Finger Foods for New Self-Feeders

[Phen]

This is sorta an extension on maggie's what is your child eating? (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=191) thread, only I would love to see just suggestions for finger foods for toddlers just starting out in the exciting world of self-feeding.

We get easily bored over here, so we've tried a lot of things:

pancakes torn up into bits
cheese sammiches torn up into bits
cheese cubes further cubed up
scrambled eggs
bits of baked potatoes
black beans
diced steamed zucchini

Anyone else?

~ Phen

[KKay]

shredded chicken
spaghetti w/ sauce - it's messy but she loves it
pizza
steamed carrots
mac/cheese
peas
green beans

- it's hit and miss w/ my DD. One day she'll love something, the next she's saying 'no' and throwing it off her highchair!

[ce_Kathleen]

Ladies
just wanted to thank you for posting this! I asked almost the same question to the ladies with babies 6-11 months. We are really hoping to get Alex to try more finger foods, he loves to eat but only when we feed it to him!

So far Alex has had as finger food:

cheerios
gerber puffs
diced canned peaches (further cut in half)
a few macaroni noodles
gerber wagon wheels
grahm cracker sections (break one cracker into 4 pieces)
breadstick from Olive Garden (you can get the breadsticks with no butter/garlic/salt if you ask)


Thanks again for new suggestions!

[octoberkate]

* Cut up Soy "chicken" nuggets (or reg nuggets)
* Frozen diced peas and carrots (toss what you need in the microwave)
* Ripped up American Cheese
* All kinds of cut up fruit (if you still need softer food use some frozen fruit thawed in the microwave - too smushy for me but good for babies with fewer teeth)
* Tofu - the kid loves it cold and w/o seasoning - grosses me out, but he can't get enough and it's squishy so that's also good for less teeth babies
* Ripped up wheat bread with salsa on it (or cheese on it, or whatever)
* Spaghetti is HUGE in our house
* The kid loves sloppy joe meat. It's the messiest thing I've ever seen, but it's fun
* Cut up green beans - these are easy to grasp and he really likes them
* I also get frozen mini pancakes - they're easy to heat and he love them
* Pierogies/Raviolis/Gnocchi
* Black beans

Really, he'll try just about anything - the spicier the better.

I thank god every day he doesn't have his father's picky palate... at least not yet...

[Traciray]

Jacob has just started self feeding and has had the following:

small bites of shredded baked/grilled chicken
small bites of grilled cheese sandwiches
green beans
wheat toast with all fruit spead
mac and cheese
cheese cubes
cherrios
pancakes torn into little stripes
deli turkey
bread
steamed carrots/slices zucchin
cut up grapes
spaghetti

[carolc]

Nora's been self-feeding 100% since 8 months (stubborn bugger) and had almost no teeth until about 14 months. :) We don't eat meat, fyi.

Soft steamed broccoli
Sweet potato cubes, roasted in the oven with a little olive oil
Bits of grilled cheese
Scrambled egg
Grated apple
Grated pear
Chickpeas (dehulled and smushed)
White beans (smushed if large)
Quesadillas: flour tortilla, cheese, and refried beans, or broccoli, or whatever, toasted on the stove and cut into bits
Bits of baked potato
Pieces of flavored tofu
Low-salt crackers
Graham crackers
Whole wheat pancakes
French toast
Orange bits (this is a PITA to prepare)
Avocado bits
Kiwi bits
Strawberries (all-time favorite)
Soft steamed green beans
CHEESE

[Jen1098]

Great ideas-gotta jot some down for my trip to the grocery store!

hummus and pita bread-loves this
rasberries
cantaloupe

[dana b]

noa doesn't care much for meat, i give her chopped up plain tofu with hummus, she loves it, won't eat the tofu plain though.

