Finger Foods! - Deltona,FL

A great way to continue to introduce healthy foods is to cut them into 1/2 inch squares and coat with cherrio dust. Take a ziploc baggie full of cherrios and crush them into a powder. Then take little bits of fresh sweet cooked peas, sweet potato, pears, apples, zucchini, black beans, corn, tomatoes, banana, carrots, blueberries, mango, peaches, etc. Do a little shake'n'bake style shake in the bag and coat the pieces a few at a time and give them to him. The cherrio coating makes them easy to handle, no more frustrating slippery pieces to grasp and the cherrio flavor will entice him to try the little bits with surprise filling. Start with favorites, like fruit and sweet potato to get him to trust that he likes this new treat and then you can gradually add a piece or two of veggies into the mix. My 4 kids all ate almost everything I gave them this way. You can get grown up ravioli's with spinach in the middle and cut them into bite size pieces, sprinkle with low sodium parmesean cheese, regular is too salty for little ones. You can buy fine shredded cheddar cheese and coat potato bits and meat bits or macaroni noodles. If you buy the whole grain ones now and precook them, it will be easy to get him to eat healthy foods as he gets older. Beware of giving too many "kid" foods. You are training his palate right now and spoling him with sweet cereals, kraft mac'n'cheese, spaghetti-o's and fruit snacks ( all of which have little to no nutritional value, will make his resist real food that is also good for him. It is very difficult in the future to get a kid to convert and when you are at a friends house or out to eat, you shouldn't have to choose where to go based on the kiddie menu. That stuff should be a treat, not the only thing they eat. Remember to try something 20 times before giving in, it takes a LONG time to teach someone to really like something. French toast ( whole grain bread soaked in egg and milk mixture and cooked) is a great treat. Give applesauce as a "dip". You can dice up fresh baby spinach and mist with a raspberry vinigrette salad spray for a nice healthy treat.

2 moms found this helpful

Fruits and well steamed veggies are great finger foods and really healthy. You can steam green beans, peas, diced carrots, make sweet potato sticks (baked - my son loved these). Blueberries are a great finger food - very healthy and not a choking or allergy hazard like some other small fruits can be. Check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com for more suggestions and recipes.

1 mom found this helpful

I'm sure he loves french fries! try making "fries" out of sweet potaotes or butternut squash. you can make them ahead and freeze. fruit and veggies are easy to make into finger foods. cut into small pieces and have on hand in the fridge. cook the veggies just slightly less so they're soft enough for him but hold up and he could pick these up and eat them (I'd hold off ont he dips while you can!) you could do lunchmeat roll-ups and cheese cubes in a few months. Hope this helps:)

K.-Oviedo
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Hi, T.. Well, you can turn almost anything that you had previously been grinding up into baby food, into finger food. Just don't grind it up, and cut it into half-inch strips.

For instance, if he likes to eat chicken, you can cook the actual pieces of chicken, either breast meat or dark meat, and then cut the actual meat into boneless strips, just wide enough and long enough for your son to get a grip on them.

Carrots, whether steamed or raw, are good this way, too. You can buy carrot chips or baby carrots at the grocery store. You can cut up bite-sized pieces of romaine lettuce, steamed zucchini, apples, pears, bananas,cheese, etc. If he likes yogurt but won't sit still for a spoon, you can make him smoothies that he can drink out of a sippy cup. You can also get these things called Go-Gurts, which a kid squeezes out of a tube into his mouth, but be warned that they are full of sugar and food coloring.

Almost any food that you eat as an adult can be cut into the right shape for your son to pick up and put into his mouth. Just give him less of the spices and sauces that we adults often like with our food, at least until he's a little older and you test that his stomach can take it.

Have fun watching him grow and learn new skills!

Peace,
Syl

You can always steam veggies like green beans, carrots until they are tender and cut them up, ripe fruits cut into tiny pieces, baked sweet potato can be cut into pieces, avocado is a great food for little ones, low-sodium cheese, scrambled egg yolk.

Also, start good table habits now and don't let him eat on the run! If mine were/are going to eat it's at the table. They know the routine because we've been doing it since they started eating-wash hands, get in your chair, eat, get cleaned up and they get old enough they clear their place.

I will throw this in, only because it doesn't seem to be an often mentioned idea... but my kids LOVED them and still do (and they are fast and easy to transport)...

