Finger Foods Volume 1

This week I began experimenting with giving Baby G more finger foods. Rather than coming out of a decision that I should be doing it for some abstract or baby book reason, it came out of a need. I needed a little more time at lunch time and thought it would be good to get her playing with her food. 

I am happy to say that I gave her sticks of ripe bananas and she happily played with them and even tried eating them. Thank goodness, she's not a banana hater after all!

As I began to experiment with finger foods, I realized that I wasn't sure what to give her. We are not doing Baby Led Weaning in the sense I am not just giving her everything we eat, but she does like to feed herself and I like to encourage it. I thought it might be helpful to share what we have been doing in terms of finger foods and I would love to hear what you have been doing. Keep in mind that we are not doing processed foods, so no Cheerios, no rice puffs. It makes thing a little more difficult and I plan to keep revisiting this topic as we add more foods to our repertoire.

This is a good place to address that I am not a doctor or an expert of feeding babies. I don't have a professional opinion. I am working on a certificate in Nutrition, but I am not a nutritionist. I am just a mom who does not want to feed my family any processed foods. I ask a lot of questions and keep my pediatrician's office on speed dial.

So far, here is our list of finger foods:

Bananas- Cut in 3-4 inch long pieces, and then quartered. These are long enough for Baby G to get a good hold, but soft enough that I am not worried about her getting a bite. 

Diced Avocado

Hard Boiled Eggs- At first, I was just giving her egg yolks and she was doing her best Levron James' impersonation.

She would grind it to a pulp in her hands and then throw it dramatically over her head.

It's much cooler when a NBA star does it with chalk dust in an arena than a baby with egg yolk in your kitchen. Just saying....

The next time, I chopped up pieces of egg yolk and egg white, and it was a lot less messy. She's not too into eating it yet, but it was worth a shot!*
*I should mention that I got the go-ahead from my pediatrician to give her eggs.

Cold (whole wheat) spaghetti noodles- This was a tip from another mommy. The spaghetti noodles are good practice for the pincer grip babies at this age (7-8 months) are developing. The noodles are soft enough so I wasn't worried about choking but I don't think any noodles actually made it to her mouth.

Cold steamed slices of sweet potatoes- On a recent phone call to the pediatrician office, I had a good chat with one of the nurses, Nurse Fairy Godmother. She told me that any vegetables that Baby G had via purees, I could give her soft pieces of those veggies as finger foods. I steamed some quarter inch slices of sweet potato and let her gum on them. She really enjoyed them.

Apple slices???- After talking to another mommy, I thinly sliced some apple to give to Grace. The first time was fine, she loved it and pretty much sucked on it. The second time, she got a piece and started coughing. She was fine. I was a mess. May try again with cooked apple slices that are nice and soft, but won't be doing raw again soon.

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What are some of your favorite finger foods for your kiddo?