Finger Foods - Rochester,MI

Gerber Puffs are a good one or I saw a new one on the market it is called Num Num. How about cut up pasta or bananas?

graham crackers are great because they turn to mush when mixed with saliva! Kiwi also turns to mush pretty quickly in the mouth, and bananas are great if you dice them up small. I also did chex cereal with my daughter - she liked the flavor better and it disintigrated pretty quickly. Also - my daughter LOVED pork that I basically slow cooked until it fell apart - very easy for her to eat.
The vienna sausages (although a bit high in sodium, so watch everything else they eat at the same time) also mushes up pretty well once in the mouth - better than a hot dog which stays together and can be a choking hazard.

Good luck.

Check out the baby food aisle... they have a section with things made specifically for introducing as finger foods. I give the puffs, biter biscuits, and the cheeto-looking puffs to my 8 month DD. Once she mastered those, I started giving her other things like Cheerios, cut up soft fruits and veggies, and (Her favorite) Spaghetti. :) I also give her tastes of whatever we are having... like last night we had spaghetti, so she got some of that, some bits of meatballs, and little torn up pieces of garlic bread. She went to town! It did get pretty messy though...

Banana, kiwi fruit pieces, avocado pieces, cheese pieces.

The key is to cut everything into small pieces. You also want softer foods. Some ideas, bananas, canned peaches or pears, cooked carrots, pasta. Saltine or graham crackers are also good.

We used the Gerber puffs, green beans, diced ham, scrambled eggs, rice, diced peaches or pears, cooked carrots, small chunks of soft cheese (colby jack), sliced blueberries, pasta...

My son survived on cheerios, white potatoes and sweet potatoes cut in small chunks, and bananas. He refused to eat from a spoon and only wanted to do it himself! Of course, I also tried small pieces of chicken and other foods, but those were his primary ones.

Go to your community library and rent the first aid video on chocking in children and learn the finger swip and the himic maneuver. Than don't be afraid whats wrong with chicken nuggets and gummie fruit snacks, granola bits, and fries etc.

any finger foods you give... has to be able to dissolve.... quickly. NOT getting mushy or gummy.... because then that is a choking hazard. Just test foods yourself, in your mouth, to see which dissolves/breaks down quickly.

AND with babies/toddlers, you always have to supervise... then while eating anything. Per choking. AND babies/Toddlers, COMMONLY put too much food... in their mouths... but do not yet, chew well nor efficiently.

www.babycenter.com is a good site about solids and finger foods info.

I had to go look at pictures of my son when he was a year old to see what he was eating in any of the pictures. I know for sure he ate the Gerber Puffs. He'd gobble those up. I know I gave him also those very hard zwieback crackers. He'd gnarl and drool all over them. I also had a picture of him eating a beef rib, biting of tiny shreds of meat and sucking on the marinade. At 11 months, he was holding the whole banana and eating bites from the top all the way down. He'd eat almost a whole banana every morning for breakfast.

scrambled eggs, boiled potato chunks, boiled carrot chunks, canned diced pears, peas...all these foods just fall apart in their mouths...
PLUS you can take almost ANY food and make it finger food just cut it up little.
penne pasta...just take the time to cut each tube into thirds
soft tacos...take a tortilla, put sour cream, meat and cheese on it, fold it in half, and take a pizza cutter and cut it into tiny pieces.
PB & J sandwiches cut into tiny squares
pancakes with syrup,
as long as its tiny...they can eat it...as they grow just make the pieces bigger.

Gerber puffs were a staple for at least a year - my son had issues chewing properly and they disolve way better than Cheerios.

Pasta, bread cubes, cooked vegetables, soft fruits... You'd be surprised what they can chow down on, even if they don't have teeth yet. My dd didn't get her first tooth until 12 months, and the second at 13 months, and now at 16 months that's all she's got, but she eats everything but say raw carrots and lettuce or tough bread crusts! They use their gums to chew things, even crunchy things, so you can work your way to those after you're confident that they can handle the softer stuff.

Best wishes!