Babies start showing a liking for food as early as five months. They try to imitate your action of eating and show signs of wanting the food you eat. Even if you have introduced solids to your baby at around six months or offered her finger foods, the best time to let her hear from her hands is around 7 to 8 months.
This is when she would have the right grip to hold the food. Self-feeding lets her explore foods, flavors, and tastes. An apt time to introduce various foods that are healthy and tasty is when she can self-feed. Find here five interesting and delicious finger foods for babies.
Cheese:
- Cheese has lots of goodness packed for babies.
- Filled with minerals helpful for building bones, and calcium, this is a protein-rich food you can offer your baby as finger food.
- When you choose cheese as finger food, go for pasteurized cheese. Unpasteurized cheese should not be given to children.
- Also, keep in mind that cheese like feta or brie can cause food poisoning as they contain Listeria.
- String cheese should be given only after you cut them into pieces.
- The best options are non-sharp cheddar, mozzarella, or any tiny cubes or shredded piece
Veggies:
- Introducing veggies as finger foods is a good way to ensure they get healthy food.
- When introducing any vegetable, ensure it is cooked soft, so that they are mushy and easy to swallow.
- You can try the veggies that are loaded with beta-carotene like peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Remember, you can only give them only in small quantities. Cut, cook, and crush them.
- You can also try broccoli and cauliflower as the florets are amusing for the eyes.
- Avocados are stored with good fats that help in the development of the body and brain.
Pro tip– Remove stalks, seeds, and any part that can cause choking hazards before cooking.
Introduce one vegetable at a time. No raw vegetables, stringy veggies like celery, and foods like grape tomatoes that can lead to choking should be on your list.
Fruits:
- You can try a variety of fruits for your baby. Soft and mushy bananas, crushed blueberries, and skinned and ripe pears, are a few examples.
- You can also try ripe mangoes, apricots, peach, cantaloupe, and honeydew.
- When you give any fruit, ensure that you have peeled off the skin thoroughly. Else, a choking hazard is on the cards.
- Unripe fruits can get stuck in the windpipe, and lead to choking. Also, you cannot consider all the fruits for your baby. For example, an apple, even after the skin is removed is not suitable for babies.
Fish:
- A storehouse of omega-3 fatty acids, fish is also full of protein, iron, and calcium.
- These help in improving the brainpower
- You can bake or boil fish and let your baby enjoy it
- Flounder, sole, or cod are good choices for babies as finger foods.
- They are low in mercury content and can easily be digested by babies.
- Do not choose fishes with high mercury content- shark, shellfish, swordfish, and king mackerel are a few examples.
- The only thing you got to be careful about offering fish is that you should remove any bones.
Egg Yolks:
- Though eggs are often not introduced to babies below one year to rule out allergies, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests introducing allergenic foods between 4 to 11 months to rule out allergies.
- If your pediatrician gives consent, boil eggs and cut the yolks into small pieces for finger foods. You can also try soft scrambled eggs.
Remember: Regardless of the finger food you choose, the consistency should be gummed. This means there should be no need for chewing and the food should be easy to swallow.
