Limited Acceptance of Finger Foods

[superbaby]

My 10.5 mth DS will only eat toast or bread as finger foods and puts his hand up when I offer him anything else. At best he will pick the food up (e.g. fruit) and then just drop it or flick it away. Also he refuses any snacks or any other drinks besides his regular 3 meals and bottles a day. He is only just getting the hang of crawling so am wondering if when he starts to be more active this might change? I suppose there is nothing more I can do but to keep offering things? Any tips of what I could try other than fruit, steamed veges, cheese, biscuits all of which have been declined? :confused:

[Chickadee]

Not a bad idea KB. At that age my DD wanted nothing more than to get to the dogs bowl of dry dog food on the floor.

Other finger food ideas:
- Put some stuff on the toast: vegemite (only a little, very salty for little bubs), cream cheese, jam, etc
- give him something to dip the toast into: baked beans, vegetable soups, umm... I was gonna say soft boiled egg but can't remember the age restrictions for egg
- try pancakes. Grate some apple, carrot and/or zucchini into the dry ingredients before you mix it up.
- different fruits and veg. Think about different shapes, textures, flavours. Grapes (cut very small) and watermelon were big hits with DD.
- a bowl of yogurt. Don't worry about the spoon if he doesn't want it, just let him dunk his fingers in. A lot will go in his mouth off his hand.
- pasta, rice, couscous. Have the vaccuum handy for couscous, it will go everywhere :)

[OM]

Just thought I would say your bub can at this age have the egg yolk but it is not recommended to give bub the white of the egg till after 12 months, that said though it is advised to give egg white before the 12 month needles as the injection contains egg and you may want to know if bub has a reaction before you get the injection.

[alicesmum]

my DD is 16 months and not really into finger foods (i.e., feeding herself) at all. she also throws things on the floor if i let her try to feed herself. hence, i still feed her (i.e., put bits of food into her mouth) which is fine with me as it saves a lot of mess! she is also going through a picky stage; she is mad for toast (so I use rye) and bananas at the moment, and will only occasionally eat other stuff such as paw-paw, mashed potato and chicken (last night). my mum said not to worry as it is normal for them to go through stages of only liking a few foods.

i also figure that one day soon she definitely won't want me to feed her anymore, so for the moment i am enjoying the fact that feeding her myself means less mess to clean up!!

:)

[Ky]

If your floor is nice and clean which I'm sure it will be..why not place the snacks in a little bowl on the floor and let baby discover them?
OK: So were not teaching correct table manners..but its an idea.
OM.

I did this with my kids and it meant that they were eating a lot even though it din't look like it. Of course, I kept an eye on them with regard to choking etc, but it really is a great method.

I used to put a bowl of snacks outside Bella's door at night before I went to bed (covered of course) and I used to wake up to a little voice saying "detdu (thankyou) Mum" when she discovered it and she would go back into her room and play for a while so I could get a little bit more sleep! She was 18mo when i started it, so she was used to it when Daniel came along ... it was a real sanity saving measure after a night up with bub!

btw ... both of my kids know how to eat at the table and their manners, whil not perfect, aren't too bad!