Transition to Finger Foods

It figures that right after I whip up a slew of purees for baby girl her doctor tells us to start with finger foods. I probably could've seen it coming but I decided to go ahead and make her purees of peas, carrots, spinach, lentils and pears just three days before her nine month appointment.  I stopped by Target on the way home from the doctor and bought all of the Gerber finger foods they had (fruit and veggie puffs and yogurt melts).  At her next meal I gave her the puffs and after a little while she figured out how to put them in her mouth and that she liked them!  However, she can't eat puffs at every meal so I began searching for good beginner finger foods.

Below is a list I compiled of beginner finger foods.  She still has a hard time getting them from her tray to her mouth and I think half of what I give her ends up on the floor or under her bottom but she is getting better at it every day!  The good news is that she is still eating the purees and I plan to keep giving them to her until they run out or she refuses them, whichever comes first.  Sometimes I add some bigger chunks to the purees so she has a mix of textures and sizes and so she can get more used to larger chunks of food.  Another note about going from purees to finger foods... it used to take us about 5-10 minutes to eat lunch and now it takes three times as long and she only gets about half of what she used to in her belly.  Oh boy!

Beginner Finger Foods

   

Everything that I used to puree, I just give her a "chunky" version of (peas, green beans, carrots, pears, banana, squash, etc.)

   
Chunks of soft-cooked sweet potato

   
Cooked or canned beans

   
Small pieces of cooked turkey or chicken

   
Well-cooked ground beef/chicken/turkey crumbles

   
Grapes sliced in quarters

   
Bite-sized pieces of ripe avocado

   
Cooked rice

   
Puffed rice cereal

   
Squashed blueberries

   
Squashed cooked peas

   
Cheerio-type cereals

   
Cheese cut into pea-sized cubes

   
Cooked pasta in small pieces

   
Pieces of pancake or waffle

   
Crackers broken into small pieces

Best of luck transitioning to full-on finger foods.  I imagine it is so much easier when they just feed themselves! Almost there! :)