Suggestions to Add Finger Foods

We had good results starting with finger foods at just one meal a day. We chose dinner and stuck with that. The finger foods were in addition to her other dinner, not instead of. After a little while the finger foods get added to other meals and then as a larger ratio of the meal.

Good luck! Christy Y

Soft foods, I was told to roll soft cut fruit in the cheerio 'dust' to allow the child to be able to pick it up.
My girlfriend has had great success with it.

We do over cooked vegetables (so they are soft), soft fruits (ie bananas), pasta, pancakes, chunks of sweet potato (baked), soups (work great as they are soft and you can put in lots of veggies)...just take out the food if you want to do finger foods with the soup and leave the broth

wow! relax mama! your baby is nursing, so shes getting everything she needs till shes at least 1. Let her snack randomly on things through out the day, but definately STOP trying to measure everything out to exact amounts. After the first 1to3 months of good nursing and weight gain, you can definately stop worrying so much. While you sit as a family to eat, give her some finger foods, check out wholefoods if you really want to stay away from chemicals etc. She will start to understand "mealtimes" as a family and how it works. But there are no "real" ratios, let her nurse when she wants, give her some snacks in between, everything will be fine!

There really are no guidelines, just start feeding her. If she is breastfeeding, the other food is just for practice, really, so you should just relax and not worry about how much of whatever. Babies are amazing at knowing how much they want to eat. If she wants more, feed her more. The other good thing about self-feeding, is that it takes longer to eat the food than when they are being spoon fed purees so she'll easily let you know when she's had enough.

Start with bananas or avocados or some soft veggies like zucchini. Very quickly you will find (I think) that your daughter will figure out how not to choke. I think my daughter gagged once (their gag reflex is triggered closer to the front of the mouth than adults, I believe), then she realized what was going on and she has been happily eating ever since. I never did purees and started her self-feeding at 10 mos.

She is now 18 mos and eats most things but we started with fruits and veggies and introduced grains, dairy and meat more recently. I personally wanted to wait on the white foods-bread, crackers, pasta, Os, etc because I see a lot of kids who only eat that stuff and I wanted her to be used to eating more real food (at least until the 2 yo pickiness starts!).

Finger foods are so much easier and before long she will be able to eat whatever you are eating. One of my DD's favorites still is sweet potato "fries." I cut the sw pot into fries or chunks, combine with olive oil and bake. Nutritious and easy to self feed (also good to take when eating out). Legumes are also good, small lentils, black beans, etc. Cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas. All are easy. Once she is used to eating all the soft stuff, apple chunks are great. It is amazing how much they can chew without teeth!

what brittany said about fingers food is good tho. if u prefer natural foods instead of buy box ready at toddlers asile, just make your own :o)

as for finger foods.. u can just cut up banana in small pieces and avacodo in small pieces as finger foods for breakie n lunch or her snack time. u can do the same with dinner instead of only give O's, teething cookie or so but to add those soft food as finger foods :o) If your baby can eat O's then she maybe can eat veggie booty as finger food :o)

finger foods to each meals is good and use your judgement (like which finger food is right for breakie, lunch and dinner) to see when she is ready to add more foods, hungry for more, sick of puree food and ready for chunky (less puree) n etc :o) u can cook veggies to soft and cut it to pieces (for your baby to pick up and feed herself) and offer your baby that at lunch time and dinner time with puree foods.

you dont need to rely the pedi how to feed ur daughter :o)

My son just turned ten months old, and we usually try and do a combo of pureed and finger foods throughout the day (I also nurse him first thing in the morning, in between meals, and before bed). For breakfst I'll give him Yo-Baby yogurt mixed with mashed bananas or a baby food jar of fruit along with some cut-up pieces of a microwaved frozen waffle (so it's nice and soft). Then for lunch I'll give him some cut-up pieces of tofu (which is a great finger food) and will mix some of the tofu pieces into a veggie baby food, along with giving him either applesauce or pieces of soft fruit. For dinner, he likes the Earth's Best Alphabet pasta (which they sell at Babies R Us/Toys R Us) and mix that with some soft-cooked, diced carrots or petite peas or small pieces of broccoli. Other good finger foods we've tried are bits of cooked ground turkey, diced avocados, ditalini pasta, frozen peaches cooked in the microwave and chopped up, pieces of apples/pears mixed with a little water and microwaved for a couple minutes, grated raw apples or pears, wheat bread with shredded cheese melted on it, pieces of shredded cheese, and hard-boiled egg yolks (cut up into pieces). Some of those foods (wheat, cheese, eggs) could be allergens, so always wait a few days before introducing each of those foods in particular. I know that I was always a little worried about choking, so just take it slow and make sure you're right there just in case! I'm really enjoying this stage of feeding...it's fun to introduce new things and see my little guy's reactions to it :)

I always did same guidelines as introducing other baby food that way if she's allergic to something you can at least have a chance of isolating the culprit food. Also it depends on what your daughter likes as far as how often. You could always offer at every meal and if she doesn't eat it every time then don't worry about it. My daughter, once she ate table food, dropped baby food, whereas my son who is now about 17 months just stopped with the baby food about a month or so ago.

