@Levi thank you that is helpful!
No worries! Good luck 🙂
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My doctor said they aren’t choking but gagging. If he’s not making any noise then they are choking but gagging is ok
What helped me with my first was knowing their gag reflex is actually in the middle of their tongue! It eased my mind a lot knowing they weren’t actually choking. If they are red and making sound they are fine. If they are blue and silent they need help! If you start freaking out then they will freak out!
@Miranda that is really helpful thank you!
Start slowly with a lot of soft, mashable foods like banana, avocado, sweet potato, etc. I feel like the thicker consistency compared to the puréed version yelled out baby learn to mash and move food in his mouth. I’m still pretty consistent with nut butter oatmeal and fruit in the morning, he’s now just eating whatever we eat at meal time. As a treat when we are out and about, yogurt melts also helped him move food around in his moth. Whatever you do, whenever you do it is the right time for you and baby!!
@Sarah thank you I like the idea of progressing to different types of foods. Being a mom is so stressful haha!
Yes 1000% yes to everything that’s been said! What also helped me is our pediatrician told us that more babies go to the ER from high chair falls than choking. Still scary but eased my mind a LOT!
Check out Solid starts! It’s an app, website and Instagram page. They are the best for figuring out how to prepare food safely for babies. I was much more nervous with baby#1 but I am not concerned with baby #2. I know how to prepare foods safely for the baby and I know the foods that work and don’t work. With solids the bigger the better. Avoid hard or crunchy foods like nuts and chips and avoid popcorn and squishy foods like hot dogs string cheese and gummies. Almost everything else they can eat. Chicken drumsticks, almost any fruit just cut it into spears, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, toasted bread cut into strips. Tonight my son ate tuna, rice (rolled into a ball so he can pick it up), kiwi, and broccoli. He had hummus for lunch. He loves eating and it’s fun introducing him to new foods! There are also what’s known as resistive foods that help them learn how to chew and get flavors but impossible to choke on - think corn on cob or a mango pit.
Omelette, yogurt and mashed fruit, porridge, mashed banana, feeders with fruit in, melty puffs, - but it’s so hard at first I feel you!!
There’s an app called Solid Starts that tells you which foods are best to introduce, how to cut for each month, which foods to avoid. Unfortunately you have to pay for it but it seems cool I started my babe with soft foods like sweet potatoes, banana, avocado and she even likes tomatoe. Now she has 2 teeth and can munch an apple down, loves pears, crackers, strawberries and fig newtons
I read somewhere that as long as you prepare the food correctly, there isn’t actually an increased risk of choking when you give them finger foods vs purees. That helped me a lot - that and watching loads of videos so I learned the difference between gagging and choking. Omelettes, bananas and banana/broccoli pancakes were my go-to when I first started giving my baby finger foods: they’re easy to chew and easy to swallow.