Author Topic: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?  (Read 1918 times)

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Offline lyssie28

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gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« on: January 20, 2014, 12:23:29 pm »
Hi my dd is 9 and a half months and shes been eating the jars of baby food since she was 6 months.  She has porridge or cereal for breakfast and she loves toast.  She tries to get food of my plate so ive given her bits to try - scrambled egg, soup with rice or pasta and peas, mashed potato, fries and chocolate buttons.  However, she wont have a proper portion of them for lunch or dinner.  I tried her wih a fish finger, scrambled egg on toast and beans on toast.  She will eat the toast and she stored the egg and beans in her cheek.  We also made homemade macaroni and cheese and a ckicken dinner.  I put a bit in the blender for her but she started gagging and crying.  If we give her a little bit off our plates sbe'll eat it but if its in a bowl for her she wont.  Should i just keep giving her it slowly?

Offline michaeljacknnugg

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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2014, 13:21:49 pm »
Yes, I would - and don't expect her to eat large amounts. Babies need very little solids! If she wants finger foods then that is a good way to go as it gives her complete control over her own eating, and also gets you towards family meals more quickly.

I would avoid sugary things for as long as you can (like the buttons) so she can have the chance to enjoy foods that are naturally sweet.
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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2014, 16:08:57 pm »
Totally agree with MJ&N.  Small portions of your healthy meals.  Try it (not blended but as finger food) on her plate, if she won't go for that then show her that you are taking it off your plate and putting it on her plate, just one or two pieces at a time.  if she won't go for that hand her a piece directly from your plate, but then the next piece drop on her plate for her to pick up. I say this because gradually you want her taking food off her own plate, although I find it totally normal for a baby to want the parent’s food - it is tried and tested and clearly if mummy is eating it it must be 'safe'.  Logically when they have greater awareness and greater mobility there is a need for them to keep themselves safe - eating Mummy's food is one example of this. It 'can' help prevent them crawling across the garden and eating poisonous berries, theoretically, although I wouldn't test it!!  When mine went through this phase I joked about being court Jester testing the King's food!  I'd test and say "Yummy, yes, it's safe, here you have it" an hand over a piece then drop a couple on his plate.  I also did it the other way around, served his on his plate but then took one of each item to taste test for 'poison' and he happily tucked in to the rest.

I would avoid chocolate too.  Fruit, sweet vegetables (corn, peas, sweet potato, butternut squash) and dried fruit are all very sweet but get them in the habit of tasting naturally sweet foods rather than high sugar foods.


Offline lyssie28

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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2014, 16:32:53 pm »
Thanks i'll try those :-) I'll keep the sugary foods until she's older i give her the buttons as a treat because she got a big pack of them for xmas from her uncle.  How could i get her to try pear or apple etc? I give her banana but again she'll eat it if i break pieces of for her and give it to her.  I bought one of those net things where u can put food in and big pieces dont go through but so far she wont use it. 

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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2014, 18:34:15 pm »
I wouldn't bother with the net, I know some people find them useful but to me it seems a foreign thing to be putting in your mouth.  I would just put finger sized pieces of ripe fruit down in front of her and let her explore on her own. Banana, apple, pear, whatever, make them into wedges or adult finger sized batons and just give her one to hold (you eat one that is identical first to show her it is good).

Mine liked baked apple and pear wedges, literally just cut into wedges, de-core and lay on a tray in the oven. The outside dries a bit making it less slippery to hold whilst the inside goes all mushy.  Take care to let them fully cool first though.
I also sometimes steamed apple and pear, esp if pear was a bit hard, it steams really quickly so don't over do it. They are a bit harder to pick up, slippery, but tasty. You could pre-load a fork for her if they are too slippery to pick up in her fingers (mine used a fork from 6 months, to begin with I used a plastic fork and held on to the back end of the handle not to feed him but to prevent him stabbing himself in the eye, he had control of it going to his mouth. Later we moved on to child size metal cutlery).

If you put the oven on for baked apple throw in some potato wedges, sweet potato wedges, swede batons, parsnips, butter nut squash...all great oven baked, or if you roast them with a little oil on they caramelise on the outside which is very sweet tasting.


Offline michaeljacknnugg

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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2014, 19:18:02 pm »
Yum, sweet potato...

I'd imagine that apple would work best if sliced thinly? She can just suck the juice out if she wants. Also if you want to do any purees you can spread them on toast or bread to give her a different taste. Or serve as dip! Do you have a stick blender? I used mine for soups before I had DS but it got a lot of use while weaning (we were before baby led weaning).

I know a little girl around the same age as yours. When I last had lunch with her she was happily taking munching cucumber, chicken, tomato etc from her mum's salad - and a few chips as a treat.
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Re: gettin baby to eat homemade food/finger foods?
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2014, 19:45:26 pm »
I'd imagine that apple would work best if sliced thinly?
Only from personal experience but mine was better with a larger wedge or whole apple if it was raw as his front teeth grated slithers off, he found slices more difficult because they tended to break leaving him with a chunk to deal with (which he just spat out).
Oh but that reminds me, grated apple is nice!  browns very quickly though.