Are you afraid to start offering your child finger food? Then you are not alone.
It's not at all unusual to be afraid at first. I get messages every day from people who are scared. The biggest fear is that the child might choke.
I can understand the fear, I was nervous myself at first. I think part of the problem is that we do not know what children are capable of at, say, 6 months of age. For many decades, purees have dominated baby food recommendations and baby food shelves. Of course, it can then feel scary to eat something different.
What's good to know is that children have chewing reflexes when it's time to start eating, and they chew well with their gums. It is a process to learn to eat, but they know it very well from the beginning.
There are also studies on the number of choking cases comparing children who receive only baby food with children who receive more "conventional" baby food. No increased risk was found with complementary foods (read my earlier post here where I write more about this). This was very reassuring to me. It also helped me to read up on what I would do if an accident happened.
For those of you who are scared, I have put together a few tips. I hope they can help you.
It's not at all unusual to be afraid at first. I get messages every day from people who are scared. The biggest fear is that the child might choke.
I can understand the fear, I was nervous myself at first. I think part of the problem is that we do not know what children are capable of at, say, 6 months of age. For many decades, purees have dominated baby food recommendations and baby food shelves. Of course, it can then feel scary to eat something different.
What's good to know is that children have chewing reflexes when it's time to start eating, and they chew well with their gums. It is a process to learn to eat, but they know it very well from the beginning.
There are also studies on the number of choking cases comparing children who receive only baby food with children who receive more "conventional" baby food. No increased risk was found with complementary foods (read my earlier post here where I write more about this). This was very reassuring to me. It also helped me to read up on what I would do if an accident happened.
For those of you who are scared, I have put together a few tips. I hope they can help you.
Here are my top 4 tips if you are afraid to serve your child finger foods:
- Gnawing on food
- Loaded spoons
Load spoons with pureed food, which you then give to the baby. Then the child can bring the spoon to his mouth by himself. This helps practice hand-mouth coordination, for example.
- Soft food pieces
When you feel able to go further, you can start with very soft food pieces, such as boiled potatoes, avocado, eggs, bananas, porridge sticks, liver pate, etc.
- Mix
If you do not want to go 100% finger food, that's perfectly fine. If spoon feeding works, then do it! Either mix the meals or you can dedicate some meals for finger foods and others for spoon feeding.
/Elin Oresten
Certified Nutritionist
/Elin Oresten
Certified Nutritionist
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