Food consistency

Big Davey

Looking for advice.
My wife makes the food for our 9 month old daughter with a blender. She has two tiny tops of teeth showing at the moment she is 10kg and 75cm cm long. The doctor and public Heath nurse have told us we are doing a great job and that she is thriving. Problem is my mother thinks her food should be thicker or to be more precise lumpier ! She thinks we should now now be mashing and not blending the food my wife does not agree ! We give her little bits to get her used to eating with her hand a little biscuit, bread, tiny piece of fruit etc. what do you guys think ? All the stories are coming out now like if we don't make the food lumpier she will have bowel problems etc
Do you blend or mash your food for your baby ?
Ps:she eats rice and tiny pasta we got from Italy .
Thanks

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Not sure what all the books say, but at 9 months my daughter was not eating pureed, just finger food and lumpy food.

However I never really did pureed, more if a baby led weaning approach.

I don't see any reason why her food should still be pureed. Unless she is gagging on lumps? Otherwise I would agree with the mother (they are right sometimes!) And start making it lumpier because she may gag on lumpy food if you leave it too long.

January

Lumpier than a puree is needed at this stage. It helps with language development also.

Moonbeam

It is up to you but at 9 months my children were having food that they could pick up or cut up or mashed food rather then blended.

How Strange

Food really shouldn't be blended for a 9 month old. As babies get closer to 1 year the gag reflex in their mouth moves further back towards the throat so the earlier you introduce lumps and texture (after 6 months) the better. I've seen infants over 1 and toddlers who couldn't tolerate any lumps in their food because they got used to the blended consistency and they were scared of gagging and vomiting.

Also finger foods should be big rather than small. You might think that they'd choke on big pieces of food but it's the opposite. They can put big bits in their mouth and break it down but they could choke on small pieces as they mightn't get to chew or break it down before it's swallowed.

The gagging is very unnerving and even frightening but the earlier you and the baby get used to it the better all round.

sari

Yes it's important to introduce lumpy and finger foods now, the earlier this is done the easier it is for the child. See what happens with purée is your child learns to swallow food before learning to chew it so when you introduce lumps they think they can just swallow as normal this makes them gag, scares them and can often lead to fear and refusal of lumpy or finger foods.
As someone else said chewing is imprint for proper development of muscles in and around the mouth which affects speech.
If giving finger food gives big pieces so she can get a good grip on it and there is less chance of choking. Learn the difference between gagging and choking and you won't panic if she does start to gag

Big Davey

Thank you very much everybody all comments are very appreciated. We had some steamed carrot sticks today with our hands :-) we are nervous of the gagging but will stick with it.

sari

Broccoli stakes are great and wedges of pear. Gagging is a good in a way because she'll learn to keep the food at the front and chew it more before letting it go to the back of the mouth