Food that needs chewing

I'm starting to introduce non-pureed food - e.g. cruskits, bread, fritters .... Most of it ends up in the folds of the highchair and Daniel doesn't seem to know exactly what to do with it. Is there anything I can do to help him 'learn' how to eat it or is it a matter of just giving it to him regularly and eventually he'll learn what to do? I'm pretty sure it's the latter but thought I'd ask - I need to know he won't still be on a puree in 18 years

He's refusing puree and only wants things he can hold He can make fast work of biscotti - maybe he'll just have to live on that.

Lil miss likes milk arrowroot biscuits, they kind of dissolve in her mouth lol. I give her those Mother Earth fruit stick thingies too but only about 1/2 actually goes down. And she's been having a slice of luncheon and bread and butter for lunch which she seems to cope with okay.

Oh and soft fruits like apricots, banana, melon etc.

I started off giving Caden very ripe banana, I would break it in half and give him one half at a time, and he learnt to chew that way. Then the other day I introduced him to bread soliders with marmite on them, and he did really well with them and he chews them with his gums, today he had them with apricot jam.

Also, cubes of potato and pumpkin, and pea's, Caden LOVES LOVES pea's, he enjoys picking them up and he mushes them in his mouth.

It just takes them a while to learn how to chew with their gums, Caden still gets half his food down the side of the high chair and in his lap. I just pick it up and put it back on his try.

Edited by Sheza

I'm having a similar problem - she wants to eat the finger foods, takes great big bites, and tries to swallow them without chewing. On the upside, she adores anything she can feed herself. A nice piece of steak cut into "sticks", kumara chips thrown in the oven while I cook dinner for the menfolk, bits of toast (she likes them plain!), pieces of avacado or banana (I like these as even when she forgets to chew they slide down without much gagging), cooked carrot sticks (so they're soft).
I think that we just have to wait for them to figure out the chewing thing, I'm sure it will come with time.
I did help elizabeth to begin with by putting the end of whatever she wanted to eat in her mouth, and she would grab the other end and pull it out to look at.