[emschwar]

I'm probably repeating what some other folks have said, because I just skimmed. Here's what Noah would eat:
any meat in tiny shreads
noodles (the easy mac noodles, with marinara sauce, are great - just the right size for little mouths)
rice
blueberries (I used to cut them up, but now he eats them whole)
the ever popular cheerios
watermelon
baby bananas (whole)
frozen waffles (toasted) and torn up
recently we tried smiles (torn into smaller pieces, though once they cool, I'll give him a whole one) and they were a big hit!

[nic]

We're new at this but so far I've tried:

*Cherrios
*Puffs
*Dehydrated apple bits ( I gave him those before I read the package that stated they were for a child 12+ months so I haven't given him any since)
*Whole grain waffles torn into tiny pieces
*Pumpernickel bread torn in tiny pieces
* Egg Noodles
* Bananas

[mgrace]

bumping this up for someone looking for finger foods

[isobel]

Thanks mgrace! :)

[suzfuzsunflower]

bump

[polarama]

Giving this a bump.

I have an 8.5 month old who doesn't have any teeth. So far we've had...

-puffs, cheerios, mum mums
-bits of roll
-broccoli florets
-small bits of sweet potato

[bensgirl1222]

My DS has a very high gag reflex so he has only had Puffs so far. He is 8 months old today.

[TracyDP]

I made Butternut Squash for DD the other day. Instead of just pureeing it all I decided to cut some of it up into tiny squares and cook them that way for DD to use as finger food. It works great! I froze them in single servings in snack-size ziploc bags. She hasn't quite figured out that she should put them in her mouth, but she is practicing picking them up. I put them in her mouth and she kind of mushes them around and either swallows them or spits them out. No gagging so far so that's a plus.

[emschwar]

bump!

I'm looking for dairy- and soy-free finger foods. Daniel still likes his purees, but really enjoys shoving food in his own mouth these days. He's pretty good at chewing, even with only 3 teeth ;)

[polarama]

emschwar,

My DD really likes frozen blueberries--Trader Joes carries a wild blueberry that is smaller than a regular one and DD loves those.

She also likes frozen peas.

[Taurus]

bump!

I'm looking for dairy- and soy-free finger foods.

We are in a major self-feeding and finger food phase here. DS2 fusses a lot when I try to feed him purees (but he does not fuss for DH so I don't know what's up with that!). However, I really introduce allergenic foods slowly, (we have not introduced any dairy, wheat, corn, soy, etc.) so it is a challenge to find new foods. But I did this with DS1 as well. DS2 has had three teeth, and now he has four more.

Trader Joe's banana waffles (has soy lecithin)
Whole Foods Organic Os cereal (Cheerios as well, but the WF one has fewer ingredients)
Watermelon cut very small, and now we use one of those plastic looped sporks and put the piece on for him and he feeds himself)
Cantaloupe (soft)
Banana
Sweet potato "fries" (sweet potato and olive oil)
Gluten and dairy-free pancake mix from Trader Joe's, prepared using only egg YOLK (edited to correct this), and made into little pancakes that he chews on
Healthy Times Maple teething crackers (only ones I could find without wheat--don't think they have soy)
White rice (hard to eat but keeps him happy)
Bits of hash browns-type potatoes
Rice bread (Good Life brand, or something like that)

I am going to prepare some rice pasta (spiral shapes) today

I also recall making lots of meatballs, veggie pancakes, and "meatloaf" type things with things like purees, egg whites, baby cereal instead of breadcrumbs or the bread mentioned above)--I just haven't had any time to do such things so far for DS2.

[merjmo]

Taurus, that list is great! Thank you!

Also, you can scrape the flesh of an apple with a spoon into whatever size chunks your child can handle. DD is only 8 months and just starting to eat chunky foods (without teeth) so I vary the sizes with her to see what she wants. If the pieces are bigger they'd be (obviously) easier to pick up.

