finger foods - many questions

[HJL]

Hello everyone

I love this site - its been so helpful to me.

I have 8-1/2 month id twin girls. They have been on solids since just before 6 months. I started with the various cereals and then moved to veggies, fruits, yogurt, cottage cheese, and just recently added chicken and turkey. My problem is that for the last 2-3 weeks they are refusing mostly all their food (cereal, fruits, veggies...anything that is pureed/mashed on a spoon with the excepton of yogurt or avocado which they still seem to love). I have made all their baby food in the past (ice cube method). I started on finger foods (because it seemed that they were more interested in feeding themselves). So far for finger foods, i've given them: pieces of chicken (cut in tiny pieces); pieces of turkey (cut in tiny pieces); cooked carrots (in tiny squares); cooked peas; cooked zucchini (in tiny squares), banana pieces; pieces of plum; cheerios, Farley's Biscuites, and Baby Mum Mums (these are rice rusks type crackers); and whole wheat toast in tiny pieces. Okay here are my long list of questions:

(1) How big should finger food actually be? Right now I am chopping everything up so that it is about the size of a cheerio (except for the peas which are already small). Is that how its supposed to be and for how long?

(2) How much finger food do you give them and how do you keep track of how much they are eating (ie how many tablespoons). I tried putting the finger food in little bowls, but they just turn the bowl upside down spilling the food everywhere, so now i just put the food right on their high chair table in little pieces here and there (so its hard to measure how much they actually eat...plus i'd say only half actually gets in their mouth anyway.

(3) Meat: how do you prepare the meat. So far for the babies, i just boiled a piece of chicken breast or turkey breast and then cut it in tiny pieces. The problem is that it seems to be kind of dry. I chop it in teeny tiny pieces for them. It seems to get dried up easily though. Also i'm not much of a cook anyway (my husband works really long hours so he usually eats out and i rarely cook for us at home, so the only cooking i'm doing is for the babies).

(4) Freezing finger foods: If i were to make a larger batch of veggies or something, do you still go ahead and freeze the little pieces of vegges in ice cubes? I was hoping i can make batches at a time and freeze the way i did with the purees/mashed stuff.

(5) My biggest concern though, is that even with the bits of finger food they eat themselves, they are still not eating much at all. Like i mentioned earlier, for weeks, they have been refusing their cereal and other mushed up food. (i give them a spoon to play with at mealtimes but they still won't eat their cereals (doesn't matter which flavour).  Since they started solids at 6 months they haven't been big eaters (i think they  have always eaten less than average...except for yogurt and avocado which they really love to eat). They have 4 bottles of formula a day (total they each drink varies between 24-30 ounces a day). Otherwise the are healthy active babies.They are crawling everywhere and already cruising so i think they will be walking by 9-1/2 months. I've become really concerned lately though because i just weighed them at home and they haven't ganed anything since their 6 mnth check up (ie they are the same weight they were at 6 months...but they look longer so i know they are growing taller...but their tummies are looking thinner).

One of them just woke up from her nap. so i have to end my questions there. Thanks in advance for your advice and answers to my questions!
 

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi there -

I'm always so interested to hear from those with twins or more on here and how you do things! It sounds like your LOs are doing great    So here's my input...

1) Different LOs can handle different sizes. Some (like mine  ) will take huge mouthfuls and never choke. Others can't handle much more than a little bit at a time. But since your DDs have been on solids for a couple months and are onto meats and such I would think they'd be ok with bigger pieces.

2) I've wondered this myself!!

3) Try this link - https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=55135.0
    I know you're not pureeing anymore, but I often cook DS's meat with some veggies stew-style and it doesn't seem to get as dried out that way.

4) Sure, you can still freeze. Some people use muffin tins rather than ice cube trays when the LOs are older and eat more.

5) Their main source of nutrition should be breastmilk/formula until at least 12 months. I wouldn't worry at all about how much they're eating. At this point it's basically just for practice. 

[Marisa's Mom]

Sorry, this is gonna be a choppy response since I have limited time so I might not have read your post as thoroughly, but here are a few answers to your questions.

I started small and worked up as she showed proficiency in the smaller sizes I was giving her. Like you, I chopped things up into small pieces, and gradually made them larger is I saw she was ok with the size.

