am I doing it wrong? - finger food

[bekplus3]

I have 3 kids, youngest is 11 months old, he eats really well, 3 meals a day, mostly from a jar. I feel crap giving him jars, but just find a lack of time. He does eat cooked homemade food about 3-4 times a week. (lunch or dinner). He has hardly any snacks, or finger food as I'm basically not sure what to give him, he has no teeth yet, and pretty much chokes on everything I do try him with. He's had rice cakes and is okay, and banana but shoves the whole lot in and then I try & get it out again before he chokes. What can I give him? whats best to try first? He has a great pincer action and he no trouble getting things from the tray, should he be having loads of finger food stuff now? I honestly can't remember what I gave my other two.

One of my DD first finger foods was brocolli. She doesn't like holding anything too soft or wet but she will hold the stork end of a brocolli floret and then munch on the other end. All the little green bits do get everywhere though!

Apart from rice cakes and bread that's the only finger food she'll eat. I'm sure my DS was eating more by now (she's 12m BTW) but I can't remember what either.

Oh, yes, I just remembered she has sprinkle of rice pops or puffed wheat on her tray to eat while I get "real" food ready. I think she'd like to just eat those really.

We did ds eggy bread the other day chopped into small pieces and he was fine with that. Anything soft, like pasta, is okay, I think. Just make sure it's in wee pieces or they can tear it with their fingers. I also give him soft boiled root vegetable batons which he can mush really easily with his gums. He loves parsnips and carrots and it doesn't take much time to do. I used to batch cook minced meat and mix it in with the jarred stuff - maybe you could start with that and liquidise the meat a bit so it's not too lumpy, but not completely pureed. HTH

have you looked at the baby led weaning threads? there are loads of finger food ideas on there. babyledweaning.com is very helpful.

even if you don't want to do the whole blw thing, it'll still give you ideas.

i'm doing blw so these may not all apply but maybe some would work as finger foods for you, dd 6.5 months has:
shredded wheat soaked in milk then microwaved for thirty secs to soften up a bit(big favourite)
blackened red pepper (aitch's blog recipe)
organix moon biscuits
i put cream cheese on rice cakes
flat breads (naan/pitta/chappatti)
strip of skin and middle of jacket potato
melon(she doesnt actually eat but sucks flavour out)

littleducks, what happens to the shredded wheat? does it really work as a finger food cos that would give me an alternative to porridge pancakes (and leftovers from the night before) as a breakfast food.

and hi to bekplus3, hopefully you'll find some ideas on the website. it might be useful to read some info about blw so that you can establish whether or not he's gagging or choking on the banana. do you think you might be being a wee bit over-cautious or is it actually preventing him from breathing?

Thanks. Have read the blog on blw, regarding finger foods, really helpful! Yes I am being paraniod, I know I am I just need someone else to tell me!! Thanks for that! I have written a lit from the blog of things to try and I start tomorrow. Thanks everyone

Hmm. well i dont feed it to her and she eats it so it is technically finger food, but messy (but i give her weatabix cooked in same manner tO FEE\D HERSELF` {WINK} I COULDNT GET PORRIDGE PANHCAKES TO WORK though that may be due to my oats after checking blog more recently, i actually eat weatabix that way anyway as i hate milk so i didnt think much of it. The secret is not to break up weatabix/shredded wheat but to allow milkto soak in for a min the microwave for 30 secs, and serve without sny running milk. Looks like worms though i warn you. I thought it was similar to your description of babybear eating sapinach, it is soft but only so much as summer fruits would be.

Pls excuse caps dd patting keyboard.

cool, will give it a shot. and yes, i couldn't get them to work with that famous scots porage oats, i must say. sainsbury's non-organic and organic work brilliantly.

Hi,

I have BLW'd my ds George (now 8.5 months) since 24 weeks, and he has never had any purees or been spoon fed.

I have a blog all about his eating, which may give you some ideas. The link is

www.myBLWexperiences.blogspot.com

hth

love

Mel xxx

Sweet potato chips (chop sp into chip shapes, spray with one of those oil spray things, roast) go down v well with DS (9 months)

Cut cheese into matchstick shapes - finger food with no cooking. Red Leicester is the cheese of choice in our house.

...shepherds pie was finger food at lunch today, I wouldn't recommend it!

melh27 just looked at your blog, very interesting what is baby cafe?

Baby cafe is a breastfeeding support group. It is a national charity, so there are baby cafe's all over the place. Mine is run by two of the midwives from my local maternity hospital.

glad you liked the blog. xx

I have to say this is all really interesting. I had never heard of BLW until today. My 7 month old LO was initially doing well on pureed foods, until the last week or so, now she is not interested at all, she prefers to turn it into a food fight. However it did coincide with introducing finger foods, rice cake, toast, banana. She absolutely loves to feed herself, even when with pureed food, she enjoys it more if she holds the spoon herself.

I will have a look at the website you mention for some more tips on what to give her as finger foods, and will talk to my DP today about it when he gets home. We have been worried that she had gone off food, but I think she likes the independence, as in most other areas of her life (crawling, standing, cruising early).

Any other tips, I will be keeping an eye out.

If you ate going to start BLW, or are considering it then have a read of the Gill Rapley guidelines, there is a link to them from my blog.

I am so pleased we went this way, it just is soooooo easy!

Good luck

Mel xx