As babies grow older and begin to develop teeth, they need foods with varied textures and tastes while maintaining essential nutrition for normal physical growth and learning.

This is the critical time when children develop preferences for foods and form lifelong eating habits so be sure to offer a healthy balance of food from the basic food groups recommended in Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. Not all meals require foods from each group - but there should be a balance within the day.

Move to More Textured Foods

Chewing is an acquired skill and textured foods are important for teething. If children don't have the opportunity to learn how to chew, they may have trouble eating anything but pureed foods later on.

Around eight months is the usual time to introduce chunkier baby foods. Heinz^® Stage 3 Junior foods (From 8 months) contain pieces large enough to encourage your baby to chew, while still being safe to swallow whole and offering a variety of tastes and textures for the developing palate.

If you are giving your baby mashed or chopped table foods, prepare them from the freshest ingredients, without added salt, sugar or strong spices.

Introduce A Variety Of Tastes And Textures

Textures:

Smooth, mushy, mashed, minced, chopped

Tastes:

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter

Helping Your Baby Self-Feed

As babies develop a growing sense of independence, they are ready to experiment with feeding themselves. Sometime between eight months and a year, you can start introducing finger foods.

Remember that your baby is still an inexperienced eater and must be supervised carefully during this stage.

Babies making the transition from baby food to table food are going to want to learn as much as possible about the textures and tastes of the various surprises you offer, so be patient.

Finger Food Guideline

Certain popular foods are safe and healthy for your baby and some should be avoided as they offer little nutritional value or could cause choking. Here's a guideline that should help you select what's best.

Safe And Healthy Foods

These are the foods which are healthy and safe to offer your baby as finger foods at this stage:

• cooked soft vegetable pieces
• pieces of banana, seeded melon and other soft, ripe fruits
• bits of cooked fruit
• small pieces of cooked meat and poultry (de-boned, of course)
• pieces of cheese (after eight months)
• soft crust, toast or unsalted soda crackers
• baby biscuits and cereal bars
• small, soft cooked pasta

Empty Calorie Foods

The foods below do not offer your child adequate nutrition and may encourage some unhealthy preferences as they contain too much added fat, sugar or salt. Avoid the early introduction of:

• fried foods such as French fries or home fries
• iced cakes or iced cookies, sugar-coated cereal
• chocolate bars or candy
• potato chips and other salted snack foods
• processed meats such as bologna or spam

Dangerous Foods

Even under your watchful eye, your baby should not be offered any of the following foods, which can cause choking:

• raw, hard fruit and vegetables
• fruit with seeds or pits such as cherries
• dried fruit, except raisins that are small and seedless
• hot dogs, popcorn, nuts, seeds, whole grapes, chips or small round hard or chewy candies that can get stuck in the airway.