Finger Food Ideas for 10 Months and Up?

When it's just my son and I (11 months) I like to get a can of the lower sodium chunky soups. I give him some noodles, veggies and meat and then eat the rest myself. I also like frozen veggies and stuff. You can do a bunch at one time or just one serving at a time in the microwave. Oh, and we do lots of leftovers. If they were good once, they'll be good again!

Good luck!

have you ever tried fried green beans? you just bread them and deep fry them like french fries. the kids love them dipped in ketchup and they are good for them too!

When my daughter was first starting on finger food, I would make her a cheese melt in the oven. I would just take a slice of bread out of the freezer, put a thin slice of deli meat (turkey or ham) and put a slice of cheese over it and then throw it under the broiler until the cheese melted. Then I would use a pizza cutter to cut it into really tiny pieces that she could pick up. Hope that helps.
M.

I always try to give my kids a balanced meal even if it means that they eat some strange meals for dinner. I figured that it doesn't matter what the food is, along as it is nutritious. At 10 months, I am assuming that he is eating chunky foods and loves pieces of stuff, so here are some things to try:

Veggie hot dogs - I prefer these to regular hotdogs because they don't have nitrates in them. Just be sure to cut them into small chunks or longer, thin sticks. The little circles can cause choking.

Yogurt - a little messy, but so good for them

Different Cereals - Rice Chex, Cheerios, Low sugar ones

Cheese cubes - Tiny ones

Pasta - Try the whole wheat with extra Omega 3 for a little more nutrition

Chicken - Cook it in the microwave even

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Chunks - Cut into tiny squares

Green beans or Carrots straight from the can - my kids didn't even mind if they weren't heated up

Bananas - You probably know that one...

Beans - My daughter ate the kidney beans out of the can. I started cutting them in half first until I was confident she would not choke!

Baked sweet potato chunks - Bake them, peal them after they have cooled off a bit, and then put them in the fridge to cool completely. Pull them out and cut them into chunks. You can sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if you want.

Smoothies - Dump whatever fruit and yogurt you have around into the blender and mix with milk.

Mushy Fruits and Veggies - Try blueberries, avocado, really ripe pears, watermelon, cantelope.

I hope this list helps!!!

Hi there K.,

I always tried to keep it very simple. I think of the food groups and just try to make sure they are all represented. My girls absolutely loved plain kidney beans (black beans too) right out of the can (just rinse them first), cheese cubes, frozen peas (right out of the freezer), cubed up hot dog chunks, strips of bologna or other lunch meat, olives!, corn, canned peaches, fruit cocktail, or pears (messy but yummy, if you rinse them first, they aren't AS messy), cucumber chunks, all sorts of noodles (cup noodles are better than ramen because they are more easily cleaned up! they get hard again instead of mushy), toast pieces, crackers, cereal (kix or cheerios mostly), green beans (right out of the can), grapes, make sure he's drinking milk because it's hard to get dairy products in them that aren't really really messy. If he'll let you feed him (or if you are going to bathe him right afterwards) yogurt and cottage cheese are good. :) That's all I can think of right now. I did childcare for four years before finding my home business. I had three girls all about the same age as your son. They all insisted on feeding themselves. Things had to be very simple or I would go crazy. Hee hee! :) I hope a few of these ideas are helpful!

Good luck to you!

C.
www.EnhanceYourWayOfLife.com

I have an 8 1/2 month old so I know how you fell when it comes time for supper. She only has two teeth but loves table food so when we have foods that she can't eat I make sure that I fix mashed potatoes or mac n' cheese with our meal so she can have some. Some quick, easy ideas for lunch could be lunch meat, just tear it into small pieces. Chicken noodle soup is another good idea. Almost everyone loves chicken noodle soup. When I was little I remember always eating a cheese sandwich. It may not sound like much but cheese is good for you if you don't eat to much and as long as you give it for lunch there is always supper to eat a really good meal. My daughter loves to eat gerber graduates fruit puffs and mini fruits. They have lots of vitamins that our kids need to stay healthy. Gerber also has many toddler meals to choose from.

Go to Kraft.com and sign up for their monthly recipe magazine. Lots of neat ideas, especially for busy families and it is FREE! I mark ones I like and try them or modify them to fit what I have in the cabinet. I also cut out recipe's that appeal to me and use a magnet to put them on the stove vent hood, so they are at eye level and I remember to buy any ingredients I don't normally have on hand.

Most fruits are easily chewed with few teeth. Bananas are the best! If you use your fingers to break it up instead of cutting with a knife it won't turn brown nearly as quickly. Try to avoid giving him a lot of certain fruits to avoid developing an allergy. (ie. strawberries, grapes, oranges) As long as you keep everything in moderation you will be fine. My son adored any and all fruits and canned veggies. Any veggies drained and straight out of the can will work. They even have diced potatos in a can too. We had a lot of fun trying a new veggie every week, and now my son loves ALL veggies. They really don't need a lot of meat right now (nature doesn't make that a bodily neccesity until we get all our teeth in.) But a bit of thin sliced deli meat cut up went over pretty well with us. Once he gets most of his teeth raw veggies are a big hit. My son still prefers raw veggies to any other food. And the cold hard carrot sticks are wonderful for helping break in those back teeth. Don't worry about the repetitiveness of his diet right now. That is actually a good thing in many respects because it's easier on thier digestive system. Just get a rotation of healthy fruits and veggies going and your son will do great!

