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Is Your Baby Ready for Finger Foods and Self-Feeding?
Finger foods for babies do more than provide nutrition! Finger foods help baby learn fine motor skills and also allow baby to engage in the wonder and fun of food experimentation. Allowing your baby to explore and have fun with foods may be messy however it will help your baby develop a positive relationship with food. When your baby reaches between 7-8 months old and has a developed pincher grasp, you may think about offering him finger foods to engage fine motor skills and food exploration. The pincer grasp does not have to be perfect but if your baby is able to pick up small finger foods, it will help ease frustration.
While all babies are different and there is no set-in-stone age for when to introduce finger foods, the average age for introducing baby finger food is between 7 and 8 months of age. Your baby should be able to "chew" using his or her gums to mash foods. As mentioned, your baby should also have a pretty good pincher grasp. The pincher grasp is the ability to grab and hold objects between the thumb and the fore finger. If your baby has the fine motor skill to maneuver, grab and hold onto foods with the pincher grasp, then your baby is more than likely ready for finger foods.
As with anything your baby is learning to accomplish, there is a level of frustration that comes with each milestone and accomplishment. If you offer your baby finger foods and your baby is not physically ready to pick up and hold onto the small bits of food, your baby may become frustrated. It is important to limit baby's frustration so as not to inadvertently begin to foster a negative relationship with food and self-feeding.
What are Good Finger Foods to Offer Baby?
Ideal finger foods are those foods that baby can easily pick up and easily mash between his gums. Finger foods help baby begin to learn to self-feed. Appropriate baby finger foods are any foods that baby has already had, and anything that you can make into small soft and mashable bits! Even if your baby does not have teeth, your baby can still eat finger foods. Babies do not chew until they get their molars in and molars generally appear between age 16 months and 24 months of age! Babies mash food between their gums!
◊IMPORTANT NOTE◊
Some parents will tell you one brand or recipe for teething biscuits or rusks is great and never crumbled or broke. Other parents will tell you the very same brand/recipe was horrible and their child almost choked due to crumbling or breaking. There is no brand of teething biscuits/crackers or recipe for teething biscuits/crackers that is guaranteed not to crumble or break off into pieces!!
The homemade baby finger food ideas below are healthy to make and easy for baby to eat. Baby finger food does not have to come from a box of cereal or a tube of puffs! Try these healthy baby finger food ideas and encourage your baby to self-feed.
FRUITS take out seeds!
Fruits make great baby finger foods! Colourful and highly nutritious, small soft bits of fruit will have your baby's fingers pinching away for hours!
VEGGIES - Vegetables, like fruits, make great baby finger foods!
Remember, you can make your baby any type of finger food as long as that food is soft and mashable and is something your baby has already had! Try small bits of shredded meats, and cheeses even! Allow your baby to explore finger foods and help your baby develop a positive relationship with foods!
Margaret Meade is a WAHM and is the mother of 3 boys. Currently the Editor/Owner of http://wholesomebabyfood.com/ and WholesomeToddlerFood.com, I enjoy the opportunity to help parents and caregivers start their children on the road to good healthy eating habits! Nutrition, journalism and IT are my very diverse backgrounds; enabling the ease of writing infant and toddler nutrition articles and websites. I wish you and your family many years of happy and healthy eating!
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