Hi- it may be unrealistic to expect a 9 month old to be able to proper chew something as chewy and hard as a piece of bread, especially since as you say they can bite off pieces. I would try to make sure that the food you’re offering her is soft and easy to squish between your fingers to make this easier for her, and if that food is slippery, you can add things like a little sprinkle of breadcrumbs or hemp seeds to help slow it down in her mouth. You can offer pea size pieces of food that aren’t mashed if they are soft—scrambled egg, pancakes, all sorts of fruits and cooked veggies, meatballs, etc. This post specifically goes through a lot of options: https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/finger-foods-for-baby/

Hi there, my 9.5 month old baby gags a lot on soft finger food and her pincer grasp hasn’t developed yet. So I’m either giving her really small pieces of food on a preloaded spoon or she gets finger foods but I’m very concerned about the excessive gagging. It gets to the point where her face turns red and it looks like she’s struggling to breath until she manages to cough the food out. For example, I gave her a crusty piece of bread to gnaw on to practice chewing and she bit off a piece that she couldn’t chew properly or was simply too big. Is it realistic for babies to chew properly at this age? Because of the gagging I just want to stick to very tiny pieces (basically mashed with a fork). What’s your take on excessive gagging?

You are so welcome!

Thanks for sharing these recipes and all the tips throughout your blog. I really appreciate it!

I am so glad to hear that!

Thank you so much for your answer !

Hi- It’s not usual for that to happen and will gradually decrease as she becomes more able to chew and mash foods. I would continue to make sure that the food you offer her is soft and small in size and start to progress to larger pieces over the next 3-4 months. Learning to eat is a process and it sounds like she’s doing great for her age!

I have a 13 months old who doesn’t really chew her food.
I cut everything pea sized . Sorry for the details, but I can even find undigested food such as pees and carrots in her diaper.
Tried giving her a banana- she knows how to bite but she just spits it out if too big.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thank You!

Hi. I’m sorry that you’re worried—feeding kids is hard! Here’s a post with info on choking that I hope is reassuring. There’s really no way to be 100% sure that a toddler is getting perfect nutrition and really no child does. It may help to zoom out and look at what she’s eating over the course of a whole day or week since they really can vary a lot on what they like and how much they eat. It’s very normal for little kids to have their favorites so I try to serve 1-2 foods they usually like with each meal in the mix of the food we’re all eating as a family. For daycare, maybe make a list of the foods she likes right now and see if you can think of similar foods to expand it out just a smidge? It’s okay if you have 3-5 lunches that you rotate through. most days. This is not a contest—do the best with what you have on any given day. Feel free to email me at yummytoddlerfood at gmail.com for more help if you need it.