What finger foods do you give your baby?

[A home for their hearts]

My 10 month old baby is wanting to eat pretty much anything and everything except baby food. I had too other babies that were like this they hated baby food so we went straight to table food. She is 10 months old and only has 3 teeth, two on the bottom and one on the top. She is pretty good at gumming everything to death but I still worry about her choking. When my older dc have a snack she throws a fit if the don't share with her. She'll grab apples away from my dd8 who loves to share with her but would like a bite of her apple too. I've thought of just giving her a whole apple because when I give her small pieces she just won't eat them. She thinks she's a big girl and can eat what everbody else eats. Right now she is eat some left over cheese-it twisters that my ds4 left in his bowl! She'll stick a whole one in her mouth and suck and gum on it until it gone. :001_unsure: Talk about giving me a heart attack! I give her cheerios and all those fancy toddler food treats. Any suggestions on helping my baby learn that she is just a baby and can't eat everything everybody else does. LOL

[milovany]

Right now she is eat some left over cheese-it twisters that my ds4 left in his bowl!

 

Ack! Let's get you some more ideas, girl! :)

 

Banana bits

Avocado chunks

Graham crackers (healthy ones hopefully)

Sweet potato chunks

Whole grain bread

and finally,

 

McDonald's french fries.

 

LOL.

[Parrothead]

Bananas

[fshinkevich]

All my kids were like this, as well -unless allowed to feed themselves with a spoon, so although it's messy I would still provide the pureed stuff and let them have at it - I'm sure SOME of it got in there :D

 

Also any vegetable I could overly steam and cut into small pieces - potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, squashes,frozen peas etc. You can cook some hard fruits until soft as well, like apples.

 

All soft fruits and veggies like tomatoes, avocados, peaches, nectarines, etc.

 

Homemade soups like minestrone with super soft (and small) noodles and veggies, broccoli soup, carrot soup, butternut squash soup, tomato soup, etc.

 

Rinsed, canned beans - black, kidney, etc.

 

Organic cheerios, teething biscuits, and hard pieces of toasts (keep an extra eye on choking with these)

 

Plain yogurts (mixed with pureed fruits, ground flax seeds or other ground nuts) "fake" cottage cheese and cream cheese (we don't eat dairy obviously you could use the real stuff :))

 

We have no history of family allergies and I never had to worry with any of my kids, also they were not super sensitive to things like broccoli and beans but of course avoid anything that may be a problem for your kids - possibly serve the "gassy" foods in the morning!

[dcjlkplus3]

Applesauce instead of apples. Get the unsweetened kind and only give your older ones regular apples when the little one is taking a nap.

Strawberries - cut up for all of them

cantalope - cut up in small pieces

watermelon

grapes cut in half

[dragons in the flower bed]

I gave my youngest homemade pickles as a first food. I figured, after that, nothing else would seem yucky to him. He is less picky than the other kids.

 

How about getting a Baby Safe Feeder? You can put pretty much anything she requests into it. My kids adored theirs.

[A home for their hearts]

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas! Keep them coming.

 

She really doesn't like anything the consistency of baby food including applesauce. :001_rolleyes: She does like grapes although I have to peel them and that takes forever! But I do do it out of love.

[sweetbasil]

I like to roll things like slices of bananas and nectarines in wheat germ so they're easier for the baby to pick up. I actually mix it into a lot of things, like applesauce and yogurt. It thickens them up (makes less of a mess) and adds some extra nutrition. All the children seem to really like it.

 

As far as "real food" goes, I EBF my little ones and don't introduce solids until they're almost a year. At that point, I give them pretty much anything we eat that's safe for a baby. We don't eat processed foods (uh, except when I'm pregnant and buy something weird!) or anything with food coloring or HFCS, and we stick to organic where it really makes a difference (berries, bananas, meats) so generally what we're eating is healthy for him/her. For example, the other night we had pasta with meatballs, garlic bread & salad. The only thing that would have been difficult for the 13 mo old to eat was the salad, so I shredded some carrot and chopped up grape tomatoes and she ate them both happily. I do limit citrusy or acidic things in her diet because too many can give her a diaper rash. But other than that, she eats anything, including at restaurants.

 

FWIW, whether as a result of this method or just personality, we don't have any picky eaters in our home. :)

[sweetbasil]

She does like grapes although I have to peel them and that takes forever! But I do do it out of love.

 

You might get around the peeling by chopping them into quarters or slices. That's what I do and I've never had a baby choke on the skin. Also, if I'm giving the baby something with a peel, like an apple or a nectarine, I slice it into very thin strips and score the peel so there isn't a long continuous strand of peel to gag on. HTH somewhat!

[daisychics]

Hard tofu cut into squares.

Sprinkle wheat germ on them.

[Dawn E]

Gerber has these little "meat sticks"--I know, it sounds delicious :001_smile:--that come in chicken, chicken and carrots, and meat. My little guy loves the chicken and carrots. Because he too tries to give me a heart attack by sucking the whole thing in his mouth at once, I have begun to cut each stick in slices. These are like vienna sausages, but the ingredients less questionable. The consistency is so soft that they quickly disintegrate in his mouth.

 

Avocado and sweet potatoes are also a hit around here. Also, when I make mashed potatoes I roll little balls of potato up for him. You've gotten great suggestions. Thanks for asking; I'm looking forward to finding some new ideas to use myself.

[lighthouseacademy]

I have never used baby food or rice cereal. I just give whatever is on my plate (I don't even reserve a portion before spicing). All 3 of my kids didn't start tasting things until 9-12 months and didn't eat until 11.5-15 months. None of them had many teeth though. Sorry I am not much help. My youngest had no teeth for a long long long time (as in 4 teeth at 19-20 months!) and I still gave her everything that was on my plate. Blueberries, peaches, apple (I just peeled it and cut it into THIN slices or sometimes I didn't even peel it if it was very thin slices), beans, tomato chunks, avocado, beans, were all favorites. I even served her a little salad when we ate salad. I have done this will all 3 kids and while the 6 yr old is going through a yuck phase, they really aren't picky kids.

[Mindy]

Bananas of course, but the thing that all of my children LOVED as a beginning food was bits of meat left on a chicken leg bone. They would gnaw on that thing for the whole meal. Lots of flavor, I guess.