Transitioning 9 Month Old Daughter (Without Any Teeth) to Finger Foods

Sounds like she might not be too ready yet, don't rush. My son recieved nothing but breast until age 1 and did just wonderfully!

Avocados- my daughter loved them at that age.

Hi Jackie. My daughter just turned 2, but I remember 9 months very well. What an adorable time! Whenever I was feeding my daughter, who didn't get any teeth until 10 1/2 months, in addition to thinking about the possibility of choking, I would try to think about whether or not she would be able to digest the food if she was able to swallow it. I think, generally, that if they can't chew it, they won't be able to digest it. If it is something that will basically disintegrate in their mouth, like a cracker or teether, I think its fine. I would probably hold off on the other stuff. For food ideas, check out Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. As far as higher fat foods, try adding avocado oil to food- its tasteless. Plain avocados are great, too. I also put coconut oil in my daughter's cereal and vegies- I buy Garden of Life because its organic and less refined. It actually tastes like coconuts. I've also read that coconut milk is really good for adding fat and nutrients to your diet. Hope this helps! A.

My baby just turned 10 months. She likes Mac Cheese, pasta, cheese, yogurt, cherrios, baby puff, and Baby Food Stage 3.

Stonyfield Farms makes a great yogurt for babies called "Yobaby". It is made with whole milk that babies should have until age 2. Yogurt is fine to add to your daughter's diet anytime after 9 months. They have lots of flavors, but my favorite is the Yobaby Plus Fruit & Cereal which has a few extra nutrients than just yogurt alone. Lots of stores carry Stonyfield, but I've only found the fruit & cereal variety and Whole Foods and Target. Hope this helps. Also, don't stress adding the chunky foods. If she likes them, great, if not, wait a month and try again. the period before 1 year of age is mostly about exploring foods and not so much about getting huge amounts of nutrition from them. That's what breastmilk/formula are for! Have fun with it and don't worry!

Have you tried mashed up avacado? It is a high fat food- the good kind of fat.
At about this age, my son used to really like tofu. You can fry it in a pan or just microwave a little bit. You can mash it up as much as you think she needs. It doesn't have much flavor so I always tried to put something on it.

Even when she gets a tooth or two, it will likely be the front two, which won't help a lot with chewing. Be patient. Try new things slowly- if she can learn to chew by gumming things, then the possibilities will open up. Those waggon wheel things in the baby food section disolve well, but aren't big enough for them to eat whole. I thought they helped teach my son to bite and chew.

Hi Jackie - choose foods that she can gum or will dissolve. She could try diced canned fruits like fruit cocktail, or try bananas. Cheerios are always an easy treat. You might also try soft-cooked diced carrots or peas or mashed potatoes or scrambled eggs. It takes a while for them to learn to handle the chunkier and thicker foods. You might consider some stage 3 babyfoods cut up into smaller pieces. If she is underweight you might also consider supplementing with pediasure

Try teething biscuits. They dissolve and they can gum them, granted they are messy but give them a sense of little pieces without choking.
It is normal for the gag reflex to kick in, so there is a difference between her gagging due to the texture vs. her choking. Cheerios are another that they can gum.
I used to give my daughter and son, whole wheat toast cut into strips, they dissolved and still gave them some texture.
Scrambled eggs are good, cool them off and put them on her high chair if she can self feed, if not feed her them. Put cheese on top and let it melt for more flavor.
Exposing them to more flavor and spice now is great to prevent being picky later too. Mac and cheese cooled off was a favorite for my kids to self feed with, though messy they loved that. Same with any pasta noodles that were small in size and had some flavor on them.
Try yogurt with bits of soft fruit in it too. Or cut up really tiny bites of a ripe banana.
Kids have strong gums and have the instinct to bite down and try to chew foods. If she is having a big problem, wait, even with a few teeth they still put food on their back gums to chew up anyway (those teeth don't come in for a while) so I am not sure it makes a difference.
Also, my daughter was very tiny and still is (she is seven now). Don't worry about fat intake unless your Dr is. Extra can lead to unhealhty weight gains rapidly. If she is getting formula/or breast milk that should be enough. Adding cereals with mixing in baby foods helps give them too what they need. With regular foods those right now should be more for giving her flavors, teaching her to chew more then for nutritional intake. She should get what she needs from what she takes in from liquids right now. By the year mark she will be eating three meals a day, snacks and solids will make up more of her nutritional intake, but don't worry now. My daughter was and always will be peitite. I don't worry about her weight if her Dr isn't.

Neither one of my kids got teeth until after a year old, but I still started them on things like that. Crackers were fine because they get soft fast. Other things I would grind up in a baby grinder, or things like vegetables I would cook and put in a blender. Even without teeth there are things that can be done to give them more. You can start slow, since how she is only 9 months, but she should be able to do just fine. My little 14 month old boy is just now barely getting a couple teeth on top, and a couple on the bottom. But he's been getting our food for awhile. Grinding can work wonders.

Have you tried microwaved/steamed apples, carrots etc. chopped up small. Steam them till they almost barely stay in tact. Also Avocado could be good, if real ripe as well as bananas as a first chuncky food. Try one of the strainer feeding things where you put food in a little strainer bag (like banana) and the kid chews on the outside of the bag to get to the food. They sell them at Leaps and bounds and I am sure at Babys'R Us.

Worse case scenario start making your own baby food and make it thicker each time. She won't eat baby food forever. Oh and you can add uncooked rice cereal directly to the food to thicken it up and add calories.

R.

I just wanted to add a few more things --

For higher fat foods, I would also give her mashed potatoes, creamed homemade soups, get a hand food grinder and mash any kind of noodle dish, etc.

Baby puffs and cheerios are a great snack and easy way to get them used to chunkier foods.

My philosophy is to give them whatever they will eat! (within healthy reason, of course!). My youngest didn't get any teeth until a week after her first birthday. I still was giving her finger foods at around 7 months because she would eat them. I gave her things like bread, teething biscuits, bananas, soft fruits and veggies... anything that they can easily gum or can dissolve in their mouth without necessarily being "chewed." Just avoid anything that would be tough for her to mash up and swallow. I would say that if you can put it in your mouth and mash it up just with your tongue, it should be fine for her. I don't know about high fat foods... my boys were a little stalky, and my daughters are average. Good luck!