Moving from Baby Food to Table Food

Just start cutting up what you're eating and give it to her. She's almost a year so really everything is fair game at this point. Easy things are toast, bagels, lunch meat, hot dogs, blueberries, peaches, crackers, cheerios, cheese and cooked veggies.

Stay away from whole nuts and raw veggies until she's a little older. They key is cutting it small enough to chew and big enough for her to grasp. Table food really does make life easier so good luck and have fun!

You know, there WAS a time when baby food, as we know it, didn't exist.

Small tender pieces of chicken, meatloaf, etc. Soft, cooked veggies, soft fruits, toast, pancakes, waffles, muffins, cereals,

Basically start giving her what you eat but softer, smaller.

Review choking hazards/safety issues here:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_foods-that-can-be-unsafe-for-...

My wife and a hand held food grinder that she bought. She put the food off her plate in it and ground it up for our babies. By using the food off her plate the babies got used to eating what we ate and it stopped the "picky eaters" from becoming picky.

Those hand held grinders are still available. My daughters and DIL use them. AND its much cheaper than jars of baby food.

Good luck to you and yours.

I never made anything special for my daughter. She ate what we ate and we've never had an issue with picky.

That said, I do not eat eggs, can't stand the smell of them but I make scrambled eggs for her and she still loves them. Now she makes her own at 17!

Start with scrambled eggs. Green Beans (cooked or raw) that she can pick up and eat. We gave our grandbaby a lot of finger food like cut up pancakes, cold cereal. Pieces of fruit bite size so she can pick up and eat. No "HOT" foods (spicy) just plain, every day food that you eat and she can pick up and eat easily.

N.

My boys just ate what I ate. I made sure I cut very small pieces and placed them on their tray. As soon as they could handle it, they were sitting in a booster seat at the table, because that was much easier for me than the high chair. I would make an extra large plate for myself, cut some of everything into really small pieces and then just put a little bit in front of them. As they ate the food I gave them more until they were no longer interested in eating. When they were done, I unbuckled them and let them go play.

There are some foods to avoid - raw veggies and apple chunks, nuts, peanut butter in globs (the spread thin on a cracker is ok) are all choking hazards. There might be other foods to avoid at this age, but I don't remember very well. Your ped should be able to give you a list.

Really, as long as it's safe for her age, just let her eat what you're eating. It will be a little messy at first (or maybe a lot messy), but so much easier to just fix one meal!

My younger daughter (7 months) loves table food already. I tear her up a piece of bread and she goes to town. Baby food is pretty useless, so I skipped over it with my kids. A food puree has the same affect. Cut up fruit or veggies, cheese, lunchmeat or small chunks of chicken, yogurt, bread, etc. As long as it's not too hard to chew it'll be fine. DD who is 19 months old eats whatever her daddy and I do. She loved cheerios when she was younger.

your pediatrician can give you a comprehensive list....

both of my sons were on table foods, instead of jar baby food before 8 months. Any cooked vegie, fruit, pasta works well. As does chopped soft foods....banana, cheese, etc. Cheerios & graham crackers work well. Also check out the jar baby food aisle....& replicate your own!

Start with soft foods cut into small pieces and make sure she is ready. My son at 11 mos could eat some very soft things (cut up peaches and pears, shredded cheese, etc) but couldn't do everything. Make sure she can safely chew and swallow before giving her foods straight from what you are eating. Assuming she can tolerate it, we do mainly what we eat. His favorites: bananas (make sure they are cut into little pieces, not just sliced into circles), peaches, pears, pretty much any fruits, diced carrots, peas, corn, beans (LOVES all beans), eggs, cheese (we started with shredded), little pieces of bread, crackers, noodles with tomato sauce, shredded or diced chicken, lunch meat, ground beef, and on and on. If we are having something that he can't eat yet (like steak or something that requires a lot of chewing) we give him gerber toddler meals. They are easy and healthy. At first, he just mainly ate the sides of whatever I made for dinner, so lots of chopped veggies and the like. Just make sure she is able to chew and eat everything without choking. Chewing is a skill every baby learns at different times, so just because someone tells you that THEIR baby ate only table food at 11 months doesn't mean she is ready for it. Mine wasn't. Has she had the stage 3 baby food (the kind with little pieces of food in it)? I'd start there first if she hasn't.

I use formula and brown rice cereal, but we never used jar food. We just pureed and mashed whatever we were eating. Steer clear of things that are common allergens, like citrus fruits and juices, eggplant and squash, wheat and oats.

Mashed potato is probably the easiest and yummiest for baby. I mash mine with olive oil instead of milk. What kind of diet do you want your baby to have?