My infant is over 8 months old and shows no evidence of teeth. She has gone through phases where others would tell us, “Oh, she’s going to pop a tooth soon!!” Due to some fussiness, nothing ever arrived.
How did you give solids past purées?
How did you know the baby was cutting a tooth?
Babies can gum a lot. Mine sprouted his bottom two at 9m, however we use BLW and he does quite well. Still has only two teeth.
They do not require teeth for solids! They can eat using their gums.
When I felt teeth in his mouth a few weeks shy of his first birthday, I assumed he was popping them.
This is what our pediatrician said yesterday. Front teeth are not for chewing and can get babies into difficulty when they can break off a portion of food but lack the necessary molars to ground it.
So, I don’t have any advice on what it’s like when teeth start coming in, since we’re also 8 months old with no sign of teeth yet.
BUT we’ve been doing baby-led weaning from the start, skipping purées entirely.
We offer a variety of foods in different forms and let her feed herself. Sometimes I’ll give her sliced avocado and other times I’ll mash it and load it onto a spoon for her. I just place the sticks or slices in front of her. She’s tried over 35 different foods so far! Last night, I gave her a chicken drumstick, and she LOVED it!
There’s been some gagging, but we stay close to her, exaggerate how to chew, and ensure she doesn’t have any bits stuck in her mouth by encouraging her to say “aaaahhhh.”
I highly recommend picking up the baby-led weaning book and checking out the Solid Starts app. Both resources offer great guidance on age-appropriate foods, serving sizes, cuts, recipes, and how to introduce allergens.
My baby is 9 months old and still doesn’t have any teeth; reportedly, his father and that side of the family are all late in developing teeth, so I don’t think much of it. Some days/weeks, his teething discomfort is unbearable, and we finally believe it is time, but nothing has happened.
But we’ve never done a puree-only diet; we started solids at 5 and a half months. Things that clearly require teeth are off the table for the time being (raw vegetables, steak, etc.), but he can eat almost everything without difficulty.
I attend a new mom’s group, and a pediatric dentist visited one week and mentioned his own child did not acquire teeth until 18 months.
Thank you for this. Mine is 11 months old and has no teeth. Did he offer any other insights into late teeth?
According to my child’s speech and language pathologist, late teeth are typically desirable because there is less time for decay to develop and less time when children are on milk/bottles during teething. My child’s first teeth erupted just before turning one.
We also had no teeth at 8 months! We generally practice BLW because my daughter dislikes purees. She doesn’t eat much in general, but she absolutely loves meatloaf and spaghetti.
SAME My girl hates purees, except for mixed protein pancakes lol.
Give meatloaf a try, and I’ve never met a kid of any age who disliked spaghetti!! Meatloaf was one of our girl’s first foods, and she really loves it.
Those feeders that you can put a strawberry or whatever into and let them munch on it, I believe, help them learn the chewing motion. We went through a lot of nectarines and strawberries throughout the summer when we initially started solids, simply pushing a hunk of fruit in there for her to gum up.
My kid did not have her first two teeth until a week before her first birthday.
We fed her puree and soft food from 6-8 months, then at 9 months, when we switched to three meals a day, we began giving her what we ate. We just made sure the food was soft enough to squish between our fingers, and she ate eggs, pancakes, cheese, pasta, meatballs, berries, and all steamed vegetables.
To be honest, it felt like she was teething for months before she got her first tooth; nothing changed for us, and we didn’t realize she was getting a tooth until we saw it peek out from the gums because she wasn’t acting any differently.
I loved that my son didn’t have his first peeking tooth till he was ten months old!! His pals had many teeth, but I always admired his gummie smile. At 13 months, he already has two on the bottom and two trying to peak on top! His arrival is rather slow, which I am completely happy with.
He ate solids well beginning at 8 months. He was always good at chewing and moving the food around.