She-pup refuses to eat unless she can feed herself

Fingerfood time! Oh joy!

Yep, remember that clearly.

Cheerios are the uber finger food. During that phase we were taking them everywhere in tupperware containers.

I have a cookbook called "Baby let's eat!", I highly recommend it, busy now but later I'll come back with some fingerfood recipes for that age (what age is she again?)

Also go ahead and give her a spoon for non-finger foods, will make a mess but she'll love it and some will actually go in her tummy. :-)

she is 10 months.

and yeah, i gave her a bowl today with her regular style dinner and a spoon... and let her go to town!!!!! :-)
She doesnt have but 4 teeth. I dont know that cheerios are soft enough for her to chew yet?

And i wont do any packaged meats ( hot dogs etc) for 2 reasons, we are veggie eaters and unless it is a free range or organic meat i wont give it to her. aside from that meats have not been introduced into her diet yet.

but i do also do steamed broccoli. when steamed for about 40 mintues it gets really soft and she LOVES it. I have the super baby food book. That is where i got the notion to make all of her baby food at home. it is a wonderful book also but the recipies are for children with a little more ability to feed themselves then my little pup has right now.

cheerios are ok after about 6 months.

I agree with Soz, let her use her own spoon. At this point, my 13 month old nephew must be able to get his spoon in the jar, or we can't get him to eat. He even manages to get some into his mouth sometimes.

Oatmeal is a good thing for kids to try with. And, rice.

shewolf.....try sweet potatoe pieces, that have been steamed. They are tender enough that she won't have a hard time with them.

We did the cheerio thing too, or fruit loops..which they seemed to love even more.

Just make sure the food pieces are small. Choking is a problem at this age.

Aw, let her have the Cheerios. If she can handle that much independence, just get out of her way.

The Baby Let's Eat! book has a lot of veggie/ vegan recipes, I recommend it. Will get back to that later (I am actually in the middle of dinner but had a brainwave for Boomer's photog studio -- or at least it seemed like a brainwave at the time -- really back later.)

sweet potato pieces.. that is a good idea.
I already give her purple potato as a side dish to her dinners and she likes those. sweet potatos will be a delight i bet.

I will get her some cheerios tomorrow at the store. Im sure she will take to those. im just worried about the choke factor too .
I do give her teething biscuits.. she does fine with those. Though.. she has lost interest in them .

shewolf, make sure to get the plain cheerios. And, if you're really worried, break them in half before laying them out in front of her.

Cheerios are pretty standard. I've been given little containers of them when I'm taking care of friends' 6 and 7 month old infants. Of course, about 90% of them ended up flung around wherever I was living at the time, but there was occasional success with enormous JOY with each cheerio which made it in.

Each kid and parent is so different. One friend was giving only slightly mushed lasagna to her 4 month old, another was still insisting on breast milk ONLY at 12 months. Both of those kids seemed healthy and happy. Went to a friend's 40th a couple of years ago. Her daughter was 13 or 14 months old - they put her in a baby bucket on the table in the restaurant and she ripped bits of chicken off of the roast chicken on the table and ate it

If your bean is wanting to feed herself - let her have some fun (and try not to stress over the nutrition issue on a daily basis - let it sort of balance out over a week or so - babies have fits of THIS ONLY, and fussing doesn't help anyone in the home)

oooohhhh, I loved this stage.

how 'bout bagels. Whole ones. They gnaw at them turning them into slimy globs of goo but they love them. BC (before children) I never, ever considered opening a package of anything in the grocery store before I paid for it. I can't tell you how many empty packet of this or that I've sent down the belt AC (after children) Bagels from the grocery bakery will get you through an entire shopping trip. Pay for the empty bag - they've seen it before.

Also, cheese if she takes dairy. Noodles of any kind.

Warning, spaghettios are not a good idea. My oldest was oneish and was feeding herself spaghettios with a spoon. I was on the phone with my friend describing the spaghettio adventure. DD got tired of the spoon and started shoveling the spaghettios in by hand then she got tired of the shoveling and picked up the bowl and tried to drink them then she got tired of the spaghettios and put the still partially full bowl on her head as a hat. I had to get off the phone at that point. My friend still laughs at my play-by-play descriptions.

OK, so one cool thing about this book is that it is divided by sections. At the beginning of the 6-12 month section it has an "At a glance schedule" of what food to introduce when.

