Stick to soft lumps to start with, they generally cope well with these and if choking occurs it’s easily fixed. For harder food like pieces of apple, there is a little appliance available from the chemist or supermarket. It has a mesh bit attached to a plastic handle. They chew on the mesh bit, getting a taste of the food, but not enough to choke

when they first start they do gag a bit as they are getting used to the swallowing action. I was told to start with soft things like potato lumps or peas. things which can mush son easily.

One of ours doesn’t very often cough, it suddenly “appears”. As a tiny newborn he sometimes projectile vomitted. Not great when you are eating away from home. One day when he had been sick for a couple of daysand hadn’t been eating but had been drinking water and then formula, I gave him a small drink of formula in a small bottle and he asked for more. Hew took a few sips from his 2nd bottle and suddenly their was vomit all down the outside of the bottle. He was so upset because it happened so quickly he didn’t even manage to pull the teat of the bottle out of his mouth properly in time.

Don’t worry too much. Give soft foods that will mash easily and rather than purée, use a fork to mash before giving big lumps.

I gave my little one small amounts at a time. Still worries me sometimes

yeah just go slowly and you will be alright

Obviously monitor and give frequent sips of water between mouthfuls. She will probably cough and splutter rather than choke. She will get the hang of swallowing properly or cough the food up without vomiting.

I started giving my daughter more lumps with softer foods like avocado. Although truth be told, we didn’t do a lot of lumpy foods and seemed to move along to the more solid food quite quickly.

I’m sure your daughter will be fine, just keep an eye on her if you’re worried.

I’ve read that the babies gag reflex is further forward than ours, so they will reject food before it becomes a chocking hazard.

For me I started on small soft fingerfood such as grated cucumber, carrot etc and moved to well cooked eggs (break up easily) and mushy foods like banana and avocado.

I find our guy holds and sucks on strips of meat which he can’t chew.

I used a book called ‘feeding your baby day by day’ to help with suggestions and meal planning. It deals with all textures. Googling Baby Led Weaning will also give you more advice.

small soft foods is a start, things that can be held in the hand for a start. If you hold it you can regulate the amount and size to be ate.

Here’s a tip mash food with a fork. Still has lumps but not enough to chock on. Mashed spaghetti, banana, avocado, potato and sweet potato and pumpkin. Never leave your child to eat on their own and you will not have to worry about choking. Give finger sliced toast and cheese. Be very careful about giving little ones whole grapes and blue berries.. there is a hazard of chocking here. Cut in 1/4’s before then halves as the child gets older. Even school aged kids have been hospitalized with a grape stuck in the throat. Mashed food for a 5-12 months is good for them. Helps with digestion too.

Go with foods that are soft to chew / swallow ie spaghetti toast banana cheese mango avocado all of these are easy to chew with their gums. You will start to feel more confident with giving other food such a cucumber sticks, wraps, crackers etc.
Some of our fav meals are lasagne Spag bol risotto shepherds pie broccoli pasta hummus on toast/pita

It’s natural to worry but see how she goes, she’ll probably be fine, just monitor her. Try soft lumps to begin with if it makes you feel more comfortable, like vegetables to get her used to the transition. Cubed carrots, zucchini etc things like that could be a good start.