Food Ideas for 8 1/2 Month Old with No Teeth

My children seemed to have teeth before they cry. lol. My friends little girl didn't get her first teeth until she was 13 months old. They fed her everything. The way she worked her food with her gums and tongue was amaing. She was even eating steak, mind you NON of this was ground up. Try giving him thinlysliced meat and he might do just fine.
I was always told the later the teeth come in the healthier they will be.

To make it simple and easy, I just take some of whatever we're eating as a family, like steamed vegetables or spaghetti or soup before I add the milk, and blend it in my magic bullet and feed it to my baby. If we're going to have grilled veggies I buy an extra zuchinni or something to grill and blend for her, so I'm not doing extra work really other than blending it. So I throw what we're eating into the blender, especially as the baby gets older and can eat more things, because it's healthier.

I also to buy butternut squash or zuchinni, peas (pretty much whatever is in baby food jars) and cook it and blend it, then freeze it in an ice cube tray and then put the cubes in a freezer ziplock. I just pulled out a couple cubes at a time to feed her. And now that my baby is older I even throw in beans, cheese, or chicken or whatever we're eating for dinner and blend. You can also do cous cous (tiny pasta), rice, oatmeal, yogurt, boiled eggs, tofu, fresh fruit. My kids love bananas and I don't really even have to mash them.

A doctor told a friend of mine that you can puree anything you eat and feed it to your baby--you just might want to introduce things one at a time to monitor for allergies.

Why aren't you feeding him baby food? There's tons of food choices right there. Also, pancakes cut into small pieces or scrambled eggs work too.

I have always given my 'gummy' babies bananas, avacado's, bread etc. in small pieces. They are pretty good at eating (gumming) most anything they want! Good Luck and have fun with it!

Hi R.-
He can also gum spaghetti, mac and cheese, etc. I wouldn't worry about the number of bottles/ day if he is refusing them. Sounds like he is weaning himself to me. Teeth or no teeth, huh? A determined child. Keep offering the bottle. You can grind up hamburger or meat in the food processor. Mashed avacodos are wonderful. pretty much whatever you are having ground is ok, I think. Good luck, S.

With my youngest I didn't buy baby food. I didn't puree it food up either. She didn't like the texture of the blended up food. At first I would mashit up a little, but then I just gave her bite size chunks. Even without teeth she was able to gum a lot of stuff like canned fruits and veggies and pasta. One of my kids once stole a breakfast sausage off my plate when i wasn't looking and gummed that!! Now, I wouldn't reccommend feeding him sausage, but they really are able to eat quite a bit even without teeth. If he doesn't seem to like the pureed food I would try giving him some food with a little more texture, just watch him and see if he can handle it. Good luck!!

I always fed my girls white bread jelly or even just butter sandwiches. You can start by tearing the sandwich into little tiny bits and move onto bigger pieces once he's manage "chewing" those! When we lived in England, my friends did that with marmite, which is a horrible vegetable based substance. My girls really enjoyed my Americanized version! :)

My son was a very late teether - first teeth came in at 20 months. He could eat a lot things. We have him banana, waffles, pancakes, breads, other soft fruits like peaches and plums - we just cut them up very small, esp. at first. AS he got used to the food he could handle bigger pieces - even without teeth. For protein we relied a lot on various beans - pinto and garbanzo are his favorites. We also ate spinach, broccoli, carrots, edame, peas - all cooked in small pieces. He even started eating soft chicken in very small pieces before he had teeth and I think some ground beef. I did turkey and ham lunch meat since it was already thinly sliced, I just cut it up. He was close to a year or may have been a little over a year when we added the meats. It all blends together in my mind after a while.

Bottles - at 8.5 months my guy was taking 4-5 8-10 oz. bottles/day. This was largely due to the fact that he was very resistant to using a cup. AS he started drinking from a cup more, I cut out the bottles one at a time. It was so gradual, he hardly noticed the transition.

Good luck with the feeding stuff and I hope he gets some teeth soon!