We like to give her the same dishes we cook for ourselves. Of course she can't eat the large whole pieces, so I would use a food processor (or chop with a knife, it depends ot what the food is) to get smaller pieces for her. I gave her really finely chopped pieces at first, then gradually made it coarser.  These dishes usually have meat in them. I know you mentioned that you don't really cook, and that you're cooking mainly for baby.  --- I often make noodles or spaghetti just for DD. Cook some noodles in broth (for flavoring; or if you're using ramen, just use the flavoring powder packet). Add tofu (for protein), and add cooked chopped veggies (usually zucchini & carrots; sometimes just a frozen bag of peas & carrots if I'm lazy  ). She loves it. I use spaghetti sauce with the spaghetti, instead of broth.  I make a batch that is good for a few days. Oh, I also chop up the noodles/spaghetti a little bit to make it easier to serve. 


I know what you mean about serving sizes. It's sort of a "fuzzy" measurement for us. We eyeball it.    She eats until she is full, usually slowing down when she is getting full or starts playing with her food, so that is our cue that it is enough food for her.

DD is better at taking finger food out of a bowl these days, but she did overturn the bowl in the early days. I used to lay out the finger foods directly on the high chair tray. I still do that at times these days too. I'd rather have all the crumbs on the tray, rather than on her! 


Here are some ideas for foods or finger foods:

- Waffles (broken into small pieces for her to grab, & same with many items below)
- Bread, with or without a spread
- Corn bread
- English Muffin, with or without a spread
- Cereals such as "O" ceceals (like Cheerios), Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies
- Gerber Veggie Puffs
- Gerber Fruit Puffs
- Yams or Sweet Potato
- Spaghetti
- Ramen
- Noodles
- Mashed Potatoes
- Pancakes
- Instant Oatmeal (they seem to have less husk(?) than the regular slow cook variety, I worry about the chocking factor of those husks)
- Nutrigrain bars
- Crackers
- French Toast
- Rice Cakes
- Macaroni & Cheese


- Grapes (you might try coating them in cereal "dust" to make it easier to grab. also, make sure to peel the skin off and cut into small pieces to avoid choking, and no seeds of course. Sorry, I know this is obvious, but I thought I'd mention it anyways)
- Banana
- Peaches
- Nectarines
- Avocado
- Pear
- Apple (make sure it's soft enough if your LO can't handle "hard" apple yet)
- Applesauce
- Mango
- Melons (cantalope, honeydew, etc)
- Pineapple
- Berries: strawberries, blueberries, etc (watch for possible rash/reactions)
- Cherries (remove seed)
- Orange (watch for possible rash/reactions with the "citrus" fruits)
- Tomato

- Carrot (cooked soft, not raw)
- Squash (zucchini, yellow squash, etc)
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli (I prefer not to do this finger style cuz the flowery bits get all over the place)
- Cauliflower
- Spinach
- Peas & Carrots (frozen pkg)
- Beans
- Chinese Broccoli
- Cream Style Corn

- Cheese, like cheddar, jack, etc (cut into small cubes), you can also try string cheese
- Cottage cheese (add fruit!)
- Yogurt
- Eggs (usually scrambled)

- Tofu (cubed)

- Hamburger
- Burrito
- Meatloaf
- Pizza (we cut it up into very small pieces for her, picking out anything too hard)
- Pizza Rolls (we cut them up into very small pieces for her)
- Bagel Bites (we cut them up into very small pieces for her)


Here's an idea for you, DD loves this! I make her Cream Style Corn (you get it in cans/tins in the canned veggies section) and crack an egg into it, making sure to stir it up so the egg gets cooked & mixed in real good. DD inhales the stuff, probably because it's slightly on the sweet side. I just add a bit of toast with it and she's got herself lunch. One can is good for about 3 to 4 servings, so I just save the leftovers for the next couple days.

[tylersmommy]

It's almost impossible to tell how much food they're eating once you start finger food. Your best bet is to keep an eye on formula intake and make sure that doesn't change. Also, keep in mind that purees are mostly water, whereas finger foods are just food. So 1 Tbsp of purees isn't the same as 1 Tbsp finger food...it will take a lot less finger food to fill them up. Their weight gain will naturally start to slow down a bit now that they're mobile, so if they aren't losing weight or waking up hungry during the night, chances are they're getting enough to eat.

We stuck with cheerio size for a looooong time! It really depends on what your LOs can handle.

I always froze my finger foods spread out in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with freezer paper. That way they wouldn't freeze in a clump and I could just take what I needed out of the bag. If I couldn't get the food to spread out very well (pasta comes to mind) I'd put it in blobs on the cookie sheet.