I am scared to death to introduce finger foods to my 10 month old for fear of choking. She has no teeth at present. Any advise for easy into this dreadful milestone? She is eating thicker consistency foods, buts that about all I can handle.

find finger foods that dissolve more than they chew.

The gerber puffs (I call them that) will disolve or be mushed to dealth before they can choke on them. And they actually are an ok flavor.

I was petrified also, but my mom started giving my daughter all kinds of things I consider a choking hazard and she proved to be fine. You may need to see you daughter able to handle it before you are ok. meaning you man need someone else to give it to her and you see that she's handling it fine.

Also without giving your duaghter harder textured foods/toys etc your not helping her gums give way to those teeth. My doctor recommended giving my duaghter bones to choo on to help her gums. It honestly worked and that's what moms have been doing for centuries. The bones have to be completely cleaned of all grissel, be small enough for their hands but long enough they can't choke. Chicken leg bones worked great for us.

sorry about the miss spellings and odd wording. I need to be asleep but my daughter keeps getting up.

I agree with Becki about the puffs. They're great. Wal-Mart has a brand called Parent's Choice, and they're a little smaller than the Gerber ones. They'll give her a lot of practice with the pincer grasp and hand to mouth coordination as well! Also, you can freeze whole wheat bagels and give them to her to mash on. The pieces that come off as it unthaws will be small enough for her to swallow easily, and they will dissolve faster than any kind of white bread, which would just become pasty. Frozen bananas are also good.

As an add on to Becki's suggestion about helping her gums give way to those teeth, I bought an inexpensive leather belt, cut off about a six inch long piece, cleaned it well and gave that to my son to chew on (under supervision). It was a piece of advice my grandmother gave me, and I thought it was so strange, but it worked! The leather's tough enough not to break apart, but has enough give to make it a great chew toy. My son popped out two teeth in three days chewing on that!

I never had a problem with my daughters teeth comin thorugh but when she starts to get teeth she always chews on the wooden furniture maybe you should get her some wooden teethers.

My 10 month old daughter does great with the puffs and even small pieces of graham cracker.  I've even given her small cubes of cheese and haven't had a problem.  She has her two bottom teeth and her two top one just broke through the gum, so she's not really using them for chewing yet.  I'd start with the puffs though.  It's good to start exposing them to new textures and sizes.  I'm sure she'll do fine, just keep an eye on her.

The puffs are great...I did that too. As far as getting her gums ready for cutting teeth I gave my daughter pretzel sticks...she absolutely loved them. She would chew them with her gums and they would get soft enough to break into mushy pieces and chew. Babys gums are tougher than we give them credit for. Other finger foods I used when she had no teeth were cheerios, zweibach crackers, cheese, toast...things like that. Things that disolve easily. Good luck.

I understand your concerns about choking, I was that way too but one day I just took the plunge. I started giving my son things like peas, mac and cheese noodles, even cheerios and he hasn't really had any problems yet. We're taking it slow but I work with him a bit everyday and watch very closely when he's eating. I just put a few things on his high chair tray and let him work it out on his own. Remember, there's no hurry. Take is slow and you'll do fine!!