I feed my son (10 mos on the 7th of Feb) pieces of potato either baked of from soups, carrots from soup, toast, cheerios, small pieces of chicken breast, egg noodles from soup, brown rice, plain spaghetti noodles chopped into small pieces, and animal shaped pasta which I mix with purred meats & vegetables which acts like a sauce. He loves it. He doesn't use his 5 teeth.... He uses his back gums and we have never had a choking incident.

I should add I don't give him anything that I can't easily mush between my fingers or with a fork. I serve it on his tray so he can pick it up and feed himself. I let him sample any of my food without salt and butter if he has had it before in baby food form. But most of his diet is BM, stage 2 foods and infant cereal.... And cheerios, lots of cheerios!

Pasta (we use the tricolor pasta to get some veggies into her) with butter or with sauce, avocado pieces, banana pieces, Dominex eggplant, string cheese...

My daughter was a huge fan of vegetable soup when she started eating things like that at about eight months. I would strain the broth out, then give her the veggies and pasta(it was mushy and perfect sized) and the put the broth in a sippy cup and give her that too.

My son has been eating different "grown up" foods since he was 3 weeks old. His great papaw had to give him his first ice cream and his great mamaw had to give him his first coffie (decaf of course). Then from there he had pento beans, french fries, pears, broccoli, carrots, cookies, jello, mashed potatos, black eyed peas (on New Years), and his absolute most favorite in the world ... pickle spears (it has to be spears ... not chips or he doesn't like it lol). He has had a lot more but I just can't think of the rest right now. I have to be really careful though because he was born lactos intolorant so no milk based products for him. Hope this helps.

I love that your doctor said 'grown up food'. We didn't start solids until almost 7 months and I went straight to table food. Anything that I have on my plate that can be mashed and swallowed I give ds. Tonight he had spaghetti, peaches and pears (all cooked). He's also had plain toast, potatoes, peas, green beans, applesauce, etc. I like to let him feed himself so that he can stop when he wants. I don't like the idea of spoon feeding (I feel like we are forcing him to eat) and ds prefers to feed himself, so it works out well.

We've basically skipped traditional baby food which has really irritated the grandparents. As soon as ds gets some teeth (our I feel comfortable that he can swallow it without choking) we will move on to meats.

I was really scared to give my son any grown up food, because the first time I tried I gave him one of those Gerber puffs that are supposed to melt in their mouths. Well he put it in his mouth and then started gagging and it hit the back of his throat and he threw up. I was so scared to try anything new. That was when he was 8 months. He is now 10 months and he has gotten so much better. I started out with really soft things such as fruits and cooked vegetables cut up into small pieces. Now I give him most of the foods that we eat at dinner. He loves bread, muffins, pasta, pieces of cheese, but mainly the fruits! I still get worried about him choking on harder foods, but that is likely what all moms experience.