What finger foods do you/did you give your 6 month old?

[cockle84]

What finger foods are good for a 6 month old to try? She's starting to get to grips with a banana but its so slippery she keeps dropping it. Also how long do you boil batons of pear/carrot to make them suitable for her to eat?
Thanks

Watching with interest... have a 5 month old DD and looking forward to giving her things to chew on soon.

Everything except nuts and other hard things she could choke on.

So basically she would have what we were having (obv.no salt). Or avocado, steamed broccoli, carrots, potatoes etc. Cheese. Bread. Fruit (not grapes or berries, though, for choking risk) so bananas, mango, kiwi etc.

Not sure re:boiling time, just check it's soft and mushy.

Oh, and meat, obv.

try banana and mango with skin on - easier to hold
I like the BLW cook book for ideas

I'm looking at trying finger food with my 6 month old DD but am a bit worried about choking. Is this not a risk?

if they can sit up un supported and the high chair isn't reclining in my experience the risk is small - and the NHS says finger foods are ok from 6 months BTW
obviisouly anyone of any age can choke but we don't stay on purees forever - and well worth knowing what to do if your child did chock

• what you may find is that a baby gags - that is different from choking although alarming - and a babies gag reflex is often higher in the mouth than an older child so it happens quicker but is safer - if you can hear them its not choking and they normally sort it out themselves

but prob loads of info on the weaning section here about BLW/finger food

Great so far, looking forward to trying some bits. I have a basic first aid knowledge but had a quick read up on what to do with a baby choking just to make myself feel better. Will have a look at that BLW cookbook, thanks.

Just a quick tip for slippery food - if you cut a notch in each side of a slice of something slippery it makes it easier to grab

Also this is a good site even if you just want to use it for finger food ideas.

You don't need to boil up pear and carrot though, they can gum and suck most food quite well :)

DD3 is now 7 months I used pear, slices of apple, fingers of toast - sometimes with cheese, peanut butter on it, breadsticks dipped in various things. I gave up on bananas due to the slipperyness, I give her them mushed. She likes grated cheese, some cucumber. She is spoon fed for most meals but all snacks etc are finger food - apart from yogurt

everything! she loved teething on chops and steaks, salads, potatoes and slowly she lernt how to eat and bite chunks and will now eat anything.

no choking, as she only eat what her body could chew & swallow so she learnt all the nessesary skills not to choke iyswim?
its such enjoyment seeing her eat so well and learning new foods. anything you eat give the baby offer a bit of everything.

i will say i read up far to much on blw/ weaning and it stressed me out.
mke it all work for you and then your doing nothing wrong.

Mine was grabbing cucumber, bread and biscuits. He would also try pear. Didn't like banana tho.

Mini breadsticks, cheese sticks, roasted parsnip/butternut squash/carrots (just use a light spray oil to give a coating - not goose fat!), slices of toasted pitta bread, cucumber, toasted muffin cut into strips with cream cheese. Small pieces of French stick with butter. I'm from the school of everything in moderation.

Just try little tasters of lots of different things, she'll let you know what she likes and what you need to leave for another time. I found the real pain was that DD would eat a little bit of something (a quarter of a piece of toast) and a couple of mouthfuls of banana and I'd gobble the rest - the pounds started to pile on when she started on solids!

DD didn't really get into eating meat until she was about 12 months, so I just stuck to lots of spiral pasta with tomato or cheese sauces (which she could pick up) or potato based meals (mash with beans/grated cheese). Now she'll eat chicken, fish and minced beef (13 months). Pesto pasta and noodles were a firm favourite from about 8 months, though the kitchen does resemble a bomb site when she's finished, forks and spoons are not on her radar and she still feeds with her hands.

I don't know whether how many teeth they have has a bearing on what they can eat? DD got her teeth very early including pre molars and could munch on most things pretty well. My local Surestart Centre ran a free baby first aid course which was great - a baby's airway is very different to that of an adult due to the lack of neck length - I have had a few hairy moments where I've had to pick her up out of the high chair and give her a whack on the back to dislodge something that had gone down the wrong way, but they soon learn for next time (she is an absolute greedy guts and will try and put far too much in her mouth before swallowing what she's already got in there).