Hey K.:

I've never tried this myself but I've heard (or read) somewhere to cook up some soup like chicken and noodles and drain the broth off when it's done cooking and save the broth for cooking something else easy and let your son eat the chicken and noodles. The noodles are already soft and the chicken pieces are small enough for little fingers. I'm sure you can use another kind of soup like vegatable beef too. I hope this works for you and good luck.

M.

Why can't you feed him what you eat at dinner? My son is also 10 1/2 months and I give him pretty much anything I think he can chew. What he can't chew, I mash up or give a couple of pulses in the food processor. He really like hamburger helper (any kind) I also give him lots of fruits and veggies. And if for some reason he can't eat what we are having for dinner (like enchiladas or anything real spicy) then I give him some baby food and then the Gerber Graduates foods... fruits, veggies, carrot wheels stuff he can feed himself. Good luck!

Hey, my son is 13 months old and I am a first time mom as well. I know exactly how you feel about it seeming like you give him the same things over and over. Some ideas that I feed my son are all over the board, green beans, cooked carrots, steamed broccoli, hot dogs, lunch meat, spaghettios, ravioli (the canned kind cut up), vienna sausages, macarroni and cheese, most any kind of canned fruit cut up, cheerios, oatmeal, applesauce, cottage cheese, french fries cut up, sliced cheese cut up, crackers (any type: club, ritz, cheese nips, goldfish), graham crackers...anything like that that can be mushed in their mouth or can dissolve on its own and get kind of soggy is what I have fed to my son. I hope this is helpful! :) Good luck!

For lunch I normally give small pieces of lunchmeat or small cut-up pieces of hotdog, cheese, fruit cups or cut up fruit, and vegetable cups or yogurt or applesauce. Most everything that I don't have to cook or spend time on. Then dinner, any pasta dish cuts up well. With 8 teeth and 10 months old he can eat quite a bit the same as you as long as it is mashed up enough. My husband as well is not around in the evenings, so my little boy and I also eat alone. So I try not to spend a lot of time slaving over a meal. Mom's like us should get together and make dinners together, so that it's worthwhile.

My son is 17 months, but is still eating a lot of the same things he ate at 10 months. I buy lots and lots of canned and frozen veggies of lots of varieties. Just heat them in the microwave. Canned fruits (I buy the kinds not packed in syrup, but fruit juice) he loves, but I try to not do those too much. Shredded lunch meats, cubed hotdogs, most any meat we eat I cut into real small peices for him. He's not a big fan of meat yet, but he eats some of it. He loves any and all soups. I've started buying the Campbell's Chunky Soups for mine and his lunch to share. I heat up a can and drain the liquid off some of it for him, he loves it and gets to feed himself, since he's so independent. If he'll let you feed him sometimes, applesauce, cottage cheese and yogurt are big hits. The Gerber dried fruits my son loves for snacks as well as any fresh fruits. He also loves fresh veggies that I can cut up for him like cucumbers, tomatoes, olives. If you bake a potato or sweet potato or squash in the oven, but don't do it until it smashes too easily (just make sure its still cooked well, but hard enough for your little one to be able to pick up). I do that and then cube them. He absolutely loves squash and sweet potatoes and its really easy to throw in the oven. I can't think of much else right now....but there is quite a variety of things you can try, just be creative!! Good luck!!

Try so Campbell's Chunky soups.They have all kinds of varieties, you can puree it if you prefer or he can it with his fingers. My 10 month old loves it.

My daughter loves to eat eggs (which they say to not give until a year but she had them at 11 months and was fine), any fruit (bananas, kiwi, berries, peeled and diced apples, etc.), canned veggies, very small bites of chicken, cheese slices, bread, macaroni and cheese, plain pasta with a touch of butter, Ritz crackers, any of the Gerber finger foods are great. You get the idea! Oh, and, I just found out about these Lunchable Jr.'s that they make now. They are a LIFESAVER for when you are out and about or at a family members house. They have small, bite-sized Ritz with small slices of cheese and diced turkey or ham. They are great!

Some things that work well for my almost 10 & 1/2 month old son with 8 teeth is tortilla with melted shredded cheese, dry toast and small chunks of fruit. He also likes potatoes and other well cooked veggies cut small (pea sized). He is a big fan of cheerios, too.
Good Luck!
J.

I had the same problem trying to figure out meals my daughter could eat that were easy. Gerber graduates makes little tv dinners that my daughter Emma loved. Also, I was scared and still am of hotdogs but in the baby section of walmart they have "meat sticks" that are really soft. I broke them into little pieces and would heat up an individual size cup of green beans or carrots. They sell individual servings in packs of 6 (carrots, corn, peas, greenbeans) That way if you are eating something else you dont waste a whole can of veggies.
I also found little cans of chicken and rings, mini raviolis, mac and winners and chicken and rice that my daughter likes ( they are generally with the Dinty More foods)

My daughter loved steamed veggies, like those little baby carrots and brocolli spears, she also loved toasted beans too...especially garbanzos, just put them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so. Little pieces of cut up avocado, crackers w/ almond or cashew butter. Kashi ceral. You can give him mac and cheese or spaghetti cut up and give him a spoon and see what happens (hint: take his shirt off or make sure he's got a big bib on!)
You can cut up a garden burger into strips too, with some fun dips.

I have three children and they all have had very different eating habits. My boys loved lunchables, even at the age your son is. However, my daughter will eat ANYTHING. Her favorite for lunchtime is quick easy and so simple. I hate to cook too, so one day I made me and my boys some grilled cheese sandwiches and my daughter ate half of my sandwich! If you cut the sandwich up small enough your son would probably enjoy a grilled cheese.