Moving to family meal times

How did you transition your babies from goop/finger food to eating with you as a family and family meal times.

We eat breakfast and lunch together and on the weekend for the most part we have dinner together.

Currently DD is getting her dinner at 5-5.30pm which is finger portions of what we have and a bit of baby food, then after she's fed I cook dinner for DH and I (while he baths her etc) and then we eat after DD has gone to bed.

Was wondering when she can start having what we are having and not need the goop?

We have always just given alex bits of what we are having. He fills himself up on that and if he needs it we top him up on other stuff

Same here - we've always all eaten together, except when DP is home late, he just heats his up when he gets home and DS and I still eat together. We have our dinner around 5:30-6pm. DS has always eaten family meals too...no 'goop' here!
Even though you haven't been doing it up until now, just start it whenever you like...don't think you need to transition, just go for it!

We ate together last night at 6pm, DH was late home - DD didn't eat the carrots or the peas, she sucked on her sausage. I stirred some watties goop thru her mashed kumara and she happily had that spooned in to her .

making burgers tonight will see how that goes

Moving from goop to finger food/our food how much do I give her, half of it ends up on the floor how do I know she's getting enough of what she needs?

DD doesn't have any teeth find if I give her smaller pieces she manages better.

Jaune wrote: At this age they still don't really know that the food will fill them up...it's more of a game/learning experience.

when does this change?

Yes isn't it food is for fun under one? I always made too much for DD. If she ate it all great but if not then no worry would rather have some go to waste than to only make a lil bit and have her hungry. Are you just starting finger foods? You'll probably find that she'll just want to experiment and explore it so may only lick it or eat a little bit. Don't worry about teeth or lack of, DD had no teeth until 10 months or there abouts and was demolishing food no problems! A good size is about the size of your index finger. Tbh I would have thought that cutting food smaller would be more of a choking hazard than giving them something whole where they can only bite off what they manage! The hardness should be enough that they can mush it against the roof of their mouth no hassles either and the gums are pretty tough/strong so don't worry about not being able to bite things because she should be able to! Good luck!

We've been doing finger foods for ages, along with puree/mash which she still likes. She's been demolishing mandarins since I gave them to her at 8 months. Watching her eat a banana is entertaining amazing how much she puts into her little mouth.

She'd dropped a couple of bf's in favour of solid foods. She now has approx 3 bf's during the day and a couple at night.

caliandjack wrote: We've been doing finger foods for ages, along with puree/mash which she still likes. She's been demolishing mandarins since I gave them to her at 8 months. Watching her eat a banana is entertaining amazing how much she puts into her little mouth. She'd dropped a couple of bf's in favour of solid foods. She now has approx 3 bf's during the day and a couple at night.

My suggestion would be to all eat together where possible. Keep offering the ginger food, and if you still want to give her mash, instead of you putting the spoon in her mouth, give her the spoons all loaded up and let her feed herself. I put a big plastic mat under DS2 (9 months), and just pick up the bits that he drops. Some times he eats a lot, other times hardly anything. But it is good for them to only eat to their hunger, as it protects them from over-eating and obesity later in life.
it is all about tastes, and textures at this age, and milk is still the most important form of nutrients.