I also fed her some grilled eggplant and zucchini the other day because she was all pissy that I was still eating and she didn't have any food left. She *loved* it. What 8-mo likes eggplant??? :D

[littlecindy]

meatballs
chopped egg
cheese (DS likes fresh mozzerella) but shredded whatever works

Beans (pinto,black,etc)
Peas
green beans
brocolli
asparagus
shredded carrot
cooked carrot
celery small
peppers small
asparagus
cukes

whole wheat pasta
brown rice
Toast, Tortilla, Pita
waffles/pancakes

you could spread all knids of things on bread/toast and break into pieces (hummus, bean spreads, leftover fruit/veggie puree, cream cheese)

mashed potatoes

cheerios
plain rice puff cereal

kiwi
cherries
grapes
cantaloupe
grated apple
cooked apple
all kinds melon
mangos
papayas
avocados
________________

[Taurus]

I guess I should have mentioned in my list that the interest here in self-feeding and BITING is high, but the actual skill to pick up food and gum/swallow without choking has been slower to come, so the challenge is finding foods that are easy to pick up and are soft as well!

merjmo, I def think my son would eat 'sticks' of cooked zucchini. thanks!

[TracyDP]

Finger foods we are trying out so far (9m old):

Small balls of fresh mozzerella (Trader Joes sells tiny ones perfect size)
Cheese shreds or broken up slices
Cut up fruit of various kinds
-cherries
-banana
-nectarine
-watermelon
-apple (raw...is there some reason it needs to be cooked? DD does fine with it peeled and cut up small)
-cantalope
-plum
-grapes
-pears
-peaches
-mango
Gerber chicken sticks (this is a favorite and she's started biting off the stick herself :) )
Cheerios
Puffs
Cut up veggies, steamed, boiled or thawed/frozen
-sweet potato/yams
-zucchini
-banana squash
-carrots
-potato
-peas
-lima beans
-corn kernels
Deli turkey
T.J's turkey meatballs
Bread or tortilla dipped in purees or hummus spread
Bits of cooked chicken
Pasta
Plain Rice

Hmmm, I've felt pretty lame with the variety I'm giving her but looking at the list I guess I'm not doing as bad as I thought. :rolleyes:

She still eats pureed fruit but is not a fan of the pureed veggies anymore so I need to get better about finger food veggies. For now I'm dipping bread bits in them and she seems to be ok with that.

She only got the hang of feeding herself with any kind of accuracy less than a week ago. Now she can clear a handfull of cheerios and puffs off the tray in no time flat and is even pretty good at picking up the slick fruit pieces.

[bensgirl1222]

Gerber chicken sticks (this is a favorite and she's started biting off the stick herself

I bought these for DS and couldnt bring myself to give it to him bc it smelled like cat food (the canned kind) so I ended up giving them to the dog. LOL

Can anyone give me some suggestions for breakfast? He can pretty much eat anything but will NOT let me spoon feed him so it needs to be finger food. He is also sick of waffles and doesnt like pancakes. Thanks!

[andrew&shannah]

Can anyone give me some suggestions for breakfast? He can pretty much eat anything but will NOT let me spoon feed him so it needs to be finger food. He is also sick of waffles and doesnt like pancakes. Thanks!


We buy the chicken blueberry breakfast sausage and cut it up. Also, egg yolks, chex cereal with fruit pieces (no milk), and the MorningStar Farms breakfast things...they look like chicken nuggets.

[bensgirl1222]

Oh great ideas! Who makes the chicken blueberry sausages?

[merjmo]

Oh great ideas! Who makes the chicken blueberry sausages?

Ok, granted, I don't eat meat, but chicken blueberry sounds disgusting. :D

[myshel]

I bought these for DS and couldnt bring myself to give it to him bc it smelled like cat food (the canned kind) so I ended up giving them to the dog. LOL

Can anyone give me some suggestions for breakfast? He can pretty much eat anything but will NOT let me spoon feed him so it needs to be finger food. He is also sick of waffles and doesnt like pancakes. Thanks!

