help! what'cha feed your 9 month old?

[hildare]

she wants finger foods. i broke down and bought some stupid puffs, (the one kind without a ton of sugar) but i really am at a loss for what to do with her. she's been eating what we eat, but that doesn't always translate to giving her bits to pick up herself. oh, mamas, i'm a mess-- she doesn't have a high chair with a tray, just a chair restaurant style to pull up to the table. she drops the chunks i give her for the most part. she's hungry and likes to eat, but i don't know what to do at all!!!! help! she's gotten grumpy about me feeding her. she wants to do it herself. what do YOU do? what does your table set-up look like, and what do you serve?

[angelachristin]

We have a Svan high chair with a tray, but I think she drops more with that than she would pulled right up to the table! I give bananas, sliced lengthwise (she holds it and bites off pieces), avocados same way, longish slices she can hold and bite; a slice of cheddar cheese; slices of soft pear; a half a peach or plum (peeled). Stuff like that. The only thing I spoon into her mouth is yogurt. Mine prefers to have something she can hold onto and bite pieces off.

[cristeen]

Beans are a favorite food. Banana or avocado or soft fruits (apricot, peach, etc) cut into small pieces. Broccoli, asparagus or zucchini cooked until soft.

We do have a highchair, but most of the time he either stands at my knee so i can pop a piece into his mouth or i put it on the coffee table, and he'll stand there and alternate between feeding himself and finger painting with the food.

[carmen358]

Originally Posted by cristeen

Beans are a favorite food. Banana or avocado or soft fruits (apricot, peach, etc) cut into small pieces. Broccoli, asparagus or zucchini cooked until soft.

I never know what "small pieces" means. I feel like I give DD pieces that are too small and then she can't pick them up (smaller than a pea). If I give her a large chunk of banana (about 2 inches, not cut lengthwise) she just shoves the whole thing in her mouth!

[Addie]

Instead of "puffs" we do puffed rice cereal... it's just brown rice, no sugar (or anything else) added. It's a little smaller and skinnier than the puffs, but our 8.5 month old has the pincer grasp down and likes picking it up. And it's cheap!

Other finger foods we've done -
butternut squash, steamed and cubed
sweet potato, boiled and cubed or cut into spears
avocado, cubed
egg yolk, fried and broken into chunks
watermelon, cut into chunks (also great frozen)
blueberries, cut in half
cantaloupe chunks
celery (he mostly just chews on this, but he likes it)
cucumber slices, with seeds removed
carrot

We find it works best to put just a few pieces of food on DS's tray at a time, otherwise he just squirrels it all away in his cheeks without swallowing. Sips of water help too.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by carmen358

I never know what "small pieces" means. I feel like I give DD pieces that are too small and then she can't pick them up (smaller than a pea). If I give her a large chunk of banana (about 2 inches, not cut lengthwise) she just shoves the whole thing in her mouth!

For me, small means about a bite for him. A reasonable size so that he doesn't spit half of it back out, but not so small that he can't pick it up. I don't do the tiny little pieces like a pea. Maybe half a grape size, or the size of a big blueberry, since I know he can eat those just fine. Or roughly the size of a garbanzo bean, if that's easier for you to envision.

[Abraisme]

Originally Posted by cristeen

For me, small means about a bite for him. A reasonable size so that he doesn't spit half of it back out, but not so small that he can't pick it up. I don't do the tiny little pieces like a pea. Maybe half a grape size, or the size of a big blueberry, since I know he can eat those just fine. Or roughly the size of a garbanzo bean, if that's easier for you to envision.

I feed my DD whatever I'm eating (we do eat a healthy, organic diet). I rarely make any meals separate for her. If it's spicy or too messy I will set a little aside before I season it.

[tzs]

mine ate what we ate but there are those times when there would be nothing appropriate for her...ya know....like if we were having salad or something.

so like someone else mentioned, beans are my go-to food. for some reason babies love them. it's so easy, i just open a can. usually i make a dressing for them just to get some flavor and fat in there. like a balsamic or something but you could always just dress in olive oil.

[Kmama2]

Originally Posted by Abraisme

I feed my DD whatever I'm eating (we do eat a healthy, organic diet). I rarely make any meals separate for her. If it's spicy or too messy I will set a little aside before I season it.

Whatever we are eating most the the time. I have one of those little booster seat thingies with a tray that you clip on a regular chair. I think they are like $25 at Target. last night I made beef and veggie soup.. I just discarded the broth ( he likes to feed himself) and mashed the beef chunks with a fork and he self fed the veggies, potatoe chunks, etc. The other night we had chicken marsala, steamed green beans and homemade mac and cheese.... he ate all these things ( very small amounts though). Ill spread sunbutter on a cracker and he will eat that.... or ill give him a slice of cheese. We never do purees. The only thing I try to feed him is full fat yogurt as he is tiny and yogurt is healthy.... everything else he self feeds.

