Hello, Ladies! My daughter is 10 months and has a mouth full of teeth. She has decided she prefers to feed herself so I am looking for good finger foods to feed her. She is not a picky eater and will eat anything but I am running out of ideas. I feel like she eats the same thing all the time. Thanks!
Give her whatever you're eating. At 10 months the only thing she really needs to stay away from is honey and peanut butter. When my dd was little she loved mac & cheese, chicken, meatballs, hamburgers, bread, crackers, cheese, any and all fruit, some vegetables, mashed potatoes, yogurt, and just about anything else! I would just make sure things were cut up small enough that she couldn't choke on them. Of course, my dd didn't have any teeth till she was a year old. The biggest thing is to sort of ignore the mess. She's going to make a mess and get terribly messy. It's just the way it is! Put an old sheet under her high chair to help w/ clean up and strip her down to her diaper. Oh, and get the camera ready. Mashed potatoes in the hair makes for great pictures!
Gerber Graduate Crunchies and Puffs are pretty good. What about chicken soup noodles? Cereals like Rice Krispies, Kix, Cheerios.
I started feeding my daughter pancakes and small pieces of steamed fruit. Purées are great for dipping. Steamed green beans were great also but I don't remember what age I started her on those.
She also loves ditalini (small pasta pieces). I fed those to her in all kinds of sauces before bath time.
Good luck
Anything you eat! She's too old for purees. Just mash your table foods, shred your tender meats (crock pot is GREAT for cooking meats for her, then shred with a fork). Cooked veggies but in to small pieces (just steam frozen mixed veggies, they are a good size), beans straight from the can, rinsed, noodles and other pastas like ravioli cut in small pieces. Seriously, there's little she can't eat as long as you make the pieces small.
bags of froz vegs cooked at a minimum are great for finger foods. Any kind of meat cut to little pieces works too. Really, whatever you are eating will work for her as long as it is cooled and cut to her bite size.
Some foods my kids can feed themselves - chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese (with a large bib for my youngest), cut up fruits (with the skin peeled off for some of the tougher ones), any canned veggies, ramen noodles, cut up lunch meat, cheese cubes, raisins (after he got molars), cut up hotdogs, ravioli, tortillas, graham crackers, etc. I hope this helps.
I just ran our dinner through a mini food processor (a cheap one) and put that on their plate. If you don't do it too long it just chops it up really well.
One of the easiest to eat and HEALTHIEST finger foods is 'sweet potato fries.' Just cut up a sweet potato into fry size strips, and bake them at 400 for about 15 minutes (turning in between, and spritz them with Pam so they don't stick). They taste amazing, and they are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. I make a big batch and keep them in the fridge for several days, just pulling out a few at a time.
One thing my kids have taught me is that EVERYTHING is a 'finger food'! Just take whatever you are eating at meals and cut it into pea-size bits. Kids can gum anything - even if they don't have teeth (many kids get their first tooth after 1st birthday). By 10 months old, babies can eat pretty much anything (except common sense stuff like peanuts due to choking hazard). By 10-12 months babies should be 100% self-feeding (with fingers, spoons/forks take longer) themselves whatever the rest of the family is eating.
Apple slices, pear slices, cheese fingers, knox blocks (jello sqares), chicken fingers, granola bars, celery cut in very thin strips, cooked carrots, green beans, and the normal things.
Hope this helps a little.
Whatever you cook for you, give her the same and just cut into small peices. She has full set of teeth and is almost one, so there is no need to buy extra food for her...bedsides, it get too expensive. Now, if you are out and about, those finger food entrees will be good.
Wife and Mother of 4(4,6,9,10)
Gerber makes fruit/veggie "wagon wheels". They were my kids' favorites.