12mth will only eat finger foods, nothing from spoon any healthy suggestions?

[stillsmiling]

my 12mth old will only eat finger foods, wont let anything go near him if its on a spoon or fork. i dont live near shops and dont drive so its difficult for me to always have fresh foods so unfortunatly most of what he eats are things like -
potato waffles
fish fingers
chicken nuggets
fruit (when ive got it)
its just not very healthy, and im worried about what effect it'll have on him.

please help!

how about cheese, breadsticks, bread/toast, sticks of carrot etc?
will he pick up lumps of meat(chicken etc). - could you make some meatballs - chicken and apple seem to go down well with friends children who want to eat everything themselves.
HTH

Could you cook carrots into sticks and veg like broccoli are easy to eat with fingers, perhaps you could make him a cheese sauce to dip them into (make lots then freeze into ice cube sized portions)
Peas - mine still like to eat them with fingers!

Will he use the spoon himself or is it just you that he objects to?

stillsmiling firstly, don?t worry about this ant-spoon thing. It is just a phase. Finger foods are fine for a while. His next phase will probably be wanting to take the spoon himself which is great, it?s all about independence.
healthy store cupboard ideas could include:
rice cakes
pasta maybe with a bit of sauce eg tomato made from a can of toms
cereal is finger food in this house! (dry Shreddies, cornflakes etc)
toast maybe with marmite or peanut butter if no allergies
pitta bread
slices of cheese
eggy bread
Agree you need some fresh stuff in there too. Some veggies and fruit keep for ages, you could do carrot sticks (cooked), apple, pear. Or how about freezing par-boiled veg in sticks? baby sweetcorn?
Can yu get a supermarket to deliver to keep your stocks topped up?
hth

mine is the same but I make my own nuggets and fish fingers so they I know what is in them, do tons and freeze them, defrost and then cook for 15 mins or so.

Peas & Brocolli
Pasta
Chopped up grapes & oranges
Make my own bolognaise sauce, again freeze in little tubs.

Pain in the making stuff yourself but at least it is healthy.

She also has pizza and McDonalds, I am not holier than thou but it is important to get good food in at these fussy stages.

xx

he wont use spoon himself, ive tried that he just chucks it away.
he doesnt like carrots but i will try peas!
he does eat toast slices but if i try and give him a dip or something like that he just throws it away

I'm forever recommending Finger Food by Jennie Maizels, almost all of her recipes freeze well so I tend to do a big cook-up of 3 or 4 different things and freeze them one weekend every couple of months.

You could also do French toast (eggy bread). You could freeze individual raw chicken breast or thighs and then defrost them in the morning and cook them in lots of different ways and cut them into strips. (eg. steam, grill, in oven wrapped in foil with herby butter)

Potatoes keep for ages if kept in the dark and you can cut them into wedges and bake them or make thick cut oven chips to dip into sauces or purees. You can buy packets of frozen baby veg (tiny carrots etc) which can be boiled/steamed or cooked with whatever else you're cooking and they're the right size for little hands.

My ds loves slices of cheese and sliced avocado, which I serve with toast or pitta bread or oatcakes. Pasta shapes with a tiny amount of pesto and some melted cheese are very popular too.

I use lots of frozen veg
boiled potato cut into cubes
whizz up chick peas and veg with bread crumbs and make into balls and bake
tinned fruit in it's own juice eg fruit cocktail
baked beans
thick omelette cut into strips

My 3 yr old hates using a spoon. I just make her the usual food and offer the spoon. if she uses it for a while great and I load it upfor her now and then. Most of the spag bol, baked beans, moussaka, etc gets eaten with fingers though. Messy but not a problem really.
my thinking is she'll eventually use the spoon. if i only ever give her finger food she won't get the chance.

i never really thought of making potato wedges so i will def try that. all these ideas are really good! thanks
im really needing help with this as im expecting twins any day now and will really have hands full so need quick ideas.
at the moment i seem to spend alot of time looking in fridge & freezer trying to think of new things to try that are quick and easy to prepare and then just end up giving him the same old things!

my 16 month old is pretty much the same. Other things to suggest on top of already mentioned - sweetcorn, ham, hard boiled egg cut into cubes. My son also loves peach fruitini (Del Monte) pots as we often don't have fresh fruit in the house or dried fruit like raisins.

wow - 3 kids under 13 months - you're right about handsful!!! many congrats btw!

