6.5 month old baby only wants finger food

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Hello, I've just started weaning my 6.5 month old baby and he hates purées and spoon feeding (even if holding the spoon himself) and only wants to eat food he can hold himself e.g. bread, steamed courgette or carrot sticks, potato wedges etc.

So there's a limit to what I can feed him, since a lot of other food would need to be mashed or puréed (like sauces, meat or chicken) as he has no teeth.

Looking for some tips please as to more interesting and varied finger foods! As at the moment it's a lot of plain food and carbs....!! Thank you!

My DD was exactly like this!

We did decide to just give her the messy stuff, she only wanted what we are having anyway.

I got this book from the library, which helped with some ideas.

Have you tried things like porridge fingers, savoury muffins or good old fish fingers yet? You can make them yourself if you don't want to cook ready made.

DD did like things like spag Bol though, you just have to have some good bibs!

It's possible he hates porridges and spoon feeding because spoon is too big and can't fit in his mouth. Try switching to smaller spoon and see if that makes a difference.

DD2 was like this when she started weaning. Greek yoghurt eventually tempted her to tolerate a spoon, and she's pretty decent with both fork and spoon now at 14 months, so keep offering the spoon, and he might come round eventually.

In the meantime, he can gum at pieces of meat, and things like pieces of scrambled egg or omelette, thin slivers of cheese, pieces of tuna (not in brine) or white fish, thinly spread peanut butter or hummus or soft cheese on toast fingers can all be eaten without teeth. Both mine loved pasta with sauce (we liked fusilli for easy grabbing and eating, plus it holds sauce well), and also loved noodles and veg from stir fry (take theirs out before you add salty sauces, but both mine had sesame oil and a little chilli from 6 or 7 months). Pieces picked out of a curry as well, they both like paneer and tofu. Hot curries, I'd rinse the sauce off, mild to medium, I didn't bother.

Thanks all for your ideas and advice, very helpful. I'll keep persevering with the spoon and also offer those more interesting finger foods suggested. I'm sure it'll improve! Thanks again!

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto thanks for the book idea, and the muffin recipe. Looks delish. Will try!

@skkyelark great list of foods to try, thank you!