Welcome back to First Year Friday–and the 4th installment of the Starting Solids series.
For today’s post, I decided to list 5 Finger Foods for Baby. I’ll be honest, I sometimes too often fed my girls the typical puffs (albeit organic) or cheerios. These seemed like ideal finger snacks for baby. And there may be nothing really wrong with them.
But…like I mentioned in this post, I don’t know if I will even feed grains during the first year to any future babies. So if we give up puffs and cheerios, what will baby eat? There’s plenty!
Check out this list of my top 5 finger foods, and please add your own in the comments!
Image by essie82
1. Peas
My girls absolutely LOVE peas (still!). They even eat them frozen. Of course you want to supervise, but peas have little choking risk.
Image by pbboss
2. Small chunks of ripe banana
Babies can easily mash small chunks of banana, and, again, the choking hazard is minimal.
3. Small chunks of ripe avocado
If the avocado is not ripe enough, there is a bigger choking hazard, so make sure it’s just ripe enough to cut into chunks (but not totally mushy). If you can mash a chunk between your fingers, it should be fine.
Image by saavem
4. Beans!
My girls still LOVE beans! I would make sure they are cooked to be very, very soft, and I don’t recommend lima beans, as the outer skin can be tough and a choking hazard (you can peel them, but that takes forever!). My girls especially like black beans.
5. Bite-size pieces of cooked carrots
Again, make sure they are cooked to be very, very soft! You do not want to feed raw carrots to your baby for quite a while (like, until they have teeth!).
Image by mlpotma
5 Foods to Avoid Feeding Baby
The following foods are choking hazards and shouldn’t be fed to baby whole until at least age 3:
1. Grapes
This is a big one. Little Girl is 3 1/2, and she JUST started eating grapes whole. (And it still scares me some–especially if she spills them on the floor, where Baby Girl can find them!). When babies are small, you can peel and quarter grapes. As they get a little older and are more comfortable chewing (and have all their teeth), you can just quarter them, then slice them in half.
Image by amr_safey
2. Popcorn
The kernel pieces, especially, can be choking hazards. I think Little Girl has only eaten popcorn once or twice.
3. Raw carrots
Make sure your child has a full set of teeth and can chew very well before handing over a carrot stick.
4. Bubblegum
I still don’t think Little Girl has ever chewed it.
Image by jliudesign
5. Nuts
If there is no family history of nut allergies (there is in our family), you can give baby nuts after a certain point (consult your physician), but they need to be chopped finely or made into a butter that is very thinned out.
What are your favorite finger foods for baby? What foods do you avoid?
*Disclaimer: Please consult your trusted medical professional before deciding what to feed your baby.
Kristy
This is pretty much what our 11 month old eats every day. He loves these goodies, and it’s nice that he can sit nearby in his high chair and feed himself. 🙂
I’ve kept our little guy off grains and I wish I would have known to do so with our older children. Digestive issues and food allergies run in our family, so I think it’s been good for this baby to have a chance to get his tummy in good shape before introducing grains.
This is sort of off topic, but I have made my own baby “cereal” with freshly ground buckwheat and he absolutely LOVES it! I like this option a lot better than the rice cereal I used with my first two babies. Unfortunately, it’s not a finger food. 😉
cindy
How did you prepare the cereal?
K.M. Logan
I’m so glad I’m not the only mom who feeds her kids frozen peas 🙂 My parents and sister have mentioned on more than one occasion how strange it is, I say don’t knock it till you try it.
Laura
Absolutely won’t give my kiddos hot dogs when they’re little! But I’ll tell ya what, my babies all loves to eat any cooked meat as finger food… Cooked sausage, taco meat, shredded chicken, anything small enough they still needed to chew, but it wouldn’t slide down and get stuck accidentally… A not so healthy option would be Vienna sausages, they come apart and chunk easily unlike hotdogs…
Vilmaris
Great idea with the beans I’ve never thought of that and I make beans a lot, my ten month old likes peas a lot and I’ve cut up watermelon into tiny pieces and mushed them first before giving to her and she liked that. Also pieces of squash
Jennifer
Do you cook the peas, or just thaw and serve? Thanks!
Sarah
I buy frozen and just run them under cool to room temp water in a strainer for less than a minute before serving! My big kids still eat them partially frozen at 3&5 years too!
Cyndi
All three of my kids have loved frozen Maine blueberries. They are smaller, more flavorful, and healthier than cultivated berries. A bonus: they help numb sore gums of teething babies.
Elisabeth Pethybridge
I did all of these except peas. (I don’t keep them in the house because I hate hate hate them) Avocados are an excellent first food. They contain all those wonderful fats a growing baby needs! We always did the organic puffs too. My baby is a vegetarian so we needed to add every possible source of iron we could and those puppies are packed with it! In regards to the carrots, my son’s occupational therapist actually recommended raw carrots for teething. As long as they don’t have the ability to bite off a chunk it’s ok. Once he got a few teeth we would give him a peeled apple to satisfy his teething urge. Just make sure he doesn’t get to the seeds! Quartering an apple is not as desirable until they can chew well because they can bite off larger chunks than with a whole apple.
Ashlie
Blueberries (halved), Raspberries (halved), fresh grated cheese, and cooked til soft broccoli is what on the lunch menu for my 9 month old! She loves feeding herself, so I was happy to see you post about it!
Diane
My little loves peeled and chopped pears or mangos, doesn’t really like bananas though. Cooked broccoli or carrots or green beans. She really likes whitefish and scrambled eggs. We do fruit and veggie rice puffs too.
lenah
I never thought about this when it was time for my son to start solids… I just did what the pediatrician and wic office suggested and started rice cereal then other cereal, then vegetables and then fruit, then meat and my son loved all this (besides the meat after awhile.) Then when it was time for snacks I got the puffs and some baby healthy cookies and things, all packaged, because I was new to the mom thing and new to natural (I was always naturalist chippies country girl) but I didn’t know all about thenot so healthy thing of packaged good then. Even though I knew it was best fresh fruit veggies etc. It didn’t click in my head to do the same for my child. But my son loves all food and willing to try new! Next baby I’m locked loaded and ready to go with homemadebfreah veggies, and fruit etc… 😉
Kim
My baby loves well cooked broccoli and cauliflower!
Sarah
Mine just started really feeding himself @ 8.75 months and loves: peas, beans, broccoli & cauliflower tops, greenbeans, brown rice, chunks of: sweet & baked potatoes, avacados, bananas, apples (cooked), super ripe pears, cooked or pickled beets and salmon