1 year old and finger foods

[MrsCobes44]

Hi

I hope you can help. My little one has just turned 1 and he has recently decided that he no longer likes being fed his savoury meals. He is fine with breakfast and puddings but if I try and feed him a saVoury meal such as veg chilli, casserole, pasta dish etc he will try it initially and then just refuse to open his mouth and turns his head away when I try again. He really isn't good with lumps either so I am just giving him finger foods for his savoury meal but am really struggling with fullfilling finger food recipes. So just wondering if any of you guys firstly, have come across the same thing and secondly, whether you can provide any good recipe ideas?

It's a shame as I used to quite enjoy cooking up batches of yummy meals and freezing them!

Thank you :o)

My DD3 was a bit like this for a couple of months at a similar age... To be honest I just gave her more cereals and puds after a while, but she would eat, cucumber, toast, cheesy spaghetti (with her fingers only!!), chewed on bacon etc. I just didn't worry too much as she was eating her cereal etc. I tended to put finger foods on her tray/at the table and then a small bowl of whatever I WANTED her to try next to it with a spoon and more often than not she would get 1/3 - 1/2 down her. Messy, but it worked. Even today, and she's 2.1 she was being a pain in the arse bit fussy with her lunch, but ate slices of apple, cheese and cucumber and a half a bowl of pasta. Unless they're ill, I've always found with all of mine that if they're hungry they'll eat something. I just bother stressing if DD3 eats nothing, as I'm pretty certain that by supper time she will .

One of my older ones was a bit fussy with lumps too, but at 1.5 and with two others under 5, I did not have time to pander particularly, so he soon grasped the lump concept - I used tiny weeny pasta stars, made by Gallo, but I'm not sure where to get them over there.

Hope that helps a bit.

I just DON'T bother stressing that should say! Because I don't!

You can get the tiny pasta stars from Ocado - look for soup pasta. We don't use those for finger food because they're too fiddly to pick up. We use twirly pasta which DS, who's one, sucks the sauce off then eats the pasta. Home-made chips are good, and you can make them with sweet potato or carrot too. Drop scones are good too, and you can put cheese, spinach, sweetcorn and loads of other stuff in them. Ds also likes bagels with cream cheese and toast.

DD prefers to feed herself but she is quite good with lumps and between her fingers and a spoon can shovel up slightly sloppy stuff. Her favourite things are:

pasta with sauce - I use the sauce recipe from Faye Ripley's book with lots of lentils to thicken the sauce, blend it and throw it over pasta with or without cheese. It is thick and sticks to the pasta so she can eat it with her fingers (messily!)

Meatballs made with turkey mince, grated pear and/or apple, cinnamon and breadcrumbs with wedges and veg sticks

Pitta filled with cheese, grated carrot and raisins then toasted

Homemade pizza (I make and freeze the bases/sauce so takes no time to make in evening)

Chicken strips dipped in egg and crushed cornflakes then baked with baked potato strips and veg

Hummus burgers

Anything in a wrap!

I got lots of recipes from the BLW site here and just adjusted them a bit to suit us.

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=finger+food+jenny&x=13&y=17

Fab book! Really normal behaviour at this age. He's just ready to do it himself. Try not to stress, they pick up on that! He should get over it in a while if you just let him get on with it. I found that even porriage was finger food if you make it thick enough! And yogurt if you add oats and fruit. Give hin a spoon too and he's get the hang of it in the end.

Thanks very much for all your replies and recipe ideas- I shall give them a go! :o)

My DD is 13 months old and exactly the same - will eat breakfast and puddings only from a spoon.

Above are all great ideas, I also give chopped up beef sausage sometimes, and salmon fish fingers (bought or home made). Also toast with butter, bits of banana or apple (without peel). Tried noodles the other day with honey and soy dressing, she licked off the sauce and had a great time chucking the noodles around the place.
Oh yeah, falafel are always a massive hit too.

Hello all,

Thought I would just provide you with an update! I tried my little one on some of the meals I had made previously that were stored in the freezer- and guess what- he is eating them again- yey! And is happy feeding from a spoon again- which means it makes the lunch/ tea options are so much more vaired now :o)