[coldandsleepy]

On the subject of finger foods, what works best for us... both in terms of what he most likes to eat and what causes the least mess... are blueberries. They're the perfect size for him to pick up and pop into his mouth, they're not juicy enough to make a big mess, they don't have crumbs. I never really liked blueberries pre-baby but now I'm a biiiiig fan, and so is he.

[kismetbaby]

My guy has gone from mostly wanting to do it all himself to mostly wanting me to feed him. But whatever works. And yes, he does dump a lot on the floor. . .one good trick I have found for this is only to place a couple pieces in the tray at a time. We use a high chair that fits onto one of our dining table chairs as we have space issues.

Another vote for beans here. My guy likes them all-- black, pinto, kidney and lentils (although these are harder as a finger food). He also loves hummus (made from garbanzo beans), you might try that if you are okay with sesame. I buy gluten free bread and tear that into small chunks and dip those into the hummus. He'll eat this every time, anytime. Chunks of bread plain work too. And for us the chunks I give him are about blueberry size I'd say. He likes blueberries too although I cut those in half, just like I do for grapes.

If you make sticky rice you can make tiny little rice balls out of it. Same with oatmeal if you let it cool/congeal, then you can shape it into little balls that work well as finger food. We do avocado chunks and chunks of most fruit (he likes stone fruit the best), although these can be slippery. I know some people wait on citrus, but my guy loves orange and can do that as a finger food well (I just cut it out of its sections/skin and into little mini wedges).

Um, I found a gluten free pasta we all like, its made from quinoa and corn (not that we are strictly GF, but my mom has celiac disease so I am being careful of gluten with my LO). I have bought organic cheerios--he loves those.

Another great thing is soup. . .something like minestrone then you can eat the soup and for your LO just pull out any of the soft veg chunks. My guy likes chunks of soft carrot, squash, potato, green bean.

hth

[tzs]

i love the oatmeal ball idea...i'm gonna do it! sticky rice has always been a fav of ours too.

hey, would anybody here think it inappropriate to post a link to a dwell magazine $10,000 contest that we are in the finals for? winner is determined by online vote and we need all the help we can get (for our ugly living room in this case) alls ya gotta do is click here on this link to our submission and vote. is that bad?
http://new.dwell.com/contests/room-f...-butt-look-fat

[MsVyky]

Originally Posted by angelachristin

We have a Svan high chair with a tray, but I think she drops more with that than she would pulled right up to the table! I give bananas, sliced lengthwise (she holds it and bites off pieces), avocados same way, longish slices she can hold and bite; a slice of cheddar cheese; slices of soft pear; a half a peach or plum (peeled). Stuff like that. The only thing I spoon into her mouth is yogurt. Mine prefers to have something she can hold onto and bite pieces off.

Pretty much all of this. DD eats what we eat, but if she is yelling for food between our meals (and she does) we give her stuff like this. She also gets unsweetened applesauce too, which I do feed her.

She also likes lentils, cooked beans (squished), rice (but I don't like to give that to her since It's more mess than anything)or I'll peel a whole plum and give it to her- that kind of helps with her grip since it does get a bit slimy snd difficult to hold on to.

We skip banana though, she hates it.

[Bebe's Mom]

I like the bean idea, haven't tried that yet!! We give our bebe whatever we are eating. She loves fish! She also eats rice(will have to try the rice ball idea), sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, egg-she prefers omelet style- she also loves pancakes, sans syrup, raisin toast, peas, chicken, pork, beef.. oh, and she also loves tofu.She is not big on fruit but I keep trying. Her daddy doesn't like fruit either, I know, weird.

[MamieCole]

Our 9 month old just started solids a few weeks ago, but already he mainly eats bits and pieces of whatever we are eating. He wants to feed himself almost 100% of the time, so if we are having something soupy, I load a spoon for him and he feeds himself. He ate clam chowder the other day at lunch and LOVED it. If we are having something that is totally non-kid friendly, (like we had steak, tomatoes, & arugula salad the other night. I don't give him red meat yet, and am holding off on raw tomatoes for a bit) I will slice up an avocado, cooked sweet potato, banana, etc. so that he has something he can feed himself.

When all else fails, the fridge is bare, we are having a rough day and order out pizza or something, I will resort to giving him applesauce or pureed baby food on a loaded spoon.

We have a booster that attaches to a dining room chair. We use it with the tray. I don't use bibs. He eats in just a diaper most nights.

For eating outside the home, I brings our booster with us and stick to finger foods or letting him eat off my spoon. The loaded spoon thing is much too messy for restaurant/other people's house eating.