Ideas for Finger Foods

I just thought of this weekend... My son is 16 months and I felt the same way- this weekend I made English muffin pizzas (english muffin, a little tomato sauce topped with chese and pop'em in the toaster oven) and my son LOVED them (I do cut them up to avoid some mess).

I got this list from a friend of mine who is an RD, a list of great ideas!

•“Just Veggies, Just Fruit” – Whole Foods- dehydrated, like popcorn consistency

•Puree your child’s favorite veggies and use it as a warm spread on whole grain bread or have them dip mini-whole wheat pita wedges
•Dice veggies to “toddler” size and scoop them into the mini whole wheat pitas
•Cooked veggie pasta
•Cooked, diced veggies

Grain Based
•TLC Kashi whole grain crackers – no trans fats / no hydrogenated oils
•Dip these crackers into hummus or pre-spread them for the child
•Make mini-pinwheels out of a whole wheat tortilla rolled with cheese
•Dip non-salted pretzel “sticks” into hummus, warm veggie spread, or natural peanut butter
•Bake oatmeal/ fruit based mini muffins, freeze and thaw when necessary
•Cooked whole grain pasta – corkscrew shape is perfect
•Whole wheat graham crackers

Protein Based
•Boiled eggs – boil about 6 for the week, dice them up and store in a container
•Scrambled eggs – leave them a bit chunky for kids to grasp them
•Balance Bar’s Go Mix – great nugget sized granola based snack, higher in protein
•Sliced fruit dipped in Natural Peanut Butter
•Cooked starchy beans like kidney and lima – great finger food snacks
•Cook “veggie burgers”, dice them for finger food – they are soft
• cold cereal – Kashi, Uncle Sams, etc
•Cottage cheese

Fat Based
Avocado - diced

Well what are you using now? Gerber has a huge variety of finger foods. The puffs are great! They melt in the mouth so they don't choke. Cherrios, cut up small pieces of cheese or those "meat sticks" also made by gerber. I loved all those products for my son, then. He's now on his way to 2! So I think you can make anything into finger food. Just make sure it's soft and very small!!! Oh I loved giving my son watermelon too. Seedless of course. He loved it to. There's so much out there. Don't be afraid to try everything! It's good to let your kids have a wide variety of food! Good Luck....

Avocado "boats". My son loved these. Just slice up an avocado and the pieces look like little boats. Fruits, any kind. Experiment. You could try berries now that he is one. Cut grapes up and see how that goes.

But babies LOVE those avocados. Yum. My guy was eating guacamole at that age. :)

I would suggest cut up bananas, cherrios, crackers, small peanut butter sandwiches (triangles).

C. R

At 12 months pretty much anything you are eating is good for your little one - just make sure it's small enough and easy enough to chew. My kids were eating hardcooked eggs, toast w/peanut butter, soft bites of meats, cheeses, pasta, cubed tofu, breads, pieces of fruits and veggies [mango, avocado, tomato, melons, berries] etc. Let me know if you'd like specifics! -J.

I'm at the same place with my daughter - she'll be 1 year in a couple weeks. I have been giving her fruits and vegetables cut into small sizes for a few months already. She absoutely loves all of it!

In the morning she has cereal such as cheerios with some fruit - strawberries, cantaloup, honeydew, kiwi, or bananas.

Then for lunch I make her a small sandwich. I put hummus on a 1/2 piece of bread and put ham and cheese on it, then cut it into small bite sizes.

For dinner she usually eats what we eat. Almost anything works as long as it's cut into small bites. Chicken and pasta are the best. We eat fish too but my doc said she can't have it until she's a year. But salmon, orange roughy, tilapia, cod, any of those will work. And as I said she loves veggies so whatever we have she has - broccoli, beans, peas, carrots, corn, mixed veggies. I usually buy a frozen bag and just heat in microwave.

Good for snacks or desserts - graham crackers, fruit, applesauce, yogurt, jello (I add a package of Knox unflavored gelatin to make it firm and just cut it into little cubes), crackers, cheddar cheese cut into small cubes.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

mozarella sticks, chicken sticks, bread sticks dipped in spaghetti sauce or vegetable dip, fish sticks, french toast sticks, skinny omelet rolls (with or without veggies), won ton wrappers rolled with any filling; meat, cheese,or sweet with ricotta, sugar, cinnamon....roll them and bake..coll and enjoy.

I used to spread cream cheese on a piece of ham and roll it up and cut it into small pieces, the kids loved it. You can do this with anything, flour tortillas filled with cheese or lunchmeat and roll it up and cut it into little pinwheels.

My son loves the dried banana chips! They're so easy to throw in the diaper bag and don't really get crushed. I hate always giving him crackers and things that don't have a lot of nutritional value. He also likes raisins and other dried fruits. String cheese is also really good. He tends to basically eat it more like a stick than making it stringy, but you get the idea!

Now that spring/summer is here and fruits will be in season I would start experimenting with those. My son loved avacados!! We also would do different shaped pastas with him, he seemed to like having the different textures. He also seemed to live off canteloupe and honeydew melons for awhile. Good luck!!

Depending on how many teeth he has:

cut up cheese chunks like cheddar, or monterray jack, colby
soft fruits cut up
steamed veggies
hash browns, cut up baked potato
scrambled eggs
small pieces of fish
crackers of all kinds
cereal of all kinds
avocado
small ham chunks
pieces of bread
raisens
dried dates
dried cranberries
chicken chunks

Just wanted to add...my daughter LOVES Earth's Best cereal bars. She's 12 months and goes crazy when she sees me grab one from the cabinet. Great for an on-the-go snack.

Check out www.brothersallnatural.com their fruit crisps are GREAT! I first found them at Whole Foods however the price was .99/pack online you can get a case of 100 packs for $70. They taste soooo good and they travel well !