11 month old....when to start stage 3

[mjj0613]

My 11 month old eats good. She is still in gerber stage 2 foods but it doesn't seem to satisfy her. Can I start cheerios and puffs now? We tried the stage 3 and she always choked. Any advice? Oh and she only has two bottom teeth, doesn't crawl but will roll and stand assited.

[Newmom!]

You can increase the number of meals she has a day. As a young toddler she should get 3 meals and 2-3 snacks (eating about every 2 hours). She is old enought that you can try to increase the number of meals.

I babysat a girl who sounded similar in physical development. She loves her puffs and gumming the Gerber wheels. All with 2 teeth.

Take a look at my reply to this other post. It gives a lot of finger food ideas. http://forums.parenting.com/showthread.php?t=21305 She should be able to handle soft foods like ripe banana and baked yams. She will use her gums to chew until her molars come in (my son is still waiting for his and is able to eat all the foods listed in the link) so she should be able to handle almost any soft or easy to break apart texture.

As far as choking on the stage 3 foods - how many times have you tried it? She might not like the new texture and just needs to get used to it. If the choking is persistant after trying stage 3 for a while, and trying some soft table food, talk to the pediatrician and consider a swallow evaluation - just to make sure everything is okay.

I encourage you to try some soft easy to gum table foods, your baby may love them. If you can mash it with your tounge and roof of your mouth, your baby can eat it.