Finger foods, confused

[chardonm]

Hi !

I am a little confused. What does "finger foods" mean in terms of size. I always thought it meant tiny tiny chunks, maybe then size of a pinky nail; but I'm seeing threads where people are giving toast, bananas etc to their kids. What do you actually do? Give a regular size piece of toast to baby and let them get on with it? From what age?

To me it means food that my baby/ child can eat with their fingers without a need to be spoon fed.

Anything from peas to toast soldiers, bananas etc

How small you cut it is really up to you and your child's preference.

And from six months I'd say.

Generally about the size of your finger so a size baby can pick up and grasp themselves eg steamed carrot batons, toast cut into soldiers, cucumber sticks etc. From six months onwards once baby is sitting well and interested. The baby led weaning cookbook has a good basic overview as well as lots of recipe ideas.

Finger foods are meant to be food the baby can feed themselves, so if it's too small for them to pick up or their pincer grip isn't developed enough yet then there is no point.

(Smaller pieces come a bit later eg 8/9/10 months once baby develops a pincer grip)

Sorry @overmydeadbody lots of cross posting!

To start it’s often fist sized foods. So a quarter of a piece of toast, 1/3 of a banana, a new potato sliced in half or offered whole. They can’t easily pick up things that are smaller til closer to 8-9 months.

I did fist sized pieces too. I offered finger foods from 17 which is when I began weaning.

17 weeks obvs!

DON'T offer large pieces of food like half a new potato or a whole one- it is a choking hazard.

17 weeks is the absolute earliest, better to wait for the signs as PP have mentioned.

Cutting food up tiny actually increases the risk of choking. Big chunks they can get their hands on whilst the pincer grasp improves. You'd be surprised what they can gum their way through.