What food to let my 5m hold and play with?

[Sim88]

I've been feeding my 5m home made purée for about a month. And I've not tried putting food bits down for her and letting her explore for herself. I know she wants to as she always grabs the bowl and puts hers hands in the food. I'm so worried she will choke. I know she needs to do this. Can anyone help, all advice welcome. :-)

My friends told me to try overripe banana when the time comes for ds? Mn'ers please correct me if I'm wrong.

I used to give my DD a breadstick to suck on - if a bit a happened to break off her gagging reflex would kick in and she would spit the bit out.
Banana, slices of peach or nectarine etc was all good - be prepared for lots of mess tho

cheese cubes (something like cheddar though that breaks down easily in the mouth - i.e not a hard hard cheese), cooked carrot sticks, cooked sweet potato chips, def. banana (although they do squidge it a lot!)

And for future reference (not yet by any stretch of the imagination) ALWAYS cut grapes in half or quarters. never never give whole.