Introducing Baby to Food - Worried About Choking

I found that if I could mush a food with just my tongue against the roof of my mouth that it was safe for my daughter. I would also taste everything I offered her, If I couldn't stand it I wasn't going to make her eat it. This helped with more solid foods, I would hold a piece in my mouth to see how it would melt or not without chewing.

Try feeding her one piece of food at a time. My daughter was a "crammer" she's stuff her cheeks so full if I wasn't stingy with the food.

Are you sure she was choking? Did she need your help in order to stop coughing? Is it possible she was simply gagging?

I ask this, because my in-laws were always convinced me son was choking. He wasn't. Sometimes he took too big a bite and gagged for a moment. Sometimes a little of his drink "went down the wrong pipe." This happens to kids and adults. It's no big deal, and it's totally normal.

Just because she coughed a little bit does not mean she was choking (needing assistance to dislodge something). Try to relax and not worry over every little struggle. She needs time and practice in order to be really good at this, and you need to give her a chance to practice.

She can't learn how unless you give her opportunities to try.

My kids are late to the teeth game...like my last one was almost 2 before she got teeth, and she could eat almost anything. Babies have gag reflexes that start almost at the middle of their mouth. It's natures protection, so even though they may seem to be choking, they almost always aren't.

Start with simple soft foods, mashed potatoes, diced banana, diced avacado, so forth and so on.

It's very unlikely she will choke with you being so cautious. But this is the period of time you want to let her try things or she could have texture issues later on. Try a soft cooked veggie. Whatever you are eating that she can grab and put in her mouth. Small bits of baked potatoes or soft cooked carrot or peas. The number of teeth really doesn't matter. They can gum a lot of things.
This one time of choking is not a reason to deny her the experience she needs. This is not her problem to fix. It's you that needs courage. It is a scary thing for a baby to choke but it's rare that it causes anything but momentary discomfort if they don't have something too big or tough. Try it at the family meal so others can encourage her and you.

Babies are designed not to choke, so often times you may think they look like they are choking, what they are actually doing is preventing themselves from choking. She wouldn't be choking on a baby puff because they melt, but she may have been gagging or coughing, but nothing to worry about. Unless she is turning blue, she isn't choking. Just stick to soft foods, cut of in small pieces, nothing hard or gummy, or the size of a windpipe. Some good foods at this age are cooked pasta, cheese cut in small pieces, Cheerios, soft cooked veggies. Only give one piece at a time. For your own piece of mind take a course in First Aid/CPR.

Rusks, chopped up soft pasta, scrambled egg, watermelon.

To calm your fears learn what steps to take in a choking situation. I think we've all been there with the choking fear, but your's seems to be disrupting the progress a little.

I remember how scared I was when one of my granddaughters choked at 8 months. My husband had just connected with 911 when she dislodged the food and screamed, the dispatcher heard her and said if she could cry she was OK and stayed on the line while I calmed down. It happened about 11 years ago and brings tears to my eyes now, so I understand your fear.

Oatmeal or cream of wheat, dry toast, scrambled eggs, and yogurt were some of the foods I offered my guy at that age. Believe it or not teeth aren't needed for chewing, their jaws are quite strong from sucking and do the work. Cut her food in small cubes, cook veggies softer for her than you normally would until she has the hang of chewing. Sweet potatoes are great, they like the sweet flavor and they're an excellent food. Bananas cut in slices then halved, if she'll eat them, my guy hated the texture and wouldn't touch them until a few months ago, he's almost 4.

Watch to make sure she's chewing, not just trying to suck it down. That's how I see little one's choke, they try to swallow without chewing. Take it slow if you see this and offer the oatmeal, applesauce, yogurt, things that don't need to be chewed for awhile. But she's interested so roll with that, don't deny her this learning experience. Fix her a small plate when you eat.

I used, still do, and recommend this site for guidance in feeding little ones and what foods to offer, I hope it helps:
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/babymenub.htm#.UTc...

Aw, that must have been so scary. But she's going to have to learn to eat chunkier food, and working on it when she's so interested is really the best time.