Olives. Both green pimento stuffed and the large black ones. Cut them so they are not a choking hazard if that is a concern. My kids would eat them by the handfuls. Still do. Black ones are their favorites. My daughter learned to say "pimento" from eating them in her olives, when she was less than 2. It is one of my favorite memories from that time... she started out asking me "that? (pause).. men-toe?" then as she got a little older she learned to say it properly "pimento"... she laughs about it when I tell her the story now (she is 7 yrs old now).
They are healthy, and offer a non-sweet food that will expand their palate.

If your son likes chicken nuggets or chicken tenders he would probably also like popcorn shrimp. It is another easy finger food that has the same general texture and mild flavor as a chicken tender or nugget.

Hi T.,

We used an idea from Dr. Sears called the "nibble tray". You take an empty ice cube tray and fill each compartment with nibble sized food. I always tried to ensure that overall I had a good mix of fruit, veggies, protein and grains so would include things like sweet red peppers cut up small, shredded cheese, sesame sticks (from the health food store), dried apricot, mochi (a natural Japanese sweet rice that you buy prepared at the health food store and bake up into naturally sweet, chewy morsels) small pieces of cut up chicken, small pieces of carrots, cucumber, and one compartment for "dipping sauce" which could be yogurt, salad dressing or tamari sauce. I left it on the coffee table for her and she would graze by and dip and nibble on something in between playing and ultimately eat up the entire tray.

Here is a link to a cute free cartoon ebook about healthy eating for picky toddlers that you can read to him too:
http://www.atlantisnatural.com/content/Eat_Your_Veggies_P...

Good luck!

Hi T.. I feel for you. My daughter is the same way.
So, here are some of her favorates finger foods.

Rice balls-- these are great since I can mix differnet things and make different flavor. ie cheese. I just put a tiny portion on saran wrap and make a small ball for her.

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My daughter will be one next week and we went through this same thing a few months ago. She feeds herself meals and snacks. The only thing she lets us feed her is yogurt. She eats all fruits and veggies, but I have to say broccoli is her favorite. I cut or tear everything in small pieces. Hope this helps!

Fruit – banana, pears, peaches, blueberries cut in half, cantaloupe, avocado
Veggies – pas, carrots, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes
Mini waffles
Pancakes
Toast
Bagels
Full fat cheese – I buy the blocks and slice it then freeze, I defrost it the day I need it. Saves a ton of money
Rinsed canned beans – I like organic black, kidney and great northern (they are a bit softer and tastier than regular)
Ravioli and tortellini cooked a little softer then you would eat it
Cooked pasta – Fusilli and the shells seem easier to pick up
Poached chicken
Ground beef chunks

My daughter just turned 1 year old and about a month ago boycotted baby food (except for yoghurt) one day. I found the other mommy responses really helpful because my daughter won't eat any meat except cold cuts. I buy organic cold cuts at Whole Food because it doesn't have sodium nitrite added (or any other yucky stuff!). Once in a while she will eat a little organic chicken breast that I've browned in a pan with a few sprays of olive oil and s&p. She eats lots of fruits, but really only eats carrots. She loved green beans in baby food, but I can't get her to eat them in their real form. I'm going to try the other mommy's idea of coating them in crushed Cheerios. She is a HUGE fan of organic O's cereal so maybe that will work for me. Anyway, I would say try organic cold cuts for protein instead of chicken nuggets.

Unfortunately, my little one is allergic to peas, cheese, egg whites and peanuts so we are bit limited, but I'm not going to give up!

Good luck! Isn't so challenging trying to feed them right and figure out what and how they will eat it!

We like cut up veggie burgers and bean patties. Grilled cheese and cheese pizza cut into strips are good too. My daughter liked avocado too. rinsed black beans are a favorite at our house. hope that helps

my son is the same way and he is a hearty eater!
We are fans of string cheese cut up, any of the lower sugar canned fruits--mandarin oranges are his fav! Lunch meat, other cheeses, although yogurt is not a finger food, he gets lots of that-I cut up any meat that we have at dinner as thin as I can and he eats whatever we do just a mini version--even fish and just about every veggie. Lean pockets-breakfast and lunch styles--again, just cut up really small.

Try to experiment with everything and see what works.

Since my son was off formula pretty quickly after the foods kicked in full swing, we started giving him a liquid vitamin so that he was still getting that too!