First fingers foods for a scaredy cat mum?

[funnylittlekaty]

Lo is 6 1/2 months old and loves him a purée, (especially expensive shop bought ones-well done there son) but hv has told me I should start finger foods. She suggested breadsticks?!? Long, pointy and scary, no?! What would you recommend? I've tried those biscotti thingies but my mum's put me off those saying they look like he'd choke on them! Eeeeeee!
Any help?

I was just on mumsnet to find out information about finger foods because I am a scaredy cat too. Sorry I can't help but will be watching the post for same advice- thanks for posting.

i've not long started this stage and i struggle. Breadsticks, toast, banana, pineapple. Probably get flamed for this but have also tried chicken nuggets, chips, fish fingers. I read somewhere that cheerios were supposed to be a good started food but i think they were too fiddly for my ds and they ended up on the floor. Also tried cauliflower and potatoes cut into cubes but DS was not impressed!

Breadsticks are brilliant - you can just snap bits off the long ones, or buy the mini ones. My DD (also 6 1/2 months - born 14 May ) just sort of mushes them up. No choking.

Also:
cucumber - again she just mushes it up
thick slices of ripe pear
"soldiers" of toast and butter / hummus / cream cheese / peanut butter
steamed baby sweetcorn
rice cake - sort of dissolves as the baby munches on it.

My DD has never (fingers crossed) choked, but has occasionally gagged on a bit of food, and just brought it back up. This is all a good part of the process of learning to eat real food.

You could also try mashing up food rather than pureeing it, to get him you used to thicker textures.

bananas are good, just give baby half of one and she can gum it/throw on the floor.

mango strips, things that are quite big so baby can pick them up. Cooked carrot sticks/broccoli/cauliflowers. Cubes of cheese, though watch the salt intake.

Get over to www.babyledweaning.com/ for some ideas. I think we started with well cooked sticks of carrot, parsnip, peppers etc as easy to hold first foods to throw eat.

Oh, just remembered that she had some of our boiled potatoes the other day and loved them! Gave her bits a bit bigger than her fist. Again no choking.

Don't be scared people! Your DC will surprise you in what they can cope with!

Bread and butter soldiers
Pitta bread strips
Omelette cut into fingers
Mini weetabix soaked in milk to make them nice and soft
Steamed carrot batons
Broccoli florets (cooked but not too floppy)
Cucumber

Stick of cheddar good.

I'm not having success with banana as a finger food because it just slips out of her fist again and again because it's so slippery.

toast is the best
bits don't break off randomly in their mouths in the way they can with some other crumblier foods, and you can give them really big pieces which they can't stuff in their mouths whole (dd2 was a fiend with the classic chip-shaped finger food, as she'd try to cram the whole lot in at once).
top with cheese/cream cheese/houmous/pate
ditto brocolli

Excellent! Most obliging lovely lot you are.
Toast and humous it is for tea tomorrow! Just one more question... Do I give it him in addition to the purée or instead of?
Clueless? Moi?

Instead of! Some people just give finger foods you know .

I usually do one meal of something mashed up (at 6 and a half months your DS probably doesn't need a smooth puree) and one meal of finger foods each day.

Almost 6mo DD today had some barbeque pork, which she was going at nicely before deciding after a minute or so that it was a bit spicy and getting quite upset and going back to the cucumber. That was the first food she hasn't seemed to really enjoy trying to eat, and it put her off enough food for tonight that she missed out on the Christmas cake we were going to tuck in for afters.

We've not (and don't plan to) done any sort of purees as it just seems way too much hassle when she's very able to feed herself. I think the things she finds easiest to eat are slices of pear, roasted vegetables, which she's never gagged on at all.

Its cutting the banana with a knife that makes it slippery. Break the banana into large chunks, then split it lengthways with your finger it splits naturally into 3 non-slippery pieces, much easier to grab.

Dd is almost 7mths, we've tried:

Toast/rice cakes spread with butter/philly/hummous/avacado/banana/stewed apple

Steamed broccoli/asparagus/pear/apple/courgette

Whole raspberries

Sticks of roasted sweet potato/potato/parsnip

Sticks of banana, tomato, cucumber, cheddar

Organix biscuits and puff crispy things

Strips of chicken breast, home made fish fingers

loaded spoons (warning, messy!!!) of yoghurt, weetabix, porridge, spaghetti chopped up weensy in bolognaise sauce

When they get pincer grip (c8 mths? Can't remember!) wee bits of dry cereal are good, also blueberries etc

dd's first finger food was a whole apricot (minus the stone)! actually, that was her first solid food!

Don't be too fearful. Good suggestions on here. Dd used to love sliced roast chicken too. Roasted parsnips, fingers of raw apple which she used to gum for hours. I never bothered with purees for her at all, but when I started introducing ds to finger food after he was comfortable with purees I'd do both at the same time, ie bowl of pureed veggies with some toast fingers for him to dip/play with.

Ooh I was really scared too but it is amazing what they can handle. DD is 8 mo and I pretty much do all finger foods:

Toast with anything on (cut the crusts off if you're nervous)/pancakes/pitta bread etc

Steamed/boiled/roasted/grilled veg - courgette, sweet potato, butternut squash, parsnips etc. cut into "fingers"

Fruit - Mango/pear/nectarine are the favourites here (you could steam the pear to make it a bit softer and take off skins at first - might be harder to handle though)

Meat - strips of chicken/handfuls of mince

cakes/muffins - I make banana cake/oat cake and mini muffins which are nice and soft.

DD has gagged a few times which can look alarming but it's part of the learning process.

Check this out if you're worried about choking -
childrenfirstaid.redcross.org.uk/

I felt much more confident that I would know what to do if she did choke.

Oh and enjoy - there's nothing nicer than watching a baby feed themselves as long as you ignore all the mess

Hooray! Bananas and pitta bread (not together, obv) gone down a treat so far! Tonights exciting adventure...toast and cream cheese! Thanks for all the ideas. He really loves it and I am being less of a baby!

Great to hear funnylittlekaty

If you're worried about choking then see if you can get onto a paediatric first aid course, or at least have a look on the web for what to do.

Choking is quite unusual, so please try not to worry too much - you're doing well!

Gagging is normal and is often confused with choking but babies learn quite quickly how far to put food into their mouth so that they don't gag :)

Look on youtube for "baby led weaning gagging" so you can see what gagging actually looks like, see that the baby is fine at the end, and then relax more when it happens to you.

Gagging is actually a safety reflex - if they're gagging it means they're learning not to shove stuff in so fast that they choke!

Plus the gag reflex is a lot farther forwards in babies - about halfway down the tongue. So it's not as close to choking as it would be in an adult or older child.

Just avoid foods which can break off in big, hard chunks such as raw apple or raw carrot sticks, for now.

Also with smaller things like raisins, cheerios etc, they are good to develop their pincer grip but you shouldn't ever put them in the baby's mouth unless he can get them there himself.

Reading this with interest as I struggle with finger foods. I've tried giving DS toast fingers a couple of times but it gets stuck in the back of his throat and then he (and I) panic.. What do I do?

I agree with Flisspaps. I have recently completed a paediatric 1st aid course, and now much more confident.

My DS (6.1 months) had toast for breakfast, falafel for lunch and home made burger for tea, with snacks of slices of avocado and bits of banana as snacks. I think some of it even went in his tummy!!

I find he only gags if someone else (usually my SIL) shoves food in his mouth for him. If he bites and chews it himself, he manages very well.