The one thing I’m asked most often by other mum’s of younger babies is “Do you have any ideas of what first finger foods I can offer??” So I thought I would put together a top 5 first finger foods to try with your baby. These are safe to offer to 6-8 month old babies, they are soft and easy to chew. As with all foods though, ensure your baby is sitting and strapped into a highchair or similar, and is never left unattended when eating.
At first your baby may not actually swallow very much of the finger foods you offer. Please do not worry. Your baby is simply learning how to explore and move food around in their mouth. Up to 1 year, your baby’s main source of nutrition is their milk (formula or breast milk).
So my top 5 first finger foods:
1. Banana (very ripe!)
This was my daughters very first taste of solid food. I was sitting eating a banana with her on my knee whilst watching the TV. The next thing she was leaning over helping herself to my banana! She sucked the life out of it, so I figured that she was ready of moving on to solids but also that she liked the taste. I would break a small banana in half so that she could hold on to it and eat/suck it at the same time. Make sure the banana is at least very yellow with no green, preferably with 1 or 2 spots on it. Green bananas are too hard/bitter for them.
2. Cooked Carrot Sticks
You can buy a carrot and cut it into pencil sized sticks, then steam them (either in a steamer or in to microwave) until they’re just soft enough that you can press it between your thumb and forefinger and it will squish. I (as a self obsessed lazy cook) used to buy the ready cut carrot sticks and cook them as part of our family meals. Baby H would sit beside us and gum these happily. Now she won’t touch carrots and will gleefully pick them out of anything she’s given!
3. Sandwich fingers
Soft white bread with cheese spread (we use Dairylea or Laughing cow triangles) in between then cut into fingers. Simple, easy to take with you on days out, and yummy.
4. Banana Muffins (sugar free!)
These are always a huge hit, and great for a snack at any time of the day! The recipe I used was from Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley. It is full of lovely finger foods, but these are by far our favourites. I love baking too, so it kept me happy too! These muffins are lovely and moist. You can either make little ones in fairy cake cases for babies, or larger ones in muffin cases for adults/older kids.
Ingredients:
5 very ripe bananas,
1 egg,
100ml milk,
100ml apple juice,
200g self raising flour,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1 tsp baking powder.
Method:
· Preheat the oven to 200'C/400'F/Gas Mark 6.
· Mash the bananas in a bowl til there are no lumps.
· Beat the egg and add to bananas. Add milk and juice and mix well.
· Fold flour, cinnamon and baking powder into banana and liquid mix.
· Spoon mixture into muffin cases in a 12 case muffin tin.
· Bake for about 20 minutes until browned and cooked through (if you prick with a fork it should come out clean).
· Remove from oven, lift muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.
5. Rice cakes
Again, these are fab for when you’re out and about for a quick snack. You can get plain ones, but the ones that have been soaked in apple juice or blackcurrant juice are a wee bit sweeter and give a bit of flavour.
Obviously there are many MANY other foods out there which can be given as finger foods, but these were Baby H’s favourites when we started out.
Do you offer any other interesting finger foods to your baby? Please feel free to share your ideas! I’d love to hear them!
