mushy finger food suggestion

[little_fish]

A few weeks ago I gave my son (8 mths) his first teething rusk, which happened to be an organic one. Anyway after chomping happily on it for 20 minutes or so, I looked at his face, and the skin all around his cheeks and chin were red puffy welts. I figured it would probably be a milk allergy and am planning to take him to the doctor, but haven't quite got there yet.

Anyway, today I give him a wholemeal crust from some bread which he happy slobbered all over until it was nice and wet and mushed it against his chin a lot, and again he's got a bit of puffy redness.

So now I am wondering if it's just the saliva being mushed into something sticky and impounded into his skin that he's reacting to. To test this, I wouldn't mind giving him something that is not dairy or wheat that he can get nice and wet and mush against his face.

The problem is I'm very inexperience with this sort of thing. What finger food could I use to do this? It needs to be safe for an 8 mth old who is used to eating soft lumps.

Any suggestions?

[the_queen]

Cucumber is great, cut into fat chip shapes or big chunks.
Banana is also really good.
Mango, watermelon, grated apple, soft mushy pear pieces - any fruit or veg that is softish :thumbsup:

BUT I wouldnt' give strawberries or kiwifruit because these are fairly allergenic and if your son does have food sensitivities, these might provoke a reaction. Also tomato can be a bit acidic.

Remember too - gagging is not choking. He might gag a bit as he learns how to swallow different texture food. Don't worry too much about gagging, if there's noise then he isn't choking and he just needs to work out for himself how to swallow it properly. :hugs:

[~Bec~]

Rusks have a very low milk content (about 4%) and just because bubs goes about red doesn't automatically mean it's an allergy. I had the same thing happen with some yoghurt and got worried as DS has a CMPI. Apparently the redness could be due to the intollerance, an allergy or it might be nothing at all. Of course I would recommend seeing a health care professional first before discounting it.

DS loves chunck of banana, semi-stewed apple & pear, peaches, mango and orange (although make sure you remove any pips and that it's not a sour orange). He also has arrowroot biscuits and vegimite sandwich finger (wm bread, crusts removed, cut into a finger, no butter or marj). I keep meaning to try some steamed veggie chunks like carrots and broc as he's only had these pureed to date.

[ikis84]

Cucumber is great, cut into fat chip shapes or big chunks.
Banana is also really good.
Mango, watermelon, grated apple, soft mushy pear pieces - any fruit or veg that is softish :thumbsup:

BUT I wouldnt' give strawberries or kiwifruit because these are fairly allergenic and if your son does have food sensitivities, these might provoke a reaction. Also tomato can be a bit acidic.

Remember too - gagging is not choking. He might gag a bit as he learns how to swallow different texture food. Don't worry too much about gagging, if there's noise then he isn't choking and he just needs to work out for himself how to swallow it properly. :hugs:

:iagree:

[Bibs]

How about some sliced avocado. They are pretty soft and mushy.

[carben]

Avocado and banana are the best - I agree.

[little_fish]

Thanks heaps for all the great suggestions.

He vomitted several times the night after I tried banana (yes it was very ripe) so I think that one's out for the moment.

Any more ideas for things that could absorb a decent amount of saliva?

[JacksMumBec]

have you tried rice rusks? i was sent some samples of baby mum-mum rice rusks and my lil man loves them, maybe give them a shot?! sorry i dont know where you'd be able to buy them, but try going to their website and asking for some samples, they were pretty quick to send them out? otherwise they should have stockists on there somewgere HTH

[TJ]

You could also try toast soldiers with just butter, or some butter and vegemite.

Apart from what already has been suggested, I also steam some carrot sticks or zuchinni sticks, and give them as well.

[justmum]

Baby mum-mums have milk in them I think?

What about well steamed broccoli trees? They are DS' favourite food at the moment :D

[Pink73]

Thay dont start out mushy but thay sure do end up that way lol.
DS loves corn cruskits I just snap them in half length ways and he munches away until its all gone.
You can also get those bag feeder things that you stuff with food and thay just munch away on but cant get lumps.

[ButterflyMama]

Anything steamed
If you have a rice cooker that has a steaming grate in it, use that, it's easy.

Some ideas:
Steamed pumpkin
Soft grapes cut in half
Cheese sticks
Bread sticks
Rice crackers - the big plain unsalted ones
Cooked pasta bits (bow ties are a good size)
Vegemite on toast cut into soldiers
Rockmelon chunks
Watermelon chunks
Steamed apple

Anything really! Have fun with it. :D

[little_fish]

Thanks for all these ideas. We ended up trying rice crackers (stale ones I happened to have in the cupboard :)) and no reaction, so he must be reacting to wheat, milk or yeast or something other than his spit anyway.

I will definitely try the rest of these for finger food anyway.

[twitch]

DD loves mango, you could try slicing a few bits up. It's really slippery so most of it gets mushed around her face.