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SOWhat to do with big bites:
It’s normal to feel nervous when you are introducing finger foods, and your baby bites off a big piece of food–can they handle it? Is it safe? This is bound to happen–many times, and is a valuable part of the learning process.
First, it’s important to remember that self-feeding is highly protective against choking, as baby is getting tons of information about the food as they are bringing the food to their own mouth. This helps prime all of the oral motor muscles to get them ready to more effectively manage the food. Taking a bite tells the brain, hey, time to move that food around!
Once that piece is bitten off, and this can happen with or without teeth, one of 4 things will happen:
✔️Baby may chew it
✔️Baby may swallow it (and its ok if its not well chewed!)
✔️Baby may spit the food out
✔️Baby may gag.
This can look scary, but know its not dangerous. Gagging helps your baby learn how to move the food around in their mouth. When their tongue doesn’t have good control of the food, the gag kicks in to close off the breathing tube, and keep the food far away from it. Each gag or mistake helps them learn!
✔️Baby may hold the food in their mouth, not knowing exactly what to do next, in which case they would benefit from being coached to spit.
None of these require you putting your hands in your baby’s mouth. By allowing this to happen naturally, baby will become increasingly confident and efficient at managing these pieces of food on their own.
#babyledweaning6months #blw #babyledweaning #startingsolids #SolidStarts
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