For 8-10 months, it has:



10-12 months is:



I'd forgotten about the macaroni one, big hit. Just cook the macaroni (or other similar noodles) and serve plain. One of the neater (as in mess or lack thereof) finger foods too.

Most of the actual recipes in the 6-12 month section are purees and such. Here's one that's finger foody:

[b]Snazzy Frittatas[/b] You can begin to feed your child whole eggs by the end of the tenth month, because your baby will be able to digest egg whites as well as yolks. A frittata is a baked omelet and is a great way to turn a little leftover vegetable puree into another dish. [i]Preparation time[/i]: 10 minutes [i]Cooking time[/i]: 45 minutes [i]Refrigerates[/i]: 2 days [i]Freezes[/i]: 1 month [i]1 1/2 teaspoons safflower oil for brushing around the pan 4 large eggs 1/4 cup vegetable puree 3 leaves fresh basil cut into thin strips[/i] 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brush a 6-inch ovenproof skillet or pan with the oil. 2. Whisk the eggs, vegetable puree, and basil together. Pour it in the oiled skillet and bake until the eggs are firm; about 45 minutes. 3. Remove the skillet from the oven and let it cool slightly. Cut the frittata into wedges for your family and tiny bite-sized pieces for your child. [b]Makes one 6-inch frittata.[/b]

Hmm, a little anticlimactic, the better recipes are for a little older I guess.

Lots to work with already, and the raw ripe fruits one is one we did a lot of -- pears, peaches, lots beyond bananas.

Oh mangoes!!!!! This was the age she turned into mango baby I think. ("Mango baby loves her mangos... mangos mangos!") (It's a song I made up.) I don't know if you have a Trader Joe's nearby, but they sell these cubed frozen mangos that you just let defrost a bit and cut up, they're very soft and delicious and nutritious and all kinds of good stuff. If you can just find very ripe fresh mangos, that'd work.

Avocados too!

Last note is that ehBeth is totally right about it averaging out. Drove me crazy but it worked. One day of mangos mangos and nothing but mangos. Then another day of pasta. Then another day of... it works, though.

What a great book, soz.

The cheerios posts made me want to warn you, Shewolf... Don't do the cheerios and banana at the same time.

When daughter was about this age, I had given her some rice crispies (smaller and softer than cheerios) on her tray. Then I gave her some small banana pieces.

She started off accidently figuring out that the cereal would stick to the banana, which made it easier to get the cereal to her mouth. It progressed to smooshed banana and rice crispies stuck ALL OVER her face, in her hair and even down into her diaper.

She still likes Rice Crispies with banana slices. She doesn't much care for the video I have of her first encounter with this dish.

J_B, you've a way with words. I mean, what a pretty word picture you've drawn for us.

One good thing about cheerios is...at that age the babies don't have many teeth, so they end up gumming it till its soft.

So, I tried the cheerio thing.
Went to the store.. of course, being the srtange new momma I bought a BIG box of them.

Took her home , put her in her high chair, took off her shirt/shorts as I usually do when she eats!! Makes for easier clean up !
Put some cheerios in front of her and sat down to watch her.
After about 20-30 seconds of feeling them inher hand , she finally got one in her mouth .... and spit it back out.
Again, one in the mouth, spit it out.

She hates cheerios.

She has to be the only kid who doesnt like cheerios!
So now I have a big box of cheerios. HAHAHAH! Oh well.. next time I will buy in smaller quantities. For now, I have to get to eating some cheerios.

So, i had another idea.
Beans.
Little bean ( her nickname ) loves beans. So i went to central market and bought some black beans. Soaked, washed and cooked them until the were mash. Then same feeding ritual.. semi-naked with mom staring at her.. She loved them. What little got into her mouth that is.
In her bath that night I found bean mash behind her ear!!
This finger food stage is wonderful.
I dont fret too bad over her nutrients. I know she will get some food in her mouth and a baby KNOWS when they are hungry. I just dont want her to associate finger foods with cookies and candy. I want her to learn about food in a good way.... hence the nutritional worry. ;-)

Black beans were a huge hit with both my niece and nephew starting at about 5 months on. Don't worry about the cheerios, she'll come around - I betcha she will.

<edited, thanks Beth>

50 months? i'm guessing that means 5 months

yeah, the cheerios will have their time, shewolfnm. it's a lovely stage, the food picking up examining tossing around mashing on body stage. actually one of my favourite times to be taking care of the little people (my dogs appreciate it as well, extra snacks for them!)

Dogs are good vacuum cleaners! And, in a pinch, good baby cleaners too.