finger foods for allergic babe

[megincl]

DD is 7 months and is just beginning to enjoy food. She HAS to feed herself, though, so I'm looking for some help with finger foods.

DD is allergic to gluten, dairy, soy, oats, corn....so much of what's available even at WF doesn't work for her.

She has a hard time picking up fruit because it's slippery and the pieces have to be so small. I've given her puffed rice or regular rice, but also don't want to give her too much rice because she gets constipated VERY easily.

What else could I try? I'm happy to make something but am coming up with very few ideas.

Thanks!

[Caittune]

nak, but could you dust the fruit with puffed rice its to make it less slippery?

[elluin]

Our dd is almost 11 months, but since she started on solids (6-7 months) she has only been interested in feeding herself. If a food is soft, like most fruits or sweet potato, we diced it very small (started at like 1/8" cubes because she wasn't great at chewing). For veggies and grains (we do millet and brown rice), I either chopped them small or made a chunky puree (she licks it off her fingers). At that age she also loved chewing on whole foods, like a stalk of cooked asparagus or a carrot. For the most part, I just let her make a mess and she seems happy with both the process and the small amount of food she eats. She nurses with most of the meals.

The easiest finger foods are probably baked sweet potato, baked squash, avocado, banana and steamed shredded carrots. She doesn't mind slippery fruits either, eventually she figures out how to get it in her mouth!

[katelove]

Do the pieces have to be small? I've found the best size is about 7cm long and about 1cm square. Long enough that there is some sticking out at each end of her fist and small enough that she can get it in her mouth.

Watermelon is usually not too slippery we find. Stone fruit cut in half or quarters (depending on the size of the original fruit) with the skin left on is also moderately easy to handle.

Broccoli and cauliflower works well cut into florets with the stem left as long as possible. Broccolini is even better. Then steamed or roasted until softened.

Roasted pumpkin or sweet potato chips seem to be easy to get a good grip on. We cut them to about the size I mentioned above.