Transitioning from Spoons to Fingers
It's non uncommon to face challenges when transitioning infant from spoon-fed purées to finger foods. Babies transitioning to finger foods are working hard at developing lots of new skills, such as chewing and moving food effectually to consume, mapping the oral fissure, and learning where and how food moves in the mouth. Common challenges include refusing to touch food or cocky-feed, frustration, and gagging.
When a hunger drive turns into frustration: What to do when baby isn't interested in touching food
Some families start reducing baby's breast/human being milk or formula intake around eight-9 months to encourage some hunger motivation at the tabular array. If baby was previously eating a certain corporeality of spoon-fed purées to fill the belly, the breast or bottle feed reduction makes sense. However, eating solid foods requires a different kind of oral motor development and that wean-induced hunger motivation can chop-chop turn to frustration and cause babe to give up trying to eat solid foods.
- If baby is too hungry and frustrated to touch or effort food:
- Offer a little more breast/man milk or formula throughout the day.
- Offer purée along with finger foods at the repast.
- If offering purée at the meal, allow baby to self-feed with a preloaded spoon.
- The purée simply allows a familiar and easier style for infant to satisfy their hunger while retaining some hunger drive motivation to attempt self-feeding.
For more information, check out our article about non touching food.
Map the mouth, reduce the gag: What to do when baby has a sensitive gag reflex
Some babies have a strong or sensitive gag reflex and gag often while others are more tolerant and rarely gag; both extremes are usually normal, as is every level in between. Sensitive-gag babies will often gag frequently, even with textured purées.
Remember: for half dozen months or more, baby'due south brain has processed a single consistency in the rima oris—liquid in the form of breast/homo milk or formula. Every bit we introduce solids, the brain has to procedure new textures. Something new and different can crusade the brain to think, "Nope! This isn't right. Get this thing out!"— and initiates a gag.
The best manner to decrease the intensity and frequency of the gag reflex is to provide lots of deep input to the mouth with long, hard sticks of food. These foods include:
- Mango pit
- Rib bone with the meat removed
- Strips of bell pepper
- Corn on the cob
- Frozen celery stick
- Chicken leg with skin and connective tissue removed
- Pork chop on the os
- Resistive strips of meat (such as fajita meat)
- Kale rib
- Carrot (very thick)
These foods won't contribute to calories consumed or swallowed, just volition help map the within of the oral cavity. These foods assistance the brain understand that different consistencies are okay by providing deep, business firm, consequent input to the rima oris, gums, and tongue. Lumpy purées are confusing—both a fleck smooth and lumpy—and don't provide the brain with plenty feedback to finer map the rima oris.
In contrast, the long, resistive, teether-like foods clearly communicate to the brain and provide input most where that nutrient is located on the natural language, against the gums, how to movement it around, and where a gag initiates. Babe'south encephalon needs lots of communication to learn how to safely and efficiently move food effectually the mouth.
With a sensitive-gagging infant:
- Offer long, resistive food teethers daily.
- Food teethers are great for snack fourth dimension, either before lunch or dinner.
- Remember: these foods are non for calories or intake but instead provide an oral-motor practise to build skill.
Looking for more data near gagging? Check out this commodity about gagging or this video about gagging, choking, and infant rescue.
Infant won't bear upon food or feed themselves. Can I put food in baby's oral cavity?
Placing or putting nutrient in baby'due south mouth isn't the safest feeding method. 1 Self-feeding provides more swallowing safe by allowing the baby multiple points of sensory input from the hands, lips, oral cavity, tongue, and gums to process consistency, texture, size, and location of the nutrient.
However, if babe won't touch on the food or feed themselves, try holding a resistive food (such as those mentioned higher up) in front end of baby and permit them to move forrard, open the rima oris, and have a bite, or reach out and grab the detail from you. Optionally, try belongings the detail between your teeth, lean in, and let infant take hold of it from your mouth.
Placing a piece of food in baby's mouth can experience surprising for baby and arrive more difficult to manage that slice of food. Additionally, food placed in the oral cavity is often positioned correct in the front end of the mouth, which makes it piece of cake to spit out, but also makes it harder for the tongue to motility the food to the side. Baby needs to feel pressure forth the sides of the oral fissure and gums which tells the tongue to motility side-to-side, and helps baby learn to move and proceed nutrient on the side for chewing. The resistive foods mentioned above assistance encourage this kind of movement around the mouth.
If baby isn't interested in touching nutrient or feeding themselves:
- Continue breast or canteen feeds equally normal and listen to babe's communication.
- At solid food meals, pair smooth purées with resistive teether-similar foods to encourage chewing practice while reducing hunger frustration.
- Afterwards a calendar week or two of consistent do, offer foods that may interruption apart a fleck in the mouth, such as omelettes or cooked vegetables.
- Watch for improvement in moving the food to the side. Baby should recognize that the tongue tin can move things to the side of the mouth where they tin start chewing.
Looking for more guidance? Cheque out the Spoons to Finger webinar.
- Fangupo, L. J., Heath, A. L. Thou., Williams, S. M., Erickson Williams, Fifty. West., Morison, B. J., Fleming, E. A., Taylor, B. J., Wheeler, B. J., & Taylor, R. Westward. (2016). A Babe-Led Approach to Eating Solids and Risk of Choking. PEDIATRICS, 138(4), e20160772. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-0772
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