Transitioning to table foods was probably the transition that scared me most. I was so nervous about Jase choking and that I wouldn’t know how to help him if it got really bad. It’s definitely normal to be nervous at this transition, but it’s important to keep in mind that babies have incredible gag reflexes which really helps. If you take it slow, and make sure to move at a pace they seem to be ready for, it will make the process a lot smoother.

When Jase was about 8 months old I decided we should slowly start transitioning to getting him used to table foods. He had his pincer grasp down and he had been doing really well with purees.

We started Jase on puffs, not necessarily for nutrition, but more for practice. Puffs dissolve almost instantly when placed in their mouth, so it helped ease the fear of him choking. He didn’t quite grasp that he was supposed to pick them up and eat them, so I fed pieces to him and watched how he responded. The first few times he wasn’t really a fan. It was a different texture than he was used to, but I continued to offer them to him here and there. When he first ate them, he sucked on them before swallowing. After about a week or so he started to understand that he needed to pick them up to feed himself. So we just allowed him to use puffs as a chance to learn how to self feed. So I didn’t move on from puffs until I noticed he was chewing them and was seeing the need to chew solid foods.

Around nine months we graduated on from puffs and did small pieces of food that can easily be squished between your fingers. So think bananas, green beans, peas, scrambled eggs, etc. Food that is very soft and easy to gum on, especially because Jase only had two teeth at the time we started.

When Jase got the hang of those softer foods, we introduced even more. He did really well with fruits and veggies, but had a harder time with meats in the beginning because of his lack of teeth.

Jase didn’t have many times where he choked on food, but when he did it was important not to panic. We would give him a chance to cough it up on his own, which most of the time he did. Very few times we would have to pick him up and hold him over our arm to help him pat it out, usually if he stuffed too much in his mouth at one time. If you keep a close eye on them when starting table foods, it usually can run pretty smoothly.

You can find all the posts in the Baby’s First Year series here. 

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