Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

DD is 7.5 months old and I make her food. I basically bake all of her fruits then puree them, I bake or steam her veggies and purree them and as for her meats, I pretty much boil them along with veggies and then purree them.

I have only given puffs as "finger foods" I tried cut up fruits but they seem to be too slippery for DD. I give her the puffs as a snack/to keep her entertained while DH and I have dinner.

So.. my stupid questions are as follows! lol

1. At what point do I stop purreeing baby's food and

2. what is the next step?

3.I have seen recipes for like baby pancakes, baby omelttes , baby sandwhiches?? When do you start giving this to babys and how do you feed them this? Do you cut it up and give it to them as a finger food or do you feed them still?

4. And are finger foods given just as snacks or as meals ?

Pureeing and spoon feeding DD seems so much easier , but I feel like I should be doing something else?

Re: Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

What an exciting time! It's so much fun when they start to really eat.

My DD is 11 months old now, so I'm not an expert but I did just go through this. She started on Puffs at 8m and within about 3 days, she was able to pick them up herself and put them in her mouth. Is your DD able to do that yet? That's the big determination. She's probably able to pick up small things and get them to her mouth, but she might not be ready yet. If not, go slow and give her time. If she's finding fruit too slippery try this: Crush up some Cheerios into crumbs, and toss the fruit with the crumbs. They'll stick to the fruit and it won't be slippery any more.

We did purees as main meals with small finger food for practice for about a month. So lunch would be a puree with some small pieces of mango or overripe pear for her to pick up and eat, and dinner would be a puree with some puffs or small pieces of room-temp string cheese (it's softer!) or something like that. After about a month of this, she got really good at picking up food and eating it and more interested in doing that instead of eating off of a spoon.

I was making her food too and I'm so happy to not be pureeing anymore! By 10m or so, she was eating a lot of what I was, but it wasn't until 11m that I pretty much make one dinner and just give her pieces of it. So if your DD is like mine, you have about 3 months before she'll be eating mostly food instead of mostly purees (and then half and half).

You ask about baby omelets and sandwiches... those are just pieces of those foods cut up small. So a baby Humus sandwich (her favorite!) is just a slice or two of whole wheat bread with humus, cut into bite-sized pieces. You could give her a "grilled chicken and cheese sandwich" if you cut up some chicken, some cheese, and some bread and put it on her plate.

You say that pureeing the food and giving it to her on a spoon seems easier... soon it won't! Her appetite will grow and she will start needing so much more food. Plus, it's so nice to spread food out on DD's high chair and have her feed herself while I'm eating my own lunch. It's great for when you go out to eat too. You can enjoy your meal while she feeds herself at the same time and not have to spend the whole meal entertaining her.

Have fun with this!

Re: Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

thank you so much.. so nice of you to take the time to write such a helpful and detailed response. thanks!

Re: Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

Happy to help.

Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

my DD started eating "finger foods" at 8m. however she didn't like to feed herself until at least 10m maybe even later (i dont remember). so i would basically just feed her purees and finger foods until she was ready to pick up food herself. around the time she started picking up foods she stopped letting me feed her with a spoon so i couldn't feed her purees anymore so they sort of naturally phased out and i used my remaining frozen foods in the baby recipes (like my apple puree went into pancakes), and my baked fruit would just be eaten as finger foods since it was still soft.

good luck!

Re: Questions about Feeding Baby-- I feel really dumb

DD is 8 months and as of a few weeks ago, she seemed to be over pureed food. I started giving her shredded chicken and steamed veggies that I cut in chunks that she can easily grab and she eats great now! I cut up soft fruit too but it's too slippery for her to grab so I usually feed it to her. I also make her "fried" egg yolk which I cut up in little pieces and she feeds herself.

I was so afraid she was going to choke when I started cutting food into chunks even though they are soft that I cut it too small for her to pick up. I started to see that she handles the food really, really well so I started to make the chunks bigger so she can grab them. Honestly, I find this easier than the purees and less messy.