when can you feed granola, raw fruits and veg?

[Luke's mama]

Just wondering at what age you started feeding granola, granola bars, and raw carrots, apples, nuts, raisins to your toddlers? what about popcorn?
My ds is 20 months and I haven't really given any of those things, but I don't know if I am being too conservative?
Thanks!

[LVale]

If there is no history of allergies, go for it! My grandson is 20 mths. and he eats everything. My sons when they were that age, ate everything we ate, basically starting with table foods, by pass the baby foods. My sons teethed on beef jerky, and gnawed on pork chop bones, and were fully eating table foods by the time they were 6 mths. old. Now they are the ripe old ages of 32 and 29. We are more of the no processed food types. Just food as nature intended. Maybe what we did, would be a bit early, but it worked for our kids. Just let your little one lead the way!

[tracymom1]

Once DS had his first set of molars, I stopped worrying about his ability to chew. I think, though, good chewing takes practice and you may have to 'coach' him a little if he isn't used to eating very hard things.

[sunfish21]

DD is 22 months and we have been doing raisins and other dried fruits, apples (with skins cut off) and carrots for many months now. I haven't done hard granola or popcorn hulls at all....

[sapphire_chan]

Lina got carrots for teething back at 4 months but only started getting anything off them around 7 months. Note, she specifically got to gnaw on carrots that young *because* she wasn't able to do anything but soothe her gums.

Apples, also about 7 months, with really eating them starting around a year. Before that, she'd take a bite, chew on it a lot, and then let it fall out of her mouth.

She grabbed a granola bar from me back in November, so about 14 months. Also had popcorn for the first time around then.

I've given her chances to chew on nuts (read: given into her demands to be given chances) since around 13 months. She has no problem with walnuts, pistachios, or pecans, but almonds just end up with baby tooth marks all over after considerable chewing before she spits them out. So if you are going to introduce whole nuts to a LO who isn't used to spitting out stuff that isn't manageable, I'd stick with the softer nuts.

[goldingoddess]

We've been doing all those since around a year old. We did Baby Led Weaning and my son is really good about chewing and he got teeth very early.

[Headmeister]

We did Baby Led Weaning as well and my DD (now 16mo) has been eating everything but nuts since she was able to hold it in her little fist. I'm still overly cautious about very hard items such as carrots only because she likes to take bites that are way too large, but she has been eating whole pieces of fruit (not cut up at all) like apples, plums, peaches, bananas, since she was about 8 months old. The only reason why we still don't do nuts is because I hate peanuts & peanut butter and I'm trying to hold off on them for as long as I can get away with before my husband notices...lol.

[paulamc]

DS is 15.5 months now. Around Christmastime, at 12 months, he had his first pecan (he took a savory "cheese wafer" cookie with a pecan on it out of the cookie tin, and loved it). Since then I give him walnuts and pecans on occasion. About a month ago he expressed strong interest in my granola, so I gave him a bite, and he loved it. I give him granola every once in a while now, and he does fine with it. He has four molars and three of four canines, by the way. He eats raw apples and other fruits, including dried fruits like apricots, dates and raisins. I've avoided giving him raw carrots, though he's grabbing for them lately. Seeing the other responses above, I think I'll let him try raw carrots now, particularly since he refuses to eat them steamed!

[StoriesInTheSoil]

I haven't done nuts yet because my 17.5 month old wouldn't be able to chew them. He does raisins but swallows them whole basically.

Popcorn I will not do for a LONG time. I've read about it being very dangerous before age 5 or so.

[kirstenb]

DS1 had a full set of teeth with molars by the time he was one so I had no problem giving him hard things to chew. I would cut them up smaller in the beginning until he got used to it.

[Baby_Cakes]

At 15 mo we just started giving Nora popcorn occasionally and she loves it.
Apples she's had since about 9 mos or so, but only now (15.5 mo) is she actually eating them and not just licking/sucking/nibbling. W/molars she's able to eat the slices.
Raisins, hmm. Probably since a year.
We just intro'd almond butter last week. She loves it and no reactions. We're going slowly w/nuts, but I don't forsee any probs. No family history of allergies.

[pokeyrin]

We've been giving DD pretty much everything you listed (except the popcorn and nuts) since we started giving her solids. She got a lot of teeth in and early and was very interested.

I love popcorn (or anything made of corn) and it used to be a daily snack for me but I pretty much stopped eating it because it caused some gum issues and my dentist absolutely hates popcorn and says it's terrible for your teeth. I think you're not supposed to give your kid popcorn until they are 3 or 4 years old.

Nuts are a choking hazard and DD still has a tendency to swallow food before completely chewing it up so I'll only give her nuts that have been made into a paste and she gets very little of that. Whenever I give her her something new that's harder to chew I will break it down to a managable size for her and then watch and see how she handles it.

[ShadowMoon]

Ds started eating raw fruits and granola-type bars around 2.5 years old. I don't give him raw nuts or popcorn, but he eats nut butters and raw food bars made from nuts, (Larabars).

[blizzard_babe]

DS (20.5mos) has been eating all that stuff for a while... basically, whenever his premolars came in, and I'm a bad mother who can't remember exactly when that was . But we did Baby-led Weaning, so he's been a good chewer from the start.

[Luke's mama]

Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone! We will have to be more adventurous, especially since someone is getting so picky these days about the "old" stuff we have been giving him.

BTW, what exactly is "Baby led weaning"? I thought I knew, but the way it is mentioned here in correlation to good chewing skills and early eating makes me think I am missing something. Is this more than just letting the baby decide when to give up nursing?

[rightkindofme]

My daughter love to chew on things until she is done chewing and if it isn't ready to swallow then she spits it out. :roll As a result I feel very comfortable giving her hard to chew foods because her choking hazard is pretty low. Oh, and she LOVES her 'na! (granola)

[RunningMomTegan]

CLW can incorporate letting the child choose what foods they want. Waiting until they ask/grab/get and go with it.

We don't do popcorn very often, because I've heard it's dangerous, but my son likes it when we do have it. He's 20 months and eats raw carrots, broccoli, apples with skin, granola without nuts, etc, all the time. I think like PP mentioned, it's molars and the ability to use them that count. Is your child using their back teeth to grind food yet? Giving them a raw carrot might be the way to find out!

I do, however, sometimes lightly steam the carrots. He's more likely to eat more than one bite out of every carrot that way