Chewing by 9 Months: Why is this important?
So, here’s the deal. Chewing foods is important in baby’s feeding journey for a lot of reasons: wide jaw development, jaw strength, texture progression, developing a wide variety of tastes and textures, and so on. You may have heard me say this before, but we want baby to be chewing foods by the time they are 9 months old. Why? Because research supports that babies who have had experience chewing foods before 9 months of age are less likely to present with feeding difficulties such as picky eating or delayed feeding milestone development (University of Bristol, “Children in the 90s” Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children research study).
I know it can be scary to offer your baby chewable foods for fear of choking and gagging. Trust me- as a mom, I get it! So, here are some ways to help your little one have experience with chewable foods while keeping your anxiety a bit lower.