Finger Food

B.,
When my son was 8 mos old, his pediatrician told me to cook pasta and chop it into small pieces for him. He also liked small pieces of green beans.

I would ask your ped's advice on the dairy thing (yogurt, cheese, etc.) b/c I have an 8.5 month old and he said no dairy until 1 year old. Same goes for eggs, etc.

sounds like you are on the right track. it is better to have fresh food. it better than processed food. yogurt is also good. try water in the sippy cup. he will probably do well.

My son's favorite finger food was sweet potato fries. Get a sweet potato and slice it into "fries". Coat lightly in olive oil and a little bit of cinnamon and bake until their done. He loved them. I made alot of my own baby food so I frequented this site: http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com. Their site is awesome and they have a whole section for finger food recipes!

Real people foods are fine. It's great to offer a variety of foods and get their taste buds ready to accept many flavors. It's good to avoid the primary allergy foods yet unless your dr says otherwise - nuts, milk (thuogh cheese and yogurt are great - processed milk is different somehow), egg whites and shellfish. Any fresh fruit is wonderful - just cut it up in small enough pieces - quarter or more grapes depending on their size.

I never gave mine too many bottles so that wasn't an attachment for us. At about 6 months when we started solid food, I started offering a sippy with water for meals to practice mostly. At first I'd leave the stopper thing out to help them understand there is water in it. I rarely do juice - mostly water. Mine all nursed until at least 13 months so by then they were great with sippies and straws for all drinking.

I also got my son the freeze dried yogurt bites, and freeze dried fruit from Trader Joe's.

Hi B.,
Your message caught my eye. I also teach for a cyber school, PA Cyber Charter. What about you? I have a 7 and 8 year old, two girls. When they were your son's age, I would put them in their high chairs and let them have at it. I started with fruit first. Just cut some up in small pieces and put it in front of your son. Let him use his fingers till he gets used to it, then start him with a spoon (or fork if you are brave!)I would give them just about anything we had for dinner, just in very small pieces. Any thing mushy is good: mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. As for the sippy cup, I started putting one in my girls' hands very early. Like as soon as they could sit up in their high chair early. At first, they didn't get much out of it but eventually they got the hang of it. Don't make yourself crazy trying to do it for him. I'm sure you have already learned how quickly these little guys catch on to things. A word of caution, introduce foods one at a time as to make sure there are no food allergies. Once I had to take my youngest to the ER becuase she broke out in huge hives (didn't look like hives!) and found out she was allergic to eggs. Some docs say don't give kids under 2 eggs or peanut butter! Oops, those are big staples in my house.
Good luck and enjoy the rest of your summer!

S.

My daughter is the same age, and like her older brother at exactly 9 months she refused to eat anything fed to her. She wants to do it all by herself. We give her: halved grapes and blueberries, tofu, corn (she adores a whole cob) clementines, bread, chick peas, black beans, fish, no eggs. I really recommend waiting the requisite year on the eggs. I'm sort of cavalier about that stuff, and we ended up in the ER because she's allergic.

Hi! I can only offer you some advice about the sippy cup transitioning... I gave my son the cup(s) to play with before trying to make the switch. That way he was able to become familiar with it, and after a while, he didnt want to play with it anymore (as much). Then, I started giving it to him with a little bit of juice in it. Of course, he refused to drink out of it at first, so we would pretend to drink out of it to show him how. Eventually, he caught on, and we would just leave the cup with him til he got thirsty and gave in. Hope this helps!!!

My mother in law got me a baby food mill nad i love it. It even grinds up meat!! Its just a hand crank one and its small enough to fit in my diaper bag. She actually got her from and amish store but I'm sure you get them other places. Its the best investment and I can take it with me anywhere!

Hi B.

If he has teeth or is a really good chewer you can probably smash whatever you are having and give it to him. This is what I did with my daughter and aside from a few of the tougher meat's she eats pretty much everything. Don't worry too much about how it's seasoned, if he doesn't like it, he won't eat it. If all he has had is jar food the new sensation of the chunks may take him by surprise and take a bit for him to get used to. Noodles and gravy, spaghetti and things like that might be a good place to start because they are easy to chew and tasty. My daughter had gotten a really bad GI bug around that age and the pediatrician told me to give her chicken noodle soup and she loved it. The noodles were nice and soft.
Transitioning from the bottle to sippy cup wasn't too hard for either of my babies. I started offering it around 6 months. My son was able to drink from the sippy at 8 months and I just simply stopped giving him a bottle, same for my daughter but she didn't figure out the sippy till closer to 11 months. I would just start offering a cup with a soft spout frequently and when he learns how to drink from it just give him all of his liquids in the cup!

I loved mesh feeders for my kids when they babies. You can find them at Babies R Us, Burlington, or One Step Ahead catalog. It was developed by a dad whose son almost died while choking on a teething biscuit. You put whole food into the mesh feeder bag and attach the chunky handle for your child. They suck on the bag and can eat lots of different foods and suck on ice cubes for teething without risk of choking. My kids' favorites were bananas and peaches (although washing the bags takes an extra effort because they get soooo gross!). As far as the sippy cup, I took it slow and started with formula in the cup, and filled it up almost to the top so that they didn't have to learn how to tilt their head too far while they were learning the cups' mechanics. Good luck, and have fun with the messes!!

Banana chunks, cereal, puffs, crackers, cut up soft fruit, cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, rice, toast....As long as it's not a choking hazard and smashed up--let him have at it! Just avoid things like whole grapes, etc--obvious choking hazards. Start giving him what you eat when he shows interest in what you're eating. I never made a separate "kid meal" for my son and he eats literally EVERYTHING now--he's 5. As for the sippy cup--try using only a sippy during the day and letting him have a bottle at night, then eliminate the bottle eventually. He's still little I wouldn't stress over eliminating the bottles just yet--but still good to get him used to a sippy now.

My daughter is about 9 months old as well! We started giving her cut up pieces of fruit, toast with cream cheese cut into small pieces, small pieces of french toast, Earth's Best cheddar crackers, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese but in small pieces, and her favorite - spaghetti o's. Whole Foods has an organic spaghetti o's that she just loves. I also recommend only Stage 3 jars from now on to get him used to the texture. Also try small bites of chicken salad ( the chicken should be nice and soft from the mayo, etc), yogurt, little bites of cheese. As far as the sippy cup - I am going through that as well. I put it out for her every day and really make a show of pretending to drink from it. She wants to drink from my cup all the time, so I pretend to drink from her's to get her more interested. I also am starting to try to give her one bottle a day in the sippy cup. It is slow going but I think we are on the right track by starting this transition now. Good luck!

Food:
avocado
any type of pasta (with sauce for a veggie component) cut up
gerber finger foods (they have diced carrots, peaches)
blueberries (at his age, cut in half)
kiwi
yogurt
cottage cheese
chicken (cut up really small)
applesauce
tomatos
cut butternut squash into thin fingers and roast
mashed potatos

Sippy cup:
I just always made sure that there was a sippy cup with water in it, around my kids. That way, if they wanted to try, they could, and if it spilled, that's okay. For a "snack", I put them in the high chair and gave them watered down juice. It made them interested in using the sippy cup. Then, when he seems to have gotten it, start putting breastmilk or formula in it and stop using a bottle all together. Both of my kids started with sippies at 6 months and were using them exclusively at 8 months.

Good luck!