Question:
What are a couple of good first finger foods for a baby?
Full Moon
2008-01-11 14:33:33 UTC
I'm a bit nervous at starting my child on finger foods. What are the safest firsts to give him?
Nine answers:
Tracy
2008-01-11 15:28:08 UTC
You can try the puffs that gerber makes, my kids all loved those. you can try bits of fruit and veggies, cheerios, biter biscuits, those apple wheels (made by gerber)...have fun, this is such a fun time!!!
sanzoe
2008-01-11 15:23:37 UTC
Banana, peaches, pears, grapes, peas, corn, cooked carrot, cheese, ect... Just make sure that if it's a hard thing it's cooked until soft and all items should be cut into very small pieces. I always make sure that it's cut smaller than half of the width of my pinkie finger. Also since banana is very slippery to pick up for babies make a powder from cereal or use baby cereal and roll the pieces in that it makes them easy to pick up and you get the bonus of some extra vitamins. You really can give them anything you eat just in small enough pieces for them to not choke.
lindzymill
2008-01-11 14:36:41 UTC
Cheerios
Avodah
2008-01-11 15:03:28 UTC
Really soft peas, tiny bits of soft carrots, peices of avocado, bits of cooked potatoes, yams, little lumps of chicken, rice. Everything should be soft and small. They have a hard time picking it up for a while, but they try so hard and its better than them choking on somehting they can pick up easier.
2008-01-11 14:39:52 UTC
soft fruits like bananas cut up or peaches...cheerios...cheese...they also have those veggie and fruit puffs which are great because they dissolve quickly in the babies mouth.
mamaposs
2008-01-11 18:33:37 UTC
slices of banana

avocado chunks

steamed fingers of carrot or zucchini

cooked broccoli florets
Hayley
2008-01-11 14:38:29 UTC
savoury fingers, rusks, soft fruits, bread
2008-01-11 15:24:59 UTC
Fruit and veggies?



http://www.llli.org/FAQ/firstfoods.html

Good first foods for babies



Save money and give your baby the freshest food by making your own baby food. Here are some suggestions.



Fruits



Most babies love fruits. Make sure they are ripe, and wash well before peeling. Here are some favorites:



* Bananas cut into slices which have then been halved or quartered

* Unsweetened applesauce, or tiny apple chunks that have been softened by cooking in the microwave

* Plums, peaches, pears, and apricots, gently cooked if necessary

* Avocado diced into small, bite size pieces



Vegetables



Fresh vegetables should be washed, peeled and cooked until tender. Frozen veggies are convenient to have on hand. Avoid the canned varieties to which salt has been added. Your baby may enjoy:



* Baked or boiled sweet potatoes, in tiny chunks

* Mashed white potatoes

* Baby carrots, green beans, peas and squash



Meat and fish



Babies often prefer well-cooked chicken, which is soft and easy to eat when shredded. Be careful to remove even the tiny bones when serving fish.



Beans and legumes



Remove the skins from beans as they tend to be harder to digest. If you use canned beans for convenience, make sure they are unseasoned.



Grains and cereals



Commercial, iron-fortified cereals are often the first foods served to babies who are not breastfeeding because they need the extra iron, but breastfed babies are rarely anemic as the iron in human milk is well-utilized. If there is concern about the baby's iron levels, a simple test can be done in the doctor's office.



Whole grain cereals, breads and crackers are the most nutritious. Wait until later in the year before offering wheat products. If you use cereals, make sure that they only have one ingredient and use either water or your own milk for mixing. Many mothers prefer to let their older babies chew on a hard bagel or an end of bread instead of sugary teething biscuits.



http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#choke

Won't he choke?



Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.



It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that weaning takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what helps to keep him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will almost certainly have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting foods into a baby's mouth for him overrides this natural protection and may increase the risk of choking.



Tipping a baby backwards or lying him down to feed him solid food is dangerous. A baby who is handling food should always be supported in an upright position. In this way, food which he is not yet able to swallow, or does not wish to swallow, will fall forward out of his mouth, not backwards into his throat.



Adopting a baby-led approach doesn't mean abandoning all the common sense rules of safety. While it is very unlikely that a young baby would succeed in picking up a peanut, for example, accidents can and will happen on rare occasions – however the baby is fed. Rules of safety which apply in other play situations should therefore be adhered to when eating is in progress.





[...]



There is no need to cut food into mouth-sized pieces. Indeed, this will make it difficult for a young baby to handle. A good guide to the size and shape needed is the size of the babies fist, with one important extra factor to bear in mind: Young babies cannot open their fist on purpose to release things. This means that they do best with food that is chip-shaped or has a built-in 'handle' (like the stalk of a piece of broccoli). They can then chew the bit that is sticking out of their fist and drop the rest later – usually while reaching for the next interesting-looking piece. As their skills improve, less food will be dropped.
2008-01-11 14:39:46 UTC
bananas


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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