way it feels in their mouths.
As far as sippy cups go, I never used one. When mine stopped with the botle we went to straws and practiced using real cups. I wasnt one to let mine wander around the house with a cup of something just to save it from being spilled or lost somewhere. Food and drink was to remain at the dining table, makes it easier on everyone that way. Teaching them to use a real cup from the beginning is good for their skills. yep, you'll have a few spills during practice but you feel pretty good when your kid can manage a cup while others are still dealing with sippys.

Anything you eat (minus whatever the doctors say to wait until 1 for) he can eat. Just start cutting or mashing up your dinner. My kids loved avocados and they are pretty nutritious too. Whatever your preference on sippy cups is fine - whatever you and him like best I wouldn't worry about much else.

My son said dadda at around 9 months, but he did not say mamma until -YIKES- 18 months!!! It made me really sad, and I was his only caregiver at the time too because my husband was in Iraq. Some kids are just stubborn. My son is a definite mamma's boy now. :)

My response is just about the sippy cups. While it is good for your son to be able to drink from a straw, in my experience with my older daughter's straw style sippy cups, if you don't rinse/wash then right away, they are very difficult to get clean and then mold can grow in the straw. We ended up throwing several of the straws away :-(

my daughter is almost 2 and still isnt really talking yet so dont worry about the talking and i would stick with the normal sippy cups one for milk and one for juice/water um i say cut meat into small pieces like very small pieces and mash some veggies up and some fruit up and he can eat that just make sure its not stringy at all or too hot i would even start to introduce milk maybe at dinner time to see if he has a reaction to it