Snacks for a 9 Month Old

My sons' favorites were cooked pasta (sometimes with sauce, sometimes not), cream cheese toast, avocado, strawberries, cut-up grapes, deli meat, any form of cheese, dry adult cereal (bran flakes of all things!), soft cooked veggies, and many different kinds of fruit.

The American Academy of Pediatrics changed their official position on when to introduce certain foods in the past few years - it used to be you had to wait to give peanut-based products, strawberries, etc.

Today, the rule of thumb is to give anything that neither presents a choking hazard nor is a known family food allergen.

At 9 months, our kids were gnawing and gumming at slices of apples/pears, eating cooked frozen vegetables, shaven lunch meats from the deli along with cheese sticks/real American cheese (white American also from the deli).

I honestly NEVER gave my kids anything Gerber other than the puffs and the baby foods - if you look at the nutritional content there tends to be a lot of sodium/carbs (sugar) to help preserve, and we always keep lots of fresh thing around.

Our kids were young when we introduced a lot of foods (loved canned peaches in juice), mostly fresh fruits, pastas, scrambled eggs.

Double check with your pediatrician, but once they get the hang of chewing, they can usually have anything you are within reason.

Good luck - the next few months are going to be so much fun for you!

Hi I am a big fan of real food, just like what you and Daddy eat, just cut up in ways that avoid choking hazards! You can steam things a little longer, or mince them and then pinch them back into soft mushy bites, etc. etc.

There is a huge industry of kiddie food (like those snacks) which, on a $/oz basis, are extortionately expensive, unusually colorful and unaturally sweet. Eventually they will want nothing but that stuff, so wean yourself from it now.

I was paranoid of my daughter choking on "real food" and I continued to make all her baby food till she was about 11 months old. I made her food with larger pieces in it and started to give her bits of solids at about 9 months, but her main food was what I fixed.
At 9 months, I was giving her hard boiled egg whites, banana, avocado, pasta, rice, ham, hard crackers, corn, green beans, beans, peas bits of bread...everything in very small pieces. I think I may have introduced turkey hotdogs then as well. I basically gave her things that an elder person without teeth could easily gum.
A good book to pick up is Super Baby Food, it tells you exactly what they can have at what age...9 months is ok to start spices.

cheese, bits of apple and ritz crackers. I make my own bread and my daughter has snacked on that for a while now.

everything that you have for dinner in small bits that she can bite.....also offer it to her on her high chair tray so she can explore what things feel smell and taste like on her own. she will also start to learn to pick things up and eat them on her own. i try and give my daughter 10mos pasta and small pieces of chicken. chicken pot pies, ravioli, peas, carrots and green beans. good luck

My son had that many teeth and I gave him Cheerios, yeah! (LOL) They also have an excellent cracker out called Baby Mum Mum. He loves those. Hope this helps.

Another good book is 'Hungry Monkey', which especially at that age suggests you can pretty much feed them whatever you eat as long as it is soft & small enough with no chokeables. This is what I do and though had to rethink some of my cooking methods/habits & meal planning, my son (now 12 months) really likes it. I supplement with other foods just for him, and I agree not to worry about buying the baby foods (though I usually have a few on hand for emergencies or traveling). Some of my son's favorites are baked yams, green beans, carrot slices, banana, hot multi-grain cereal, yogurt, almond-butter on toast, cottage cheese, peaches (I usually buy canned in juice), and instead of the gerber puffs I buy pirate booty or some of the health food store puffs (adult brands/portions) and he loves these as occasional treats. He usually only likes meat if it's in something (like a stew or casserole), except sometimes roasted chicken. He loves most all the dishes we make, from stuffed acorn squash to burritos. And especially lately enjoys trying to use the utensils. He's always loved finger foods. BabyCenter.com recently posted two articles, one is '5 worst foods for babies' and the other is '10 best foods for babies', good things to know since we all want the best for them!

Invest in a good pair of kitchen shears, you can cut up the food small enough for your 9 month old to eat. The day care uses them all of the time and they are really helpful, the little ones love crackers that you just crush then with your fingers in small bites. String cheese, that you string and then cut up with the shears. Just remember to try one new item at a time, in case your little has a reaction to any of the new foods, then you can pin it down. You should see some of the items these kids eat and they love it. My grand daughter loved mixed veggies when she was smaller, (still does) they are bite size and they can feed themselves. Good luck!