What to do next : feeding a 9 month old...

[etwahl]

we've done well with solids so far (once a day). successfully introduced peas, beans, bananas, apples, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, pears, peaches, and avocado.

i'm wondering what to try next. i know i need to get out my child of mine book, but i find i have less time now than when evan was gone (why, i have no idea...maybe because i'm actually making meals in the evenings when he gets home, and trying to also put the house together).

we have up to this point done jarred food, even though i really wanted to make my own and had fully intended (bad mommy). i just never HAD the time, and then the jarred seemed easier. plus the stuff we eat i didn't feel comfortable giving to her just yet most of the time.

so what should we try next? so far, she hasn't seemed allergic to the things we've introduced, though i am not going to introduce wheat, and probably want to wait on meat and such, simply because she really had a rough start with allergies (i eliminated wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, and a whole host of stuff). i have since added everything back, although do eat dairy and soy in very small quantities still.

should we try finger food? is she ready at this age? she eats great. she eats a stage 2 size of baby food each night. but i know she needs more texture in her food, and i don't want to be lazy and only feed jarred.

Please help with quick suggestions!!!

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

Tammy,
We started on Tristan on finger foods recently and I didn't know if he was ready but I was amazed how much he seemed to take to it and enjoy it.

His favorite is cheese...I use my fingers to cut up the cheese (two slices a feeding he loves it so), and also I put cheerios on the same "buffet"...he always finishes all of the chhese before moving on!!!! The cheerios scared me to death but he seemed fine with them. I also have cute up bread for him and added it. Today I gave him a frilled cheese sandwhich cut up using my fingers, the bread was a little buttery but he loved it.

We also jsut started giving him a fig newton cut up with my fingers too...BUT make certain her sleeves are rolled up, that she is wearing a bib, and that you have a cloth near by...these are MESSY!!!!

I have no idea if any books would "agree" to this, I haven't read one , but his is what we are doing...
HTH!!!
Neve
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[kfcboston]

Tammy, we started finger food recently, too, and DS LOVES them. He's increasingly refusing the spoon, seems to me!! He really wants to do it himself. But I, like you, am being carefull with dairy - none for him until one year. So it really limits when I offer him - even some stage 3 jars have dairy! But give it a shot! If she's not ready I'm sure she'll let you know.

[lisams]

9 months is about the time we started finger foods. Cheerios are a good one - if you're nervous about choking you could soak them in water or milk the first few times. DD loved cheese so much and I had to eliminate it for the first 6 months due to sensitivity but she's over that. We first gave it to her shredded (using the bigger size on the shredder) just to make sure she wouldn't choke. Some other things we tried around that age were small pieces of banana and noodles cooked very tender.

We also started yogurt at that time, and it is by far DD's favorite. It is very different than most dairy and Lauren might do okay with it even though she had issues with dairy.

HTH!
Lisa

[muskiesusan]

The first finger food I gave Nick was Barbara Breakfast O's. They are similiar to Cheerios but wheat and dairy free. I also found they disolved faster than regular Cheerios, which made me more comfortable with them since I was a freak about choking. I bought these at a health food store.

Hope that helps.

Susan
Mom to Nicholas 10/01/01
& Baby #2 due 4/23/04!!!!

[nathansmom]

I feed Nathan whatever I happen to be eating. If I am eating cheese I break a very small piece off for him to eat. He loves finger foods. He loves the gerber wagon wheels. He also loves crackers and some gingerbread cookies that my dh buys. I have given him baby peas which he loves to pick up and eat. Shredded cheese is also a favorite. Gosh I could go on but people might think I'm a bad mom when the hear what I've let Nathan eat. If you remember I was very worried about allergies at first but nothing has bothered him yet. I watch very closely for a reaction as I am allergic to alot of foods.

