When can a baby eat regular food?

I'm not sure what you mean by "regular food". Baby food is regular food all mashed up, so you probably mean whole table foods that the rest of the family eats. Until your baby is about 18 to 24 months, you should offer some table food at dinner time, but cut it into very small pieces: potatoes, meat (after 12 months), beans, bread, rice, cooked veggies, etc. You might try giving little crackers. Ritz are good if you get the low salt kind. Or whole wheat saltines. Add a few small pieces of cheese or a bit of yogurt and some apple sauce, and that's doing pretty well. But she doesn't have molars and won't have them for quite some time. The boys must be taught how to care for a baby--no food in her mouth, no wrestling, etc. This is extremely important!

Babies can have "real" food as soon as they are ready to eat foods at all -which is between 6-9 months. However rock candy is still going to be a choking risk, chips are probably ok (from a choking standpoint -nutrition is a whole other issue). You would have to ask the hospital about their visitor policy and small children, but you do NOT have to stay in the hospital over night -nor do you have to give birth in a hospital. Here it is pretty standard practice to give women the option of leaving either an hour or so after birth OR they can stay up to 24 hours. Really almost no problems with a baby are going to show up in the first 24 hours anyway. http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#choke Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.

You should be scared, especially of a woman who is giving a 9 month old rock candy and tortilla chips! Your pediatrician should be assisting you with this matter. Each child develops differently, and likes different foods at different stages. You might try feeding your child "their food" for their regular dinner, and then try to add small pieces of chicken, vegetable, or fruit for them to discover and eat. Make sure that they are bite sized, and sort of "bland" choices (in other words, don't try giving your child salsa or hot and spicy doritos). Another thing to watch out for-some "table foods" can be very hard for toddlers to digest. There are some great toddler meals out there for children that are learning to self feed. At 9 months, though, your child is a little too young to sit down and eat a Thanksgiving dinner with everyone else. I would say you would be better to wait until 16-24 months for that.

when she'll have teeth. lol

From my knowledge, babies should not eat regular food until they are 1 year old....so your baby still has 3 months left. In addition to the chocking hazard, the baby might also have trouble digesting processed food like tortilla chips. Not a good idea! The hospital might have a playroom/daycare center where you can leave the baby (they might let the baby stay with you too-but different hospitals have different policies), you should call the hospital and check before you go! All the best!

I have a 20 month old son, he started eating his table food before he hit 9 months, we would try him on sweet pot and mac and cheese, if you think they can handle it and if you give her small amounts you can try them on just about anything. She might just like it.

i would say she can have soft foods that and stuff that she can chew through corn mashed potatoes and she can have meat as long as it is in very soft cut up little pieces and fruit and no you cant take your little one in the hospital while you are giving birth and i am sure your mother in law is fine with taking care of your child

when you think they are ready, as long as they have teeth to chew it and you know they can eat with out chocking go for it!

2 and a half years old