Well he should eat fruits and vegitable mashed up or blended just fine it's very healthy for that age as for the bottles he will probably drink as many as you give him so give him around three or four a day. As long as you feed him other things he shouldn't need alot of milk so around four bottles is the right amount biter biscuts babies love them and they they sort of melt in their mouths but can make a huge mess if not watched properly also wagon wheels and the babies puffs are good because most babies around that age want to pick things up and feed themselves also the different textures the babies love them.

Good luck

Pretty much anything you eat, that you can mash in your mouth without your teeth or between your fingers. Chunks of cooked potatoes, pasta, cooked carrots, pieces of fruit, ETC. Just make sure hard foods are cooked till they're soft, or you give him the ripe soft fruits like bananas, peaches, whatever.
Even apples are fine when you've built up to that and you cut them in small enough pieces. If you can't squeeze/mash it enough to take away the corners, then you want to think twice (or watch twice as closely and cut smaller) about giving that particular food to your kiddo.

Sounds likeyour little guy likes texture and wants chunky "real" foods! My baby never would eat jarred baby food either.

Both of my girls got their teeth late. They also did not care for pureed foods, so they ate...avocado, cheese, pees, very soft cooked carrots, also the shaped noodles from chicken noodle soup are very soft and easy for little fingers to pick up. Also, spaghetti with meat sauce, cut the spaghetti into little pieces and make sauce using ground hamburger or turkey, this is a little messy for finger food, but my kids always loved it.
You can basically give your little guy any simple, soft food that is cut into little pieces. To test something I would always take a bite and see if I could eat it by smashing it with my tongue and not use my teeth. That seems to be a pretty good indicator.
Relax and experiment.

First of all, babies gums are very tough and they can eat more than you might think without teeth. (graham crackers and animal crackers are great even without teeth) Past that, for my kids I didn't feed them commercial baby food. I would take a portion of what we were eating. (let him see it's what you are eating)then I would put it in the blender for my kids. That way you know exactly what they are eating and it has better flavor than commercial baby foods too. He can also feel part of the family, eating the same foods too. Eventually he has to get used to the tastes of your cooking anyway. Another wonderful "snack" or lunch type thing is to toast a piece of bread, then roll it flat with a rolling pin, then spread fruit sauce on it and roll it up. Then slice it into pieces. My son LOVED that one.

I would recommend getting a Magic Bullet (or there is a similar but cheaper one I got at Khol's) and just trying new things. My son still only has five teeth and is 14 months, he eats just about anything now but we put a lot of stuff in the little blender and it made life so much easier. I would get fruit and yogurt and blend it for breakfast, I even blended mac & cheese, also as everyone has suggested small chunks of fruit, veggies, lunch meat, egg yolk (boiled), chicken, etc. If he is refusing to nurse and you are going to start using formula, I wouldn't worry about him over eating. When my son was that age he would still take an eight oz. bottle in the morning, two sevens through the day and another eight ounces at night - he always had a healthy appetite.

Hello R. C

I have a 14 month old daughter that has no teeth yet. I finally figured out just to give her whatever we are eating just in smaller pieces. Thier gums work almost as good as teeth, so he should be just fine. I did start off with the same things you did and then I was using the magic bullet for everything else, but my daughter gets really hungry and as soon as she sees you in the kitchen she knows it's eating time and never wait long enough for me to finsh blending it for her, so I started just giving her pieces to hold her over. When I realized she could eat the pieces I wondered why am I blending it for her??? She's been doing fine ever since.. I hope this helps.

N. M.
SAHM of a 3 year old and 14 month old

My son loved avocados. You can just cut it up and they can eat them without all the mashing.

For self feeding, you can try those little mesh pouches with a handle on them. You can get them at Walmart or Babies R Us, they will also come in handy when he start teething, as you can pop an ice cube in there. My 20 year old teethed late and I fed him whatever we were eating just put it in the blender on low for a few seconds with a dash of water. Bananas are a good start for self feeding now also. good luck!