I say just pass on the baby puffs. Would she likely choke on them again? Probably not. But I remember still when our oldest daughter choked pretty badly on a teething biscuit... it was so awful a memory that I wasn't up for giving them to our next child. There are plenty of other things your daughter can have, and you may as well be gentle with yourself as you go through this transition with her.

Since she only has two teeth, I would personally avoid anything crunchy or too chewy (raisins), and I would pass on meat for a while yet. But soft cooked vegetables and fruits in small pieces? I would totally let her try that. You can cut up bite size (pea size) pieces of banana, avocado or sweet potato, for example and roll them in smashed up Cheerios (think Cheerios dust). Then she'll be able to pick them up and feed herself. Of course you'll be right there with her. Hold a big camera up to your face every time you think she's adorable and/or you realize your concern is showing.

Hugs.

I was also VERY nervous about this all three times. I loved the Gerber toddler foods. They are all soft and easy for beginning table food. I would give them the diced carrots, green beans, meat sticks (gag) and raviolis. I would cut the diced veggie in half, and cut the meat sticks and raviolis into tiny pieces and give one at a time.

Some other ideas:

Baby Bel cheese or other soft cheese cut into tiny pieces
Yogurt (good for starting to teach her how to feed herself with a spoon)
Sweet potatoes (cooked very well done so they are mushy)
Scrambled eggs in tiny pieces
grilled cheese sandwich in tiny, tiny pieces.

Good luck!

i'm a little surprised that you're still this nervous by your 3rd baby. if you introduce soft foods in sensible amounts, the choking risk is really pretty small. baby puffs are NOT a good starters.
mashed potatoes and mashed steamed vegetables and pureed fruits are.
just give her well-blended simple whole foods, and try to cut down on being panicky about ordinary growth stages. kids pick up on these fears.
khairete
S.

At that age I still did mostly baby food with bites here and there from the table. I never really got into the puffs much until 9 or even10 months. It's amazing what a difference a month or two can make. I have always gone pretty slow on food introduction. My little guy who just went thru this did the whole baby food thing and loved getting tastes from the table, like mashed potatoes, small bits of cornbread, stuff like that. Now at 15 months he shovels in lots of different foods and I didn't do the puffs till 10 months or so. Follow your gut and don't worry about taking it slow :)

Her food should not be larger than 1/4" at any time. At this age she should be done with stage 1 baby food and doing stage 2 very well. It's time for stage 3 with the tiny tiny chunks.

If you decide to forgo the stage 3, which is what I did, then you could get a food chopper like Pampered Chef's chopper. I would put the table food on a cutting board then put the food chopper on top of it and whack it about 15-20 times. It would still be in chunks but tiny tiny bits. As the kids got older the chunks got a bit bigger. I would do this with Tuna Helper, Hamburger Helper, sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, everything.

I think that she still needs her formula or breast milk first though. It is complete nutrition until she's 1 year old. Of course she needs to be eating food too though, just not eating 3 meals per day plus snacks until she's older.....lol.

She's supposed to learn to chew and swallow by eating foods, it's normal for her to gag a bit, I'd just make sure that she is always sitting down if she has any food in her mouth or hands at all. She could choke and you wouldn't know it. So please just be the adult and make her sit at the table while eating. It comes in handy when she gets older, she will sit at the table all the time and won't get up and run around. It sure makes meal time easier when they get older.

just keep it soft and small. Spend $15 or so on a baby mill. That way you can mash up spaghetti, and other soft foods.
The first time I went to give my daughter a non soft food, I gave her a cherrio (good tried and true baby food right?) She choked until I had 911 half dialed, then puked it up and started to breath again.
Of course I was too fancy for real Cherrios, I had to by TJ.'s Organic O's (which were like rocks, vs. Cherrios which melt in your mouth). Total rookie M. move. Lesson learned- just keep the food soft, malleable, or melt-in-your-mouth. Soak things like bread in milk etc. and don't substitute TJ's rock hard solid O's for Cherrios even though they are organic.

I was the same way!
(Then I'd go into the bagel shop and see 6 mos olds gnawing on a whole bagel! Lol)
Just remember nothing hard...and cut everything up in tiny pieces for her.
Noodles, rice, cooked soft diced veggies.
Any interest in the baby food meals for "older" kids?