Finger food ideas please...

[Brewster]

My baby is 11 months old and has no teeth.
He is startingto not want to be fed with a spoon to the extent that if i mange to get it in there he spits out what ever i gave him but he will put the same food in his mouth himself!!

there is a very limited number of foods you can give a toothless baby to feed himself with -- help!!

he will eat fish fingers, baked beans etc but what else can i make a meal with that he can hold?
fruit is too slippery, some veg he doesnt like, i will try carrot sticks today (cooked to super softness ithink) then askde from cereal and breadsticks what else is there?

help please

Hi there
I have a great big list so hope I don't bore you. Also remember that although there aren't any teeth those little gums are really solid (has he bitten you lately?) Anyway the list ...

Pasta spirals and tubes are super for little hands to grip and are soft - and you can have them in stacks of stuff aside from the tomato sauce (I put cream cheese and pesto on my daughter's). Oh and spaghetti - the long stuff - DD loved it - especially the sucking it in (and draping it over her feet - don't ask)!

Fruit - you say it's too slippery? Make it into fingers shapes - bananas, mango, ripe pears, melon - and then take a little bite out of the middle so there is a sort of indented hand-hold in the middle where a little hand can grab.

You can cut boiled potatoes this way too, and carrots and parsnip and tiny broccolli and cauli florrets ...

Breakfast - DD liked Shreddies. I put the milk on until they had softened and then poured the milk off. So they were soft enough to eat but still had some shape so she could pick them up.

Breadsticks, rice cakes, crackers with stuff like cream cheese on, bread cut into fingers, meat cooked so it is soft and then shredded into bite-size pieces ... and chunky home-made soups where all the veg are cut into small cubes - soft enough for squishing and finger size.

Oh and DD LOVED peas and sweetcorn ... I had both in the freezer and could just make a bowl full and she'd pick them out herself. Those bags of frozen mixed veg are great too - you can pour out a portion of baby ready finger food.

Good luck with it all - hope some of these suggestions help.

bonzo's list is fab - but don't worry too much about the teeth, they are really good at using their gums. If you think about it, they don't get molars until they are two or older - and yet most children can manage chewable food long before this.

To bonzo's list i would add - sandwiches, pitta fingers dipped in humous and tzatziki, thick slices of tomato are great as they have a sort of ready made "handle" where the soft bit goes.

Chips occassionally - make sure they are only potato and oil with no added salt or additives. Peas and sweetcorn in a little cup for picking. Oh, loads of stuff.

My DS1's favourite meal at that age was pasta and pesto with peas and a cube of spinach stirrred in - lots of veg and all easy to hold.

Thank you will try - he is very picky so that is also why it is limited.

Def some good ideas there

cheers
xx

what do you put in your sandwiches?

sandwiches - anything sticky is a good idea (so the bread stays together). So cream cheese mixed with veg or grated cheese works better than grated cheese, which tends to result in two pieces of bread and a pile of cheese!

Also humous, if you are happy to introduce it then peanut butter is great and very nutritious. If not, there are lots of other nut butters available from health food shops which are less allergenic, like almond butter and stuff.