Finger/table food 9-12 months

What are you feeding them? I need more ideas. And I hate the mess they make so I feed them myself a lot which isn't teaching them much. I'm still giving them a lot of baby food because I can't think of things for them eat.

 

Everything we ate. Everything. Life was soooo much easier! And try not to worry about the mess. Really-nothing a face cloth or a quick bath can't fix. The more they feed themselves, the more efficient they will get at it. Or, put a drop cloth down under them and that can help with the floor clean up. Strip them down to a onesie/diaper and that will help with the laundry.

So off the top of my head, we gave them:

-pasta: shells are great because you don't have to cut them up, or ditalini. We also did a lot of penne. And they all LOVED spaghetti! Imagine that mess!
-cereals
-cereal bars
-fruits diced up
-meatballs
-chicken. turkey
-deli meats
-rice
-mashed potatoes
-sweet potatoes
-all types of veggies cut up real small

Really-anything we were eating, they tried. Give it a try! And take a picture!

 

My girls just started refusing purees so I have been forced to start enduring the mess. It does get better as they get better...some meals are worse than others. I just got a steam mop to clean up after mealtime so I'm not on my hands and knees washing the floor 3x/day!

My girls like pasta (baby shells), avocado, sweet potato, regular potato, cheese, toast, any fruit, yogurt, rice puffs, baby Mum Mums and I have done some veggies steamed until they are really mushy. We gave them blueberry pancakes on the weekend and they LOVED them! I am also giving them tofu (cubed), ground meat and lentils to try to get some protein into them and I find they are not huge fans but will scoop it up with other things if I throw it all on their tray together.

I also feel like I'm giving them the same things all the time since there are still foods I haven't introduced yet. They don't seem to mind and every week their diet expands a little. The worst for me was just starting (I have a choking phobia and all my kids are gaggers so I was SUPER nervous to start)...now that we're on a roll I feel like feeding time is more fun, despite the mess...good luck

 

Exactly what the PP said. I also have given them:

Fish
Pasta pickups, they are made by Gerber
Toast, I cube it for them
diced up banana
cheerios
Diced egg yolk

 

How much do they feed themselves and how much are you feeding them?

 

My boys, and Annabella, were pretty much doing all of the feeding. If I did cereal with milk or yogurt, I would feed them most of it. I would let them try to do it themselves. I found some spoons by Gerber that are really flexible and are very deep-perfect for learning to self feed. I would just give them a bunch of food-so say pasta, veg, meat and see what they ate. If they are more of one thing, I would ask if they wanted to have more-and they would shake their head yes/no or sign more. If they didn't touch it-they were done.

Even now, I don't feed Annabella. Not that she would let me anyways! :laughing:

For pasta-take say 6/7 pieces of penne, cut it up into thirds or quarters and one meatball. Start with that and go from there.

 

My kids eat anything and everything as well. For breakfast we often do scrambled eggs and cheese and veggies or fruit or french toast (no sugar or syrup, just eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon) and fruit. Lunch today was whole wheat and flax rotini with meatballs and yam in tomato sauce and cheddar cheese grated and melted on top followed by plain yogurt and chunks of watermelon. Dinner was chunks of super ripe avocado, bowtie pasta with cheese, and healthy fish sticks cut into chunks.

Sometimes the mess is crazy and I do prefer to undress them if I know it's going to be all over and stain stick worthy. They love feeding themselves though and if I don't worry to much about it (ie. almost ignore whether they're actually eating or not) they usually hoover up a lot of food! They tend to eat less if I hover super closer or sit right in front of them watching every bite. So, I usually dump a handful of food on each of their trays and walk around the kitchen doing other things and then repeat once their pile of food starts to dwindle. I also find it helps to break up the meal. Start with one thing...when they bore of that bring out the next, etc. My kids eat more that way as they are always excited for something new coming their way in a bowl!

 

Another vote for naked meals (well, diaper and socks ). And bib.

Start with softer food, anything they've had pureed, and keep trying things. Chicken is a good protein to start with, or egg yolk. Mine would refuse certain textures initially. I try to do the messier foods at dinner, then bath.

Tonight I cooked a pork roast in the crock pot with onions, sweet potato, carrots, apples--some spoon feeding, some self feeding..it all went down!

And try different flavors too, it doesn't have to be bland. I just minimize salt.

 

We aren't there yet, but I have been reading a lot on this website: LINK TO WHOLESOME BABY FOOD and they have charts for 8-10 and 10-12 months that may be useful to you.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I just need to suck it and embrace the mess!

 

I'm so overwhelmed by the thought of them feeding themselves. Like you, I need to suck it up & do it, but I'm so nervous!

 

I was incredibly nervous too...even though I have an older one he started daycare at 13 months still eating mostly purees beause I was too afraid to take the plunge! The girls forced me to do it since they started refusing to eat anything that came at them on a spoon!

My advice is to start small...I would give very small pieces (I cut cheerios in half, that's how nervous I was ) and gradually get bigger. I followed their lead and now after about a month they are doing great and my anxiety is so much less. They love seeing what's coming next and get so excited when I put something new on their trays. The mess is big but happy babies at mealtime is a good trade-off!

Good luck!

 

I agree with the others:embrace the mess! :laughing:

It does take some cleanup work, but the great thing is you can sit down and eat when they eat, it really helps them develop motor skills, portion control, feeling like they have some choice in the matter, and plus it makes it very fun for them. They get to feel all the different textures, learn how not to cram their mouths too full of food, etc.

I pretty much gave our boys everything we were eating (cutting it into small pieces when I needed to), and at 14 months they will eat anything and can handle pretty much all kinds of food. I do believe that letting them feed themselves from an early age is not only beneficial for them but also beneficial for the moms. I love getting to have that time to sit down and eat when they do.

 

I find the mess to be easier then pureeing stuff and feeding it to them. and they do get less messy with time. I feed mine:
black beans
tofu
fruit and veggies cut up (veggies and hard fruits are cooked before cutting)
blueberries
cheerios
toast
toast with cheese
edamame

Some days they do great, and other days they don't. I don't worry about it since they are getting most of their nutrician from milk right now. Hopefully by 12 months they will have the hang of it!