Need suggestions for thick sticky foods that will stay on a spoon for blw baby to feed herself

[CanSleepWellSometimes]

I have an 11 month old dd who does not eat. She seems to only want milk (and lots of it) most of the time.

The last few days, however, her ability to feed herself with a spoon has improved greatly, and she has been happier to do this than to pick up pieces of solid food to feed herself (which she is perfectly capable of doing btw).

We can do porridge, oatibix etc for breakfast, and I've given her semolina pudding during the day when she wouldn't eat anything else, but she can't live on just these things, so I'm looking for ideas for other foods that can stand being waved around and inverted on a spoon, without falling off.

Yoghurt and other dairy is a no-no as she's milk intolerant, but things that need to be made with milk are fine, as we can just use soya milk for them.

She's also going to look like a chick pea soon if I give her any more hummous to suck off bread!

Any good ideas anyone?

Mashed potato with maybe other things sneaked into it?

Well...mashed fruit and veg would go on a spoon, mashed potato, or sweet potato... carrot and swede... thing like that?

you could mince meat and give that a go... or mix the mince into something like mash so it's sticky.

thick porridge, custard even w/ purees, and mash mash mash

make lentil soup but don't thin it down with stock?

actually if you're doing that you might as well make dal (mmm) - good mixed with rice as well.

puy lentils? refried beans? risotto of all description, likewise orzotto (barley risotto).

good thread idea, by the way, DD is also at the stage of starting to use her spoon more. i'm about to ask for spoon recommendations on here...

I made a lamb and pearl barley stew for dd3 yesterday and it is very thick and sticky

and we've got a wee fork as well, with which I spear bits of french toast etc and hand it over.
In fact, tbh i'm finding that she is enjoying having her food pieces smaller nowadays, so that she can pop them in her mouth one at a time. i think she wants to be cleaner and neater rather than grab handfuls, iykwim?

she had puy lentils with peas, and a slice of bacon and a fried egg tonight for tea but wouldn't look at the egg until it was cut up into small pieces, for example.

recipe me up, please, enid.

forks easier than spoon IME

yes its a goody

I made it up though

but Pixie can't get enough

just a rough idea would be great, handfuls of this and that are good enough for me...

ok

so it went:

onions and garlic fried until soft

then lamb steaks added (cut into chunks, most of the fat cut off) and browned

pearl barley added (cover it with cold water in seperate pan, bring to boil, drain, rinse then add to lamb and onions)

add stock and cook for an hour and a bit (I think I cooked it for about an hour and 15 mins)

the barley swells and soaks up all the stock

I cut it up roughly and let Pix shovel it in with hands - its messy but she LOVED it

you could add veg - I just cook some broccoli as every meal has to be broccoli heavy atm

Ooh hadn't thought of refried beans as they aren't something we normally eat. How are they salt/additive wise Aitch?

Interesting what you say about the fork as well. I hadn't considered doing that, probably because we only have metal forks and I'm not entirely sure that dd wouldn't do herself (and the wooden table!) some harm with it. Do you use a metal one? I suppose I should trust her until she proves otherwise . I think dd is also preferring her food small at the moment - otherwise she takes one bite then throws the rest on the floor!

I obviously forgot to mention that we've been doing mash too, so thanks for the reminder! Managed to sneak a few bits of casserole and some sweetcorn into it too (though she always seems to remain happy to pick up sweetcorn kernels). Hadn't thought to just mash up other veg and mix it in though (see I have a blw mind rather than a puree mind!) so will give that a try.

Haven't made dal (or dahl?) before MrsBadger - do you have a recipe? I do use lentils to thicken other things and she's never objected to them.

Puy lentils did fall off the spoon quite a bit, but she got enough in her mouth a few weeks ago for them to be worth another go now.

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far ladies, and keep them coming .

Sobernow - am lol at your concern over mess. My dd is the messiest eater on the planet, so I'm sure she couldn't do any more harm with banana and avocado than she does with anything else. This was actually one of the first foods I weaned her on (before I started blw), but recently she hasn't seemed so interested in avocado. I won't let that deter me though .

Agree about forks - opens up the whole exciting world of pasta... Plenty of baby and table friendly plastic ones available.

we only have one fork, i think it was part of a set that came with a magazine my pal bought... so not very glam.

re the beans, i would just fry some minced onion and some garlic in olive oil and then fry a drained can of borlotti beans, slightly mashing them and glugging more oil in if necessary. i don't even know if that's what refried beans are tbh, but it's what we have on a mexican evening (like we have them a lot...) and no-one complains.

I make rubbish dal so tend to leave it to DH - he does the whole thing with grinding toasted spices, but you just fry onion and garlic with a little chilli and some cumin and coriander seeds and a cardamom pod, then add red lentils and boiling water and cook till the lentils have collapsed and it's all soft. Traditionally you finish it off with a big spoonful of ghee or melted butter but we never bother (don't forget to hoick the cardamom out).

Very good to mix into rice to make it more spoon-friendly.

good idea re dal and riced, mrsb, and thanks for the recipe enid. every meal has to be pea-heavy in our house. including breakfast.

actually, i don't mind cos i don't bother cooking them, just fling them in frozen and they immediately and miraculously cool down dinner for DD. that is my one genius idea. if only i could sell it to weaning women everywhere...