Finger Foods - Teaching young children to eat
Created | Updated Sep 24, 2002
Quite often children are determined to feed themselves before they have the level of co-ordination required to use a spoon. They end up at the end of a meal wearing most of it and extremely frustrated and more often than not still hungry!
The age of the child determines how they actually try and feed themselves. If they are not old enough to have developed the pincer type grip we associate with picking up small objects like peas and bits of carpet fluff, they will 'palm' their food. This entails grabbing a huge fistful of the food placed in front of them, aiming the fist in the general direction of the mouth and mashing it in. Occasionally it all goes in the mouth successfully, but more often than not morsels of their meal can be found in the eyes, nose, ears and hair.
Advice usually given for this stage is to seat them comfortably in a high chair, as it is far easier to feed a child who is not trying to wriggle out of your arms and crawl off into the sunset. Give them a spoon while you feed them with another and make the food as sticky as possible so they actually get some to adhere to the spoon rather than it sliding off all the time. Load babies spoon and help them get it to their mouth. Wait for a few minutes so they can experiment and practice before offering your spoonful. That way they’ll learn the basics of using a spoon, and will in time take over from you.
Remember it takes years to develop expertise in the use of cutlery, just look around your office and you’ll note from the stains on neckties of some adult males that they haven’t quite mastered it yet!
Another thing a parent can do at this stage, which usually occurs around the age of 7-9 months, is to introduce finger foods into their children’s diets. Try to choose finger foods that are not too hard or slippery, and make them into sizes and shapes that are easy to pick up and chew. Almost any food can become a finger food if you can cut it up into bite size pieces, and a few ideas are included below. Please note that jelly, mashed potatoes and baked beans are excluded for obvious reasons.
Steamed veggies such as carrot sticks, green beans, broccoli and sweet potato sticks
Small chunks of cheeses such as mild cheddar and edam
Soft ripe fresh fruit, like banana, peach, seedless melon and papaya
Soft cooked fruit like apple chunks and pear slices
Canned fruits
Ripe avocado
Toast soldiers
Mini-muffins
Cooked pasta shapes with a little or no sauce, or just grate a small amount of cheese on top
Meatballs
Cherry tomatoes
Unsweetened breakfast cereals (avoid those with honey or nuts listed in the ingredients)
Cocktail Sausages
Bread sticks (check the salt content though)
Fairy Cakes (especially if you get an older brother or sister to help make them)
Sponge Fingers
The above list is by no means exhaustive and is intended to give a few ideas for foods you may not already have thought of.
A word of caution, never leave your baby alone while they are eating. During the development of their chewing and swallowing abilities, they are often at risk of choking
on food and may at time need a little help. When preparing foods for your baby you should also avoid adding additional flavours such as salt and sugar as babies systems can't cope with excess salt in food or sugar and anyway they do not need it. Don't give citrus fruits, egg white, shellfish, nuts and chocolate to a baby before 1 year of age as these foods can cause allergic reactions.
