Am I doing this right?

Question

So little one still only has her two bottom teeth.... All we give her is soft foods.... We never ever give her toast crackers.. cookies ..everything is still pretty much pureed or chopped pretty small.. are we being to cautious??

Answer

Yes and no, I’m a dental hygienist and see plenty of edentulous patients (mostly old people with dentures but some babies) and those ridges where teeth eventually come in are pretty hard and sturdy. Have you ever stuck your finger back there and had her bite down? She can definitely handle chewing food without teeth. That being said I’d still stick with smaller pieces until she gets the top teeth in and can “tear” food into smaller bites. My daughter has 4 on top and 4 on bottom now and loves tearing apart her food with her “new” teeth and she will also push food forward to chew her food up a bit more with the front teeth. We literally give her everything we eat. 
Our problem with our little girl sometimes she’d eat really fast and not bother to chew so I made sure she ate foods that if she were to swallow whole it wouldn’t scratch or hurt her throat (so no sharp chips and only softer crackers that her saliva would soften up etc).

Answer

My daughter doesn’t have any teeth and she eats crackers, puffs, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, cheese, toast, bread, peas, carrots, beans, eggs, broccoli, cauliflower, chicken, beef, rice, oats, etc. She has never choked and only gagged once in the very beginning. She does not eat a whole lot and still gets most of her calories from milk right now, but I do offer a wide variety and she seems to do well with everything that she does manage to eat. I was very cautious at first, only giving her extremely soft things but she was refusing a lot of foods and I realized it was because she didn’t love mushy or puréed textures. She does much better with things that feel more solid. So I had to get over the fear and followed her lead and just kept a very close eye on her with each new type of food. But of course, every baby is different!

Answer

Our son still doesn’t have any teeth but we give him Cheerios and he does just fine 🤷‍♀️

Answer

Give them a try. If she attempts to chew then she can eat them, if she try’s to just swallow and gags then try in a few months again

Answer

My son has 8 teeth but they are all in the front (4 top, 4 bottom), so they aren’t much use for chewing, only for biting something off. He still eats lots of stuff. They use their gums and tongue and soak everything in saliva and manage to chew that way. I wouldn’t give them really hard foods to chew (like raw carrots or whatever) but cooked veggies, fruit, bread, pasta, crackers, etc. work just fine.

Answer

I think so. I’d give her whatever but that’s just me.

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