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Parenting Tips on Great First Finger Foods

When a baby reaches the age of about seven or eight months, you may want to start offering finger foods. This may seem like just one more thing that you need to be worried about doing the right way at the right time but, it’s actually a very exciting time! It’s a sign that your baby’s getting older and that she’s becoming more independent.

There are only a few strict rules that accompany giving your baby finger foods. Those are: making sure that your baby is sitting upright with support, such as in a highchair and making sure that the foods you are offering are not a choking hazard. This means nothing too big, and nothing too hard, such as peanuts, which shouldn’t be introduced until later anyway because of their potential for allergies.

As far as the food you offer, there are some great items on the market and things that you can make yourself. The more creative you get on your baby’s journey to expanding her menu, the less likely she’ll be a picky eater when she gets older. Some great ideas for first finger foods are:

Cheerios, or other whole grain cereal. Cheerios are especially good because the tiny hole means that it’s not a potential choking hazard and they dissolve fairly easy in baby’s mouth.

Gerber has made fruit and vegetable puffs, which act in much the same way, dissolving easily in baby’s mouth.

Fruits and vegetables that have been cooked very, very well. You want them cooked to the point where they are mushy so they will fall apart easily in the mouth.

Toast is a great first finger food because baby can suck on it. Make sure it is whole grain so that she’ll get as much nutrition as she can. Frozen bagels also work well for the same reason and can also be a great teething aid.

Small and short pasta that has been cooked very well and chopped into small pieces. Little round balls of pasta such as pastini makes excellent first finger food.

The yolk from a hard-boiled egg.

Very small pieces of cooked meat. Make sure that it has been cooked to well done and is about the size of a pea.

Crackers that have been broken into small pieces. There are also many baby cracker products on the market that “melt” in the baby’s mouth. These are also excellent.

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