DD really likes those soft cereal bars with the fruit filling. She's a huge fan of the cherry and strawberry yogurt ones. They are a tad messy though.

[karlatta]

Can anyone give me some suggestions for breakfast? He can pretty much eat anything but will NOT let me spoon feed him so it needs to be finger food. He is also sick of waffles and doesnt like pancakes. Thanks!
I don't stick to traditional breakfast foods. This morning DD had leftovers from last night. Green beans, corn, and some chicken casserole. There's no reason (health-wise) that we should eat pancakes, eggs, etc. in the mornings, so I just feed DD whatever I think she'll eat.

[polarama]

I'm with karlatta--we don't do anything too different for breakfast. DD gets pretty much the same types of food as she gets at lunch and dinner. Her finger foods tend to be cheese, fruit, and some kind of vegetable. She is kind of picky about what she'll touch though (she only likes to pick up hard things) so I feed her protein/meat from a fork.

I'm also a big fan of french toast, which is something that gets offered at all 3 meals. I use just the egg yolk, combined with a bit of veggie/fruit puree depending on what I have. DD can usually eat 1/4 of a slice of bread per meal, so I usually make a big batch, cut up the bread into squares, and freeze.

Chicken blueberry sausages actually sound quite delish to me! :) What brand are they? DD loves blueberries so I think it would be a hit at our house.

[andrew&shannah]

Chicken blueberry sausages actually sound quite delish to me! What brand are they? DD loves blueberries so I think it would be a hit at our house.

I'll have to check the brand next time I am at the grocery store. They also have just a chicken breakfast sausage too with no blueberries. :)

The french toast sounds yummy!

[mkvh]

Bumping for more great ideas! DD is 7m and HATES being fed from a spoon but really likes food on her tray.

[TracyDP]

Bumping for more great ideas! DD is 7m and HATES being fed from a spoon but really likes food on her tray.

Summer is a great time for all kinds of fruit. DD will eat any fruit I can cut up into bite size pieces. Her faves are: peach, pear, plum, all melons, blueberries (cut in half at your DD's age), grapes cut into 8ths, mango, banana

I give the mini-pancakes broken up to DD for breakfast, they are in the frozen breakfast foods section. Trader Joes Turkey meatballs are one of her FAVORITE things, again cut up into small bits. thawed frozen veggies work well. Fresh Mozzerella cheese is great, I buy the "pearlini" ones at Trader Joes (but most larger stores will carry them) because they are small enough to feed her whole, about the size of my pinky fingernail.

[merjmo]

I don't think this came up in here, but you can use wheat germ to coat pieces of slimy food like bananas to make it easier for them to pick up. I know Cheerio dust was mentioned a few pages back, but the wheat germ is even less work and actually possibly more healthy! :)

[TracyDP]

I don't think this came up in here, but you can use wheat germ to coat pieces of slimy food like bananas to make it easier for them to pick up. I know Cheerio dust was mentioned a few pages back, but the wheat germ is even less work and actually possibly more healthy! :)

I never thought of using wheat germ,but that's a great idea! I was going to try the cheerio crumbs (just what is in the bottom of the bag) but DD never had trouble with slimy things. Cut up nectarine or mango is about the slimiest thing I've served her and she picks it up just fine. She had a little trouble in the beginning, but figured it out pretty quick so I never tried it.

[thegurl77]

So I promised myself that since DD is my second child I would NOT analyze every single thing she does/doesn't do.....but here I am freaking out a bit:o
My DD turned 10 months yesterday and has no interest at ALL in self feeding or in food for that matter. She may pick up what's in front of her to play with it, but she has no clue that it is supposed to go in her mouth. I sit with her all the time, showing her how to do it, trying to guide her hand to her mouth, etc. I keep hoping that I just have to find a food she falls in love with and then she'll be shoveling it in, but it's stressing me out.
Please tell me there are others who were later self feeders??? Any thoughts on how to get her started would be appreciated too!

