Looking for Good Finger Foods

The finger foods that gerber makes are good. Also, you can try steamed baby carrots or steamed brocoli, she might like it! You never know until she tries it. My kids loved the little party sausages too.

My daughter is the same way. When she reached this phase, we just started giving her table food cut up tiny. She loves corn, broccoli, mac and cheese, and chicken, but is also a potatoe and pasta fiend. As long as it is cut into tiny bites, she loves it.

Whatever we ate she would eat, just cut it up. It also depends on how many teeth.

Grilled salmon, Pinto beans, Rice, squash, bagels w cream cheese, cheesy scrambled eggs, tortillas with melted cheese, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, cheese tortellini. Canned fruit in natural fruit juices. Sometimes, frozen fruit that had been thawed. Bananas (remember they stain clothing really bad). Berries.

You will be surprised also by what she will want to try and then will like. Even at 8 months our child loved sweet raw onions! Also red peppers. If she asked to try things we would give her a small taste.

I would just try not to season it too much. And I tried not to salt things.

I just add veggies and chicken or ground turkey to my son's pasta. Have been doing that since he was about 10 months old. Those steam in a bag veggies are great you can microwave them a little longer to make them softer and cut them up if your using broccoli or green beans. For chicken the rotisserie chickens at walmart (sam's etc) are really soft and my son loves those, then all you have to do is pick off small pieces.

steamed tofu
buy frozen broccoli and steam it till really soft and give her the tips
soft mozzarella cheese (the kind packed in water)
blueberries cut small
buy frozen peas and steam them REALLY soft
cottage cheese - served in a little pile for her to grab
refried beans from the can (good source of iron) heated a touch and let her dig in
black beans from the can cooked soft and slightly mashed
can she naw on toast that is really crisp?

I had the same issue. I made a big pot of homemade chicken soup, with carrots, celery, pasta and chicken. I cut everything the size I wanted for her and then pulled it off when all the veggies and pasta were al dente. Then it is just a matter of portioning and freezing. I also made a batch of small "meatballs" and sauce, again portioned and froze. Also Garbanzo beans and veggies, same as before, cut to correct size, cook to al dente, portion and freeze. I found it was best to not quite cook it all the way so it can be reheated without turning to mush. For snacks she eats some lightly sauteed apples, melon, shredded cheese, pasta, and of course cheerios. I think kids instinctually love carbs at this age, and I would bet it has something to do with the fact your brain needs carbs to grow and run. My son at that age loved fish, go figure, so I would buy a nice big mahi or shark steak and cut it up into kid size bites and freeze them uncooked in portions, then you just defrost under cold running water and toss in a small sautee pan.

Munchin brand makes something called a Infant feeder. It looks kind of like a big pacifier. It has a handle on one end and a netted compartment on the other. You put soft foods in the compartment (like peaches or cooked carrots or even baby cereal mixed thickly), then the baby holds on to the handle, and kinds of gums the food out. It's great because they can't get out anything too big, but they feel like their in control.

Our girl (who's three now) always wanted to feed herself too. We used that a lot. Avocado is great (good source of fat), and you can microwave baby carrots for a minute or so in a little water. Peas are great too. And any of those things can be finger foods, but the infant feeder makes it a little easier for tiny hands to handle.

Hi E.! 1st I have to tell you, I'm envious! :) my son is 16 mos & will barely touch anything & I'm still dealing with feeding him myself. Here are a few foods for you to try with your baby. Scrambled eggs, yogurt bites (Gerber), pancakes, fruit cereal bars, cut up string cheese, meat & cheese sandwiches cut into bite size pieces. Soft fruits (banana, canteloupe, watermelon, peaches, apples, etc) soft cooked veggies (peas, carrots, green beans), bits of chicken, meatloaf, fish, hamburger. Give her whatever you are eating, just make sure it's soft & in bite size pieces. Once she's using a spoon you can give her yogurt, oatmeal, apple sauce, etc. A whole new & fabulous world of food freedom has just opened up for you. Congratulations!!! :) I can't wait until my son will eat a balanced meal on his own.

Here are some that I remember giving my little girl.
Grated cheese pieces
lima beans
green peas
green beans
cooked spaghetti squash cut in chunks (i steamed it)
sweet potatoes in chunks (I steamed it.)
Mashed potatoes
canned fruit
bananas
yogurt
fruit bars cut unto pieces
canned beans

I hope that helps get you thinking of others.

I go buy fresh vegetables, cut them into small bite sized pieces, steam them, and then divie them into ice cube trays to get one ounce servings, and then freeze them. Then I just take out what I need and heat it up. It works awesome! The Gerber Graduate snacks are great, and you could try introducing goldfish and cheerios. This will help her to learn the motion of feeding herself. Good luck.

Get the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It is a wonderful resource. We still make Super Baby Pancakes almost every weekend and my oldest child is 8! Other suggestions are sweet potato, avacado, banana, Super Baby Porridge (refer to book mentioned above). Good Luck!

I know when my niece Alexis was 8 months old my sister let her have green beans, mashed up beans, and some hamburger meat and other stuff. Most of the time my sister would give her what they had just in pieces to where she could eat them.

Salt free canned carrots. sounds crazy but they're great. My mom babysat and opened a can and cut the carrot slices into quarters and my 8 month old LOVED them! And they were so easy and good for her! Make sure to get the salt free or low sodium because baby's don't need the salt.

hi, E.. i just read ur questions regarding fingerfoods for independant babies. i've learned that they will eat just about anything you cut up for them. my little one will eat anything we eat if i cut it up into little bite sized pieces. in a pinch, you should try gerber's pasta pick-ups... my baby LOVES them - they have an organic line.

It depends on how many teeth she has, but we did things in "french fry" shapes which the boys could hold easily and cooked them until they were soft but still retained their shape. Asparagus spears, green beans, baby carrots, sweet potatoes, etc. Other things we made that they could grab were peas (pincer grasp practice), smashed potatoes, orzo cooked in chicken broth with squash and tomato chunks. Our boys are not big meat fans, so we cook a lot of things in broth for the extra protein. There is also a great cheese called Tillamook that makes little cheese squares called Tillamoos that are the perfect size for little hands.

In reviewing what's already previously mentioned, the one item I don't see mentioned is egg. I recommend boiling an egg just to the point that it's hardened and then cut into small pieces for her to eat. GREAT supplement for protein/meat as these are the hardest to identify in my case. My daughter absolutely loves the egg. I've also done them scrambled for breakfast and this works well. Personally, I'm wary to have too much bread/pasta in the diet to avoid the weight issue that can creep up later so I try to stick to balancing with proper portions of meat/veggie/fruit at each meal. One other mention is the Gerber Zwieback sticks....great for teething/eating and not high calorie. My concern with the Gerber products is the amount of sodium used in the foods but I understand everyone has got to do what makes sense for them......my husband has gotten great at taking what we're eating and processing it down so my daughter can join us in our meals and then she doesn't want what we're having as she already is!

I gave both my kids frozen taquitos. They were great for teething and got some protein into them. When they're frozen they have to really gum them up and get them all mushy before they can get a bite.

Kiwi fruit, bananas, canned peaches and avocado can all be cut up and served as is. Eggs scrambled were a big hit in my house too.

And if you're having soups for dinner, the veggies are usually very soft and can easily be fished out for baby.

I made vegetable soup either from scratch or from the can (low sodium variety) and drained off the liquid. The veggies were soft enough and small enough for my daughter to pick up and eat herself. She loved it!