The Humbled Homemaker: Starting Solids: 5 Finger Foods for Baby (and 5 to avoid)

Welcome back to First Year Friday--and the 4th installment of the Starting Solids series. If you haven't already, enter the giveaway for Super Baby Food, an incredibly helpful book by Ruth Yaron. Giveaways for Norwex eco-friendly cloths and A Natural Noel eBook are also still happening!!

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For today's post, I decided to list 5 Finger Foods for Baby. I'll be honest, I ~~sometimes~~ too often fed my girls the typical puffs (albeit organic) or cheerios. These seemed like ideal finger snacks for baby. And there may be nothing really wrong with them.
But...like I mentioned in this post, I don't know if I will even feed grains during the first year to any future babies.
So if we give up puffs and cheerios, what will baby eat? There's plenty!
Check out this list of my top 5 finger foods, and please add your own in the comments!

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1. Peas. My girls absolutely LOVE peas (still!). They even eat them frozen. Of course you want to supervise, but peas have little choking risk.
2. Small chunks of ripe banana. Babies can easily mash small chunks of banana, and, again, the choking hazard is minimal.
3. Small chunks of ripe avocado. If the avocado is not ripe enough, there is a bigger choking hazard, so make sure it's just ripe enough to cut into chunks (but not totally mushy). If you can mash a chunk between your fingers, it should be fine.

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4. Beans! My girls still LOVE beans! I would make sure they are cooked to be very, very soft, and I don't recommend lima beans, as the outer skin can be tough and a choking hazard (you can peel them, but that takes forever!). My girls especially like black beans.
5. Bite-size pieces of cooked carrots. Again, make sure they are cooked to be very, very soft! You do not want to feed raw carrots to your baby for quite a while (like, until they have teeth!).

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5 Foods to Avoid Feeding Baby
The following foods are choking hazards and shouldn't be fed to baby whole until at least age 3:
1. Grapes. This is a big one. Little Girl is 3 1/2, and she JUST started eating grapes whole. (And it still scares me some--especially if she spills them on the floor, where Baby Girl can find them!). When babies are small, you can peel and quarter grapes. As they get a little older and are more comfortable chewing (and have all their teeth), you can just quarter them, then slice them in half.

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2. Popcorn. The kernel pieces, especially, can be choking hazards. I think Little Girl has only eaten popcorn once or twice.
3. Raw carrots. Make sure your child has a full set of teeth and can chew very well before handing over a carrot stick.
4. Bubblegum. I still don't think Little Girl has ever chewed it.

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5. Nuts. If there is no family history of nut allergies (there is in our family), you can give baby nuts after a certain point (consult your physician), but they need to be chopped finely or made into a butter that is very thinned out.

What are your favorite finger foods for baby? What foods do you avoid?
*Disclaimer: Please consult your trusted medical professional before deciding what to feed your baby.

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