Tips on Starting Finger Foods....

HI J.,

I would recommend trying different things, fresh foods, not only are the good for him, good tasting and soft.

I peel and cut grapes in four.
pasta
cooked carrots
teething cookies
saltine crackers
watermelon
cantaloup
banana
pears
apples

Cut them small enough not to choke but big enough that he can grip them.
Something will awaken his interest and then go from there...
Cheerios are dry and hard so they may feel weird in his mouth.... My baby is very particular and wouldn't even take baby food but once I started giving him these foods he startes eating! ;)

Good luck!

If he sees you eating it he might want it. Just keep offering - I just heard something about how some kids have to have things offered to them a dozen times before trying and most parents give up after two or three tries. So just keep offering. Watch the teething cookies/biter cookies - they tend to break off into just the right size for choking. I would stick to zwiebeck and cheerios, and the gerber puffs.

Ours started w/ teething biscuits. They hold them and kind of suck on them, getting used to the hand to mouth idea. Then I think we moved to small pieces of bread, and the Gerber finger foods came after that....

Just keep offering. It can take many tries to get a baby to eat something new. If he's only been on smooth foods, the solid texture may be a tad overwhelming for him.

Does he ever want to eat what you're having? You could fix yourself a bowl of Cheerios with milk, and once they're a tad soggy, offer him one. Once he sees you eating them, he may want to give them a try.

I just popped a Gerber puff in my little girl's mouth when it was open (not all the way into her mouth, just on the tip of her tongue). She gummed it about for a while, then mashed it up & ate it. The first time she gaged just a tiny bit, but then had no real problems. Now they're her favorite thing in the world.

Good luck!

This is how I got my son interested in my food: He would sit next to me at the table, facing me, watching me eat. Then I would dip my finger into whatever it was I was eating. I would put that drop of taste on his tongue... I think it only took a couple of days until he wanted to eat what I ate...