fussy eaters and finger foods???

**melimum** · 27-01-2011 14:44

My 6 mths old daughter is teething and will not eat any solids i offer her. ive tried a wide variety of vegetables, fruit and rice cereal but she jus firmly closes her mouth shakes her head and refuses. Whenever i eat she is really interested in it, opens her mouth and tries to grab at it. Ive started giving her plain arrowroot biccies and she loves them and gobbles them down.
Does anyone have any tips for eating and what other finger foods can i offer her. im at my wits end please help!!!!!

**Ivfmum78** · 27-01-2011 14:52

Originally Posted by melimum

My 6 mths old daughter is teething and will not eat any solids i offer her. ive tried a wide variety of vegetables, fruit and rice cereal but she jus firmly closes her mouth shakes her head and refuses. Whenever i eat she is really interested in it, opens her mouth and tries to grab at it. Ive started giving her plain arrowroot biccies and she loves them and gobbles them down.
Does anyone have any tips for eating and what other finger foods can i offer her. im at my wits end please help!!!!!

Have you tried eating when you feed her? Maybe that might help?? Can I also ask when are you feeding her? Maybe that may have something to do with it??

**melimum** · 28-01-2011 07:50

she is still drinking 150mls of milk about 4-5 times a day, the health nurse reccomended trying her and hr after bottle so ive been doing 1-1.5 hrs after bottle. ill give eating when i feed her a go thou!

**Just*Ace** · 28-01-2011 07:54

My DD started solids a month ago and after about 2 weeks she started hating purees. So the last week or so at dinner time I have put a heap of different finger foods on her high chair and let her explore and chew them. I sit with her and pretend to eat then too. I have been giving her:
steamed carrot sticks
steamed brocolli florets
chunks of bread
some grated cheese
rockmelon slices
chunks of pumpkin and sweet potato

**TripleTime** · 28-01-2011 07:55

Her mouth maybe to sore to eat.

Food is for fun till your 1, if she doesn't want to eat, don't force it. Force feeding can create more problems than you can poke a stick at.

**melimum** · 28-01-2011 11:32

thanks for all the advice, she is definatly interested in eating as she grabs at my food and opens her mouth when she sees it, im going to try these finger foods, i think she'll really enjoy them. i was worried about bread, can she have that...and toast??

**melimum** · 28-01-2011 15:06

i was thinking of trying Baby Led Weaning. any got any info or tips on this??

**TripleTime** · 28-01-2011 15:18

Start with toast. Google BLW or search the forum, heaps of info out there. I uses to offer this lot what ever I was eating, within reason or anything that caught their eye. Now at 20 months they eat anything & more things than I do.

**AndrewTheEmu** · 29-01-2011 12:11

My DD is 8 months but she much prefers finger food too.

Her fave at the moment is toast fingers. I cut the crust off a piece of bread, slice it into 4 fingers, then put it on a baking trey and into the oven at 150 degrees for 20mins (usually ill do 4 pieces of bread at a time, they keep well in the cupboard in an airtight container) I find baked toast fingers are MUCH easier for her to eat as they kind of go like crutons and crumble/disolve when she sucks/gums them.
I sometimes also smear them (either before of after baking) with stuff like mashed banana, avocardo, or even pumpkin (basicly anything that mashes well.

I find letting her play with her food is a big help aswell. Like today for lunch she had mash potato, mashed pumpkin, 2 bread sticks and some finally chopped&cooked banana (she finds it easier to get down when its mushy) and just put a scoop of each on her highchair trey, sit her out the back and let her smush it all together and lick it off her fingers.

AND we just recently got a mesh feeder. ITS WONDERFUL. anything ive cooked/pureed and frozen in cubes can go in there (usually i squash fruit cubes in there) and its like a natural teether/icey pole bub can munch on to her little hearts content

its currently my fav baby investment

**melimum** · 29-01-2011 14:10

thanks Lionheart that is soooo helpful. im really excited to try some of these new things for her and i think she will love me giving her some food and letting her go wild!!! and i think a mesh feeder will be my next buy also. glad to know im not the only one with a fussy bub!