encouraging finger foods

so my girls'll eat cheerios & cheese cubes till the cows come home but give 'em something mushy & they generally won't touch it, so unfortunately they don't have a very balanced diet at the moment. Danika's getting a bit better - sometimes she gets frustrated but she also often gets at least something in her mouth. Riley though - she'll just sit in her chair & whine either until you feed her the mushy finger foods yourself or you get her down. i'm not really worried, per se, as they'll still eat thicker purees & i'm BFing them lots but i was wondering if anyone has any tips for encouraging finger foods?

 

What about pear chunks? Our pears haven't been very ripe around here so they are a little harder. For a long time, bananas and puffs were all my boys would eat as finger foods. They are still pretty young, so I would give it another few weeks and they will pick it up. Maybe choose a fruit or veggie and try it once a day. That way you won't be wasting too much food.

 

Mine also don't seem to like the mushy or slimey feel of things. I have been rolling things like very ripe bananas, pears and mango in their oatmeal cereal or wheat germ. They seem to like it and it helps them kind of get a grip on the slippery things, plus some added nutrition. It makes for a bit of a mess, but doesn't everything!!!

 

My twins only have two teeth each -- DD is better with finger foods, but DS is not quite as good. I noticed there was a thread on here about bread and others are giving toast and bread to their LOs at the age of mine -- can I do this too, or do I have to wait for more teeth?

 

my girls don't have any teeth at all & they do fine with bread. they even had strips of grill cheese the other day.

 

I was going to suggest rolling the slimy stuff like fruit in wheat germ. Much easier for them to pick up, and less of a gross factor for them.

QUOTE(dezmitch @ Apr 21 2009, 06:30 PM) [snapback]1282970[/snapback]
My twins only have two teeth each -- DD is better with finger foods, but DS is not quite as good. I noticed there was a thread on here about bread and others are giving toast and bread to their LOs at the age of mine -- can I do this too, or do I have to wait for more teeth?


Babies use their gums to gnash ( :huh: that doesn't look right?) the food, so you can go ahead and try it!

 

Mine liked colorful things. Maybe try some peas. You can even feed them cold.