I think might have cracked the grapes/choking thing…
I've been trying to choose bigger ones, obviously, then washing and cutting them in half before giving them tho Babybear. But they still seemed like solid little suckers just waiting to get trapped in a tiny trachea…
However, and forgive me if this seems terribly obvious, if you kind of pop the grape flesh outwards with your thumb before handing it over it is much easier for them to suck and chew.
Also, I have been making sure that there is a tear at the top of the skin of the grape half (I rip it with my fingers) so that it comes apart more easily for her and hopefully diminishes the risk of it getting caught in her throat. It seems to have worked, yesterday she ate about 15 grapes. Made for a very interesting nappy this morning.
Having said all that, if your baby is brand-new to Baby Led Weaning I would wait until they had got the hang of things before giving them halved grapes to hold themselves. I used to hold onto them between my thumb and forefinger when we first started. You can't be too careful and all that…
Post Script.
Yeah, you can go to the trouble of making a tear in the top of your grape half if you wish… but why not do the more obvious thing and cut it when you cut the damn thing in half? So, you know, make a cross in the top of your grape and half down it. Clearly I am an idiot, it has taken me two months to work this out….
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This works with little apricots that are around now – LO loves them, I just split them in half and he sucks the flesh from the skin and spits it out, clever boy. In fact, he is getting so good at this that I have adopted a skin-on approach to most fruit and veg now, it makes it easier to hold especially roast sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc – bring on the winter, we're ready! (obviously I watch him like a hawk when he is eating like this and make sure all the skin has been rejected.
I've discovered an even better way to serve grapes , I eat half the grape and hand Boomer the other half (all kind of turned out), everybody happy. The only thing is she appears to be eating the skin – oh well no adverse effects yet.
Babybear has always eaten the skin, i must say. recently I've realised just how important this whole grape halving business is… apparently children as old as 4 and 5 have choked to death on a grape. Shiver.
My little one has always eaten grape skins, same with peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry, plum and damson. But today he ate a piece of mango skin. One moment he was sucking the flesh off as usual, and suddenly I realised about 1-2 cm of the skin was missing. He'd managed to tear it off entirely with his teeth. Hope it doesn't do him any harm.
I think the skin thing is fine – evidence in the nappies they aren't really digested. Memo LESS grapes next time!