HI there,
I have a 9 month old and have been going through the same transition. Some great finger foods I've introduced are pieces of banana (if it sticks to the tray, dust the pieces with a little dry oatmeal cereal), avacado, overcooked noodles (I use casserole elbows and cut them in half), melon (honeydew/watermelon), kiwi, very small steamed broccoli trees. I also cooked up a sweet potato and cubed that as well. It's messy, but good. Toast triangles are good, pieces of bagel, biter biscuits (just be careful of her getting a small piece off in her mouth). There is a great invention that is a net mounted on a ring. You can put a biscuit or a piece of frozen banana (or anything!) in it without the fear of choking. I also invested in a baby food mill (babies r us). I used this when I started chicken (the jarred meats creep my out a bit!). The food mill is great for fresh fruits (pear, apple) eliminating having to cook them first. So, if my kiddo has gone to town on the finger foods, I cut the portion of cereal and puree and down a bit (also, if he has had, lets say, watermelon on his tray, I would eliminate the pureed fruit altogether and just give him a pureed veggie and cereal. If you are able to pump for the cereal more power to you! If not, mix up some formula for her cereal. I also give him a little formula in a cup with meals (again, if you have pumped milk, even better). With that being said, I nurse him between meals and at bedtime. As far as when to introduce new foods, follow the same rules as you did with the cereal and puree..4 days inbetween just in case. I hope this helped. I am always looking for suggestions, too!! Good luck!

Hello A., :) I usually have a whole lot more to write than what I am going to offer you, but your own statement 'the pediatrician gave us no guidelines' says it all. I suggest you consider the possibility of researching a new pediatrician for you and your beautiful baby...one that has the time to give you those guidelines should you want/need them. Be Peace, N.

I breastfed whenever she "requested" it. I served finger foods at every meal as well as pureed (to make sure she ate enough). It gave her a chance to learn to feed herself as well as learning to eat different textured foods during a meal. I got teething biscuits, fruit crunchies and went from there. Go to your grocery store toddler aisle and they have all sorts of finger food snacks (if anything to give you ideas on things to make at home if thats what you choose) also offer little bits of what you eat at dinner. She will learn to accept them faster if she is eating what you are eating. Give her a bite of your PB & J sandwich fo rlunch, etc. Be careful and obviously dont give her things that she will choke on. I bought a grinder and would grind up the same meal I was eating for dinner and serve it to her, let her use her fingers and make a mess ( its how they explore) and then step in and help her.

Hi! I am at the same stage as you, excpet my son decided at 8 months that he doesn't want to be spoon fed anymore! So we just started cutting up little pieces of whatever we were eating, including cooked carrots, banana, cheese, toast, waffles etc...he now pretty much eats everything! The only think I was told to stay away from is Peanut butter and egg whites until he's a year...good luck!

Besides some of the others mentioned we've had luck with scrambled egg yolk or wheat bread dipped in yolk & cooked like french toast. I bought the "Feed Me I'm Yours" Cookbook & made their pancakes & banana bread (with some whole wheat flour)- those were a big hit. I make little pancakes & freeze them - & warm them with a little fruit puree on top. Our son can also pick up cottage cheese which is MESSY, and tiny pieces of cheese. Have fun :)

A.,
I also breastfed both of my children who are now 15 and 10 respectively! yikes!!! Anyways, your daughter is absolutely old enough for some finger foods...they can be bananas, small pieces of toast, cheerios, kix, anything you feel comfortable giving her. I would offer a few at each meal to get her used to them because in a few months that will be her whole diet. You can give her tiny little pieces of meat (like ham, it is soft) too. As for making her pureed food...can you make it a bit thicker with a bit more texture? That will prepare her also. In the end, do what you feel is comfortable...no one knows her better than you. Good luck! And as a nurse, I would disagree with the earlier response about sharing your PB&J...peanuts are the most common food allergy and can often be deadly...don't give peanuts until she is at least 2.
K.

Because I adopted and used formula, I knew that my little ones had no milk allergies, so I added in cheese of all kinds: cream cheese, chedder, American, cottage cheese...some of them they loved, some they didn't. Also you may want to try some boiled/baked potatoes, either sweet or white. They are easy to self feed and you can add a little milk to make them creamy.

We started finger foods with my son around 7 months and by the end of 8 months he wouldn't even eat baby food anymore! He was eating everything we ate. (of course small soft pieces!) I would let your little one try whatever she seems interested in. Does she want food off of your plate? Let her explore under a watchful eye. Anabel Karmel has a good website and book, which is filled with good ideas for healthy choices. Good luck and happy eating!

Do a little at every meal so she gets used to it and doesn't get frustrated trying to pick up too many things. Did they tell you NOT to do hard things like carrots? Also no grape halves and no little bits of hot dog right now - too big. Try cubes of French toast or bits of pancake, maybe little bits of watermelon and berries, small amounts of sliced cheese (I wouldn't do cubes until she figures out the chewing part), small bites of meatloaf or hamburger or turkeyburgers, well-cooked baked potatoes, corn, peas and beans (cut up). Don't overwhelm her, but the idea is to experiment with new tastes and textures. Rice is difficult to pick up but you can try pasta or noodles - use a textured pasta shape rather than something smooth like an elbow - easier to pick up. Make it fun!

Even if you are making your own baby food this is a great site:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com
-S.