Finger Foods - Lake Elsinore,CA

Hi J.,

9 month old twins. I bet you get alot of down time. I have some great suggestions for foods that can be offered. However, anything can be a chokable item, if they put enough in thier mouths. Ususally at this age group, most parents are starting to increase the textures. They are also trying to increase variety into the diet. One thing to look at is thier developmental stages. Do they pick up any small items ie....dust, dirt, small rocks ect. Have they developed the pincer grasp. This is when they can pick up small items w/thier finger and thumbs. If this stage has developed, it will help them w/ increased textures. It is really important to allow the children to be able to touch the foods they are being offered. If you usually offer pureed potatoes and this time you mash them and they have lumps and then try to spoon feed it to them, they aren't expecting the lumps and this can cause a strong gag reflex. This can be very scary for most parents. However, if they are touching thier foods, then they feel the texture and gag a lot less. It does make eating time very messy. You may want to purchase a cheap shower curtain and place it under thier high chairs to aid in cleaning up the mess.
Some foods that should be avoided.......nothing containing honey (honey nut cherrios is a big one alot of us miss). Honey should not be given to an infant until after thier first birthday. There is a bacteria in the honey that will not make us sick but children under 1 years of age could develope botulism. Something that could cause death if not catched in time. I myself gave Pepperidge Farm ciniman toast. After she ate the toast, I was reading the label. I found out it contained honey (always good to read the labels first). Absolutely nothing happened to my daughter. I however felt extreme guilt over possible poisioning my child. She had no problems w/it. But, I knew better. It is just better to be avoided at this time.
You should avoid giving an infant less than 1 years old, cows milk. The whole cows milk can be introduced about 1-2 weeks before thier first birthday. At this point the children should be able to tolerate.....cheese, pudding,ice cream, yogurt. These are the dairy products that are easier to digest, so if there was a reaction. It would be less than if they drank milk. Also cows milk does not provide the necessary nutrients and vitamins that breastmilk or formula offer. It can also cause them to develope a slow bleed in the intestings (due to a reaction) and this can lead to anemia. When it is introduced, it should be whole milk only until the age of 2. Our children are growing at such speed at this age. They need the extra fat in the diet to promote brain growth. Too little fat is just as bad as too much.
Remember when something is a chunk vs. a slice. the chunk will be easier to choke on.
This is a great age to introduce....toast, crackers, cherrios, pasta, mac & cheese, soft canned fruit, small frozen cooked veggies,cheese slices, plain cooked veggies,pancakes, waffles, cooked noodles, crackers or cookies. If you are having something healthy for dinner, then cut up the foods that you are eating maybe 1 time a day and see how it goes. Now, even a slice of cheese, if shoved whole in the mouth could be a choking hazard. You will have to determine thier eating abilities before filling the high chair w/ lots of food choices. If you have a child like mine (chip munk cheeks) you would think she was storing food for the winter. I had to limit the number of cherrios on her tray, so, too many would not make it into the mouth anyway.

I hope some of this info has helped. If you have any other questions please feel free to send me a personal message.

I also would recommend introducing the sippy cup w/ juice or water, if not done so already. I would recommend limiting juice intake to 4 oz. a day.

H. B.

A suggestion I could give would be a Gerber freeze dried fruits. My daughter absolutly loves them, I would start with the apples first, I gave my daughter some pineapple juice diluted and she had an allergic reaction to it so we havent tried the pineapple and mango ones yet. The mesh bags work really good, Gerber also has cut up green beans and cubed carrots which are perfect finger foods and each jar is one serving of veggies. They have fruits too but I found it was hard for her to pick up the peaches and she had a bit of a hard time at first with the apples and pears, but eats em all like a pro now. they're a bit pricy so I buy the jars for when we're out and use the canned or frozen ones when we're at home. You're the best judge on when your child is ready for things, if you're not sure, Try it. Remember they have alot of saliva in their mouth so its alot easier for things to fall apart in it. I know my daughter loved the teething biscuits, but after a minute or two a chunk would be bitten off and send me in a panic. You can try frozen whole wheat bagels, they crumble up rather than falling off in a big chunk and they're good for em.Also, with twins, bulk is always the way to go, The freeze dried fruits come in 4 packs when you gt them at sams/costcos as well as the fruit puffs in even easier travel size single serving packets. Also unsalted saltine crackers are really good and dissovle easy. Canned chicken, when the chunks are broken up, work really good and again you can get it in bulk which saves lots of money, They have these little wagon wheelish type of pastas in the mexican food isle at my local vons, I boil it with some chicken broth and she loves it, They also come in stars and alphabets which are great for them and no choking! Theres petite banana (Which I'll admit I bought them just because they were cute) When they're ripe they're a little sweeter and soft, you could cut them up, and they're the perfect serving size without wasting the other half of the banana (With twins I doubt you'll have that problem ubless they're the really jumbo sized bananas) corsely mashed potatoes (Really messy but they get a kick out of it) I have tons of suggestions, so if you need anymore feel free to message me.

Some nutricious finger foods you could try are: pieces of banana rolled in crushed Cheerios, cooked/soft apple pieces, cooked yams - cut up, pieces of toast with cream cheese or other spread, cooked pieces of chicken or beef, pieces of cheese, fruit cocktail pieces (cut the grapes in half). I hope this helps. Be experimental.

Try banana's or other soft fruits, cut into pieces ((veggies, too)), shredded cheese, cheerios. Those are things my kids both loved at that age. I know its not much but I hope it helps! -A.

Hi J.. You can give them cheerios, soft cheeto puffs, crackers, biter bisquits, green beans (you know the kind that we eat), and more that I like are the gerber line. they have all kinds of finger foods like the biter bisquits, zweibek toast, friut puffs....the list goes on. All lot of them dissolve in baby's mouth so you don't have to worry about them choking. I have found the best Gerber finger foods in Albertson's. Well, good luck with this. Best Wishes, T.

Hey J....

Wow Twins!!! What a double blessing!!! I have a 10 month old boy who loves the messy stuff too!!! Here is some other stuff that we do that really works for my self-feeding machine =)
Steamed rice (we have a rice cooker which saves time and energy) I just wet my hands and start smooshing until they are perfect little balls. It only takes a minute.
VEGGIES- I usually buy the mixed bag of veggies in the freezer section and I boil them ahead of time so they are SUPER soft and pop them on his table top cooled or after they are refridgerated.
Pillsbury crossants put in ANY shape you want. Plus they store well also.
For Fruit, we use one of those mesh baggy things and that keeps him happy. I even go the extent to using frozen apple sauce, strawerry puree, vanilla yogurt, etc. It's messy but yummy =)(BTW-I put it in a icecube tray and freeze them that way)
I think at this age, there aren't MANY mess free meals but they are learnign independance through eating---a very important skill, I think---hahaha! Any food that they have to stick in their mouth and swallow can be a choking hazard, you just have to figure out their boundaries and their likes.
Good luck and happy feeding !!!!