Totally agree with ThomBat. My DS was very militant about me feeding him and refused it from 9 months. As he wasn't yet competent with a spoon a lot of food made its way into his mouth via his fingers. I remember that at 10 months he ate a full Christmas dinner (sprouts, turkey, various potatoes, parsnips, stuffing etc) with his fingers. But relented and allowed me to spoon feed him Christmas pud! DD has been a bit more easy going but has been known to eat the odd bit of mashed potato or baked beans with her fingers as well.

thanks! yeah i think im insane.
we wanted to have a couple of kids close in age so after 1st was born we just left things to chance, never for a minute thought i would fall again so soon and def never thought i'd have twins as not in either side of family! so big shock!
think i might try some omelete for his tea 2night, can you freeze omelete?
when i read all the suggestions i feel silly coz now they all seem so obvious but when your stood in kitchen mind just goes blank!!

My mind goes blank too! If you have twins on the horizon I would get filling that freezer!!

xx

no I wouldn't freeze omlette. some other good ideas here tho.
We did the christmas dinner thing with DS2 as well, he was 8mo and I was just fed up with the puree thing, just gave him a plate of carrot sticks, chicken strips etc and he's never looked back!

good luck with the babies btw (OMG!!!!!!)

All of these sauces / bits of food can be made in bulk so you can make, cook & freeze them all for use for weeks and weeks:

home made pizza slices

penne pasta with home made tomato/veg sauce

home made chicken nuggets (use cheese and garlic and fresh chicken mince and coat in wholemeal toast.

home made meatballs

home made beef-burgers

veggie sausages

wholemeal pitta bread with dips

fish cakes

vegetable cakes (like fish cakes but with chopped up veg and potato)

just let him get messy using his fingers with bakes beans etc and bits of wholemeal toast cut into soldiers/small squares

party nibbles - chinese selction of prawn toast, spring rolls

sauage rolls / mini scotch eggs

bits of chedar cheese, sticks of carot & cucumber, red peppers etc, cherry toms.

roasted veg

home made carrot cake

home made banana loaf

I don't know if you can freeze omelette

you can also mix veg or cheese with mashed potato and fry up as little cakes

yeah trying to get ideas so freezer stocked up. cant see me having much time when the new arrivals are here!
i keep putting his finger foods on a plate infront of him but he just launches plate with food still on it!
he'll only eat food if i place it on his highchair tray.
i know they say you should just keep trying to put food on plate in front of him, but when your 9mths pregnant its not always easy to just say oh well and go start cooking something else for him while cleaning up mess on floor! god im a moan eh?!
think im starting to sound like my mum!!! aaahhh

If you can't get to the shops easily, try ordering online - all of the major supermarkets do deliveries. If you can't always have fresh fruit in the house, try dried - my dd liked dried apricots, apple rings and prunes.

Baby sweet corn
Mange-tout
Roast vegetables - cut them into chunks, par-boil them and put them in the oven with a little bit of olive oil. Use carrot, potato, mushrooms, peppers, squash, parsnip
Broad beans
Fine beans
Cherry tomatoes
Pasta
Strips of ommelette
Pancakes - savoury as well as sweet
Slices of tortilla (cooked potato, sliced mushrooms, courgettes, whatever veg you have, chunks of ham etc, fried up in an ommelette pan, pour a beaten egg over the top and fry for a few minutes, then stick it under to grill to brown).

It is tedious when you have made food and they refuse it, whereas if it was Captain Birdseye, it wouldn't seem so bad iyswim!

My dd1 lived on pizza and sandwiches when dd2 was a newborn so I wouldn't stress yourself out too much once the twins arrive. You will be too tired to care by then .

xx

just put the food on the tray then, make life easy for yourself

the good thing is my husband is taking a mth off when the twins are born so at least i'll have a hand around the house so might get some time between nappies and baths to make some stuff for freezer.
too be honest its the simple things i hadnt thought about like frozen veg. even if he is just having fish fingers 1 day at least i can give him some veg with it!
he must be the messiest baby in the world but i guess its a stage they grow out of in about 15yrs or so!!

I would put the food on the tray. Even my 4yo struggles with the concept of a plate - eg will pick up a plate that has had a slice of cake on it and tip it up so the crumbs go everywhere.

I would also feed him the same as you. Then its only an extra bit of whatever you've had if he messes it up/refuses it etc. Because I agree it is very dispiriting going to a load of effort making them something that gets wasted.

i do try and eat with him at lunchtime, so normally were both sitting down to nuggets and potato waffles!
but at tea time he does get fed on his own as i eat with hubby when hes home from work a bit later on.
he seems quite happy to pretty much anything if i give it to him while hes in his walker or crawling around playing (hes still not walking properly just cruising round furniture) but id rather try and associate eating with his highchair and set times just to keep a routine. thats generally when everything gets chucked!
cant complain really as some people have a real bother with getting their kids of baby food (packeted or jars)