Finger foods for five month old

[hollie84]

Does anyone have any suggestions for finger foods for a five month old? I would like to give DS2 something to eat/play with while the rest of us eat dinner. Tonight he had a rusk which he loved but even the low sugar version is pretty sugary so I don't want to make it a regular thing.

He has had bananas too but found it too slippery and gagged a lot on chunks.

I would imagine at 5 months there would be a fair amount of gagging!

I started DD2 on cooked broccoli when she was a week off 6 months. Not sure it was my best decision as she gagged A LOT on it but grapped it so tight I couldn't wrestle it away once I'd given it to her.

He doesn't seem to gag at all on rusks - I guess because of the texture, it turns to mush pretty quickly! Something else with a similar texture but less sugar would be ideal. He managed banana with no gagging as well tonight but ended up chasing it round his high chair tray.

No added salt rice cakes are good for gumming.

Any steamed or roast veg would work. Sweet potato wedges are good, or just steamed carrot, broccoli etc. I bought a crinkle cutter to help with the issue of picking things up. You can also split a banana into three down its length, which then can be easier for a baby to hold as it's not so slippy.

Or more "snack" type things like the Organix carrot puffs. They melt away to nothing when they get gummed.

You need this banana trick:

Toast is good, as are home made "rusks" that my mum made form my DDs by putting a slice of bread into a low oven for a long time, making it go rock hard and horrible. They absolutely loved them!

although gluten/wheat, etc is supposed to be avoided until 6 months so bread/rusks (unless gluten free) should not be given at 5 months

No it's okay to give gluten before six months, in fact research is indicating it could be better to introduce common allergens between 4 and 6 months.

here and here

The baked bread idea sounds good.

The EAT study us still ongoing so has not got any findings yet. In the UK the recommendation is still to not introduce gluten until 6 months old.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/solid-foods-weaning.aspx#close -says to avoid wheat/gluten until 6 months

I do understand the current UK recommendation is not gluten before 6 months, but from doing a bit of research it seems the risk is before 4 months or after 7 months, so I'm quite comfortable with 5 months.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone :)

Both mine started between 5 and 6 months. as we did baby led weaning, the theory goes that they can't physically eat the food until their body is ready (i.e. they are in control of it).

The current recommendation is no solid food at all until after 6 months (WHO?) so meh...

Can he safely sit unaided? If not, he's too young for finger foods IMO. Babies need to sit properly upright so that any food naturally falls forwards out of their mouth. If there's a risk of him slumping, that can mean food falling to the back of his throat and a choking risk. If he's sitting well then maybe boiled broccoli stems, banana, apple slices etc. No gluten before 6 months.

Yes, he's been sitting unaided for a couple of weeks. Though DS1 didn't sit unaided until 7.5 months and he was eating finger foods from 6 months.

I always thought that the sitting unaided thing meant that in a high chair they didn't slump forwards or sideways. Not that they had to be able to sit unaided on the floor without falling over iyswim.

We had the ikea antilop with the inflatable insert which was perfect for a just 6 month old to sit it with enough support.

DS2 can sit completely unaided e.g. on the floor with nothing around him. He sits in an antilop with no insert. DS1 could sit fine on your lap or in a bumbo when we started weaning him at 5 months I think, and was able to pick finger foods up and get them to his mouth. I don't think we got him a high chair til he was about 8 months. But yes, neither of them particularly slump or need to be reclined or anything.