[LucyG]

At 9.5 months, my DD is eating solids usually twice a day. We still do a jar of food every now and then, but I am moving her gradually to table foods. She is still eating infant cereal with gusto, but also loves (and has for the past few weeks) to feed herself these:

cooked baby carrots (I buy them canned) cut up into cubes English peas (I put a few at a time on her high chair tray) Cheerios (BIG favorite!!)
cooked green beans torn into tiny pieces
toast strips (just began this week - see my other post!)
plain yogurt (by spoon)
little banana chunks, and crackers.

She has always done really well with textures, and did not even want solids foods until she was 7.5 months old. Since we started so late and she seemed ready for them, I have moved her on to finger foods. We have not done any meats yet, nor egg. She has done fine with the yogurt, as far as dairy goes. She eats regular adult applesauce, and that has more texture than the baby food kind. I would suggest starting with some Cheerios broken in half. We did this for several weeks before any other finger foods, and it seemed to work well. Good luck!

Edited to add: I forgot about sweet potatoes. Those were really our transition from jarred food to more texture. I started by mashing up a little baked sweet potato with breastmilk to give her with a spoon, and now she just eats little chunks of potato with her fingers, off the high chair tray. Half the time I forget to even warm them up!

She is also still nursing a lot, at least 5 or 6 times per day (some of those times are brief snacks).

[Rachels]

I agree that you can start offering more table foods. If you do a search under 'finger foods," you'll get some great old threads with good ideas. Anything soft or quick-dissolving will work. Teeth, we've discovered, really aren't a factor. Abby eats what we eat.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[etwahl]

thanks for the feedback everyone. of course now I want a grilled cheese since i haven't had one forever!!!

if i do try cheese and/or yogurt, does it matter what kind of either? should yogurt be plain? or plain with me adding fruit?

rachel, since abigail had sensitivities similar to lauren, did you wait on feeding her cheese/yogurt and wheat for any period of time?

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[LucyG]

We have just used plain yogurt. I wanted to start with that, since I was afraid she might reject plain if she had yogurt with fruit first. I keep meaning to get some YoBaby to try, but only one store in town carries it, and I always forget to stop for it. I have been giving her Dannon plain thus far.

[etwahl]

what's yobaby? i have a feeling our small "town" doesn't have it :(

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[mharling]

It's organic yogurt specifically for babies and toddlers. It comes in 4 oz. containers. We just picked some up yesterday and will be trying it in a few minutes!

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
http://www.shutterfly.com/osnt.jsp?i=67b0de21b356c32425b2 - Halloween Pics!

[alkagift]

Tammy,
YoBaby is organic whole milk yogurt (instead of the lowfat you and I might eat) in small 4oz. containers made by the Stonyfield Yogurt company (www.stonyfield.com). It comes in flavors (vanilla, fruits). I think any whole milk organic yogurt would be similar, although Stonyfield says that they don't have food starches, preservatives, etc and others do--I guess reading the labels would establish that. I would recommend plain at first with your own fruit. Most of that sweetened stuff is too sweet for me, but I know that's my adult's tastes.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[lfp2n]

I've been starting some finger/different foods as DD has basically tried all the Earths Best strained food jars with no problems. We've done tiny bits of cheese, cheerios, I was breaking them up but this week she suddenly seemed to get the chewing thing, as she's been eating them whole. Its really sad she can pick them up and put them to her mouth but hasn't figured out how to let go so she looks really put out that shes not actually eating it so I have to feed them to her. Banana mashed very coarsly, with no milk, pieces of bagels which seem to just annoy her as she can't get any thing to eat off them, tiny bits of bread from the inside, ie soft no crust, and yoghurt.I went for the healthy approach and bought a huge tub of unsweetened plain but she didn't like it, I think it was just too yoghurty even with applesauce mixed in. She loves Yobab, you can get it in our local grocery store in our 'small town'.

Good Luck, I love hearing about what other people are trying as sometimes I feel a bit out of ideas!

Lucy and Olivia (3/27/03)

[MartiesMom2B]

Tammy:

I find this website very helpful with all of my solids questions. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ It has recipes for making stuff, but I find that they have a chart that has a guide of what to feed when that I find even more valuable.

I'm glad that I am not the only one to find that feeding solids can be difficult!

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03