[Sevilla]

DS was a late self-feeder and didn't even start solids until he was about a year - refused them before that. I remember when he was 11 months old I gave him a teething biscuit and he put it in his mouth and ate it and I was so excited b/c he rarely put things in his mouth in general and definitely not food. It took him awhile to get the hang of eating but he does it just fine today and it wasn't indicative of any problems :).

[thegurl77]

Thanks Sevilla! I was hoping I wasn't alone on this one :)

[mkvh]

*bump*

[MrsBeckyLP]

I don't think this came up in here, but you can use wheat germ to coat pieces of slimy food like bananas to make it easier for them to pick up. I know Cheerio dust was mentioned a few pages back, but the wheat germ is even less work and actually possibly more healthy! :)

I know this comment is old, but it's so funny, because a few weeks ago I started using bread crumbs to coat slippery foods, since DD really will only feed herself and not take foods off a spoon! It works wonders.

[sparkle&shine]

Nope you're not alone. My DS is going to turn 1 on Feb. 11 and he just barely started eating solids. He hated his puree's and never finished a jar in a serving. He is doing really well now with self feeding but it has only been in the last few weeks. I was/am worried that he won't even eat his birthday cake at his party since he stinks at eating solids ;) Not that I want him eating a lot of cake, but, you know!

He has a really strong gag reflex so I think that may have something to do with it. He has finally not been gagging on his foods lately and is starting to really eat a lot at a sitting. Just keep offering and eventually they'll get there.

[miaclear]

I may have posted this before but Baby MumMums are a great first self feeding learning food. It's just a cracker type food but it's not crumby at all (well minimum, not like a graham cracker or bitter biscuit). Kinda like a rice cake but really thin.

[PookiePrincess]

My DD is about as old as S&S's DS and she just started table food. Her's had to do with gag reflex, too. She'd take purees fine, but I tried around Christmas (10 months old) to feed her some table food and it was not pretty. I waited several more weeks and she was better with it. Now she self feeds like crazy and we're only about 3 weeks into it!

I would wait a few weeks and try again. She just might need some time.

[TracyDP]

My 16m old daughter still likes to chew on the MumMum crackers when she is teething.

Her new favorite thing is Jimmy Dean breakfast sausages, the spicy ones!

[thegurl77]

Thanks for all of the advice ladies! I will keep offering and hopefully soon this will be one more thing I've totally forgotten that I swore she would "never do"!

[Kopper]

DS was a late self feeder. He ate solids just fine he just wasn't terribly interested in feeding himself. It wasn't until he started preschool at 2.5 that he consistantly fed himself his whole meal. If it was cheese, meat or bread he would but veggies and most fruits, forget it. At almost 3 he feeds himself fine but still doesn't have strong desires to do it himself if someone else will do it for him (DH... :rolleyes:).

[rubyredslippers]

My kids are all grown up, but I remember that they liked frozen mixed veggies, right out of the freezer. Brightly colored, cold, bite sized. They particularly liked them when they were teething.

[miaclear]

DS was a late self feeder. He ate solids just fine he just wasn't terribly interested in feeding himself. It wasn't until he started preschool at 2.5 that he consistantly fed himself his whole meal. If it was cheese, meat or bread he would but veggies and most fruits, forget it. At almost 3 he feeds himself fine but still doesn't have strong desires to do it himself if someone else will do it for him (DH... :rolleyes:).

I've been struggling with this myself. I think around Christmas time when DS was around a lot of grandparents he got used to being fed. Just now it's gotten really bad, he points to what he wants and then expects someone to pick it up and feed him (He's just 22 months). He's had a few bad temper tantrums if this doesn't happen. Sometimes I'll get him to eat the foods he can pickup by hand but it seems he wants nothing to do with his fork or spoon anymore at all. Granted it is much cleaner....but very annoying. Grandma is coming to visit this week again, I'll have to make sure to watch her like a hawk :rolleyes: