Feeding the 9 Month Old - Finger Foods

from Minnesota Extension Service University of Minnesota

Does your baby eat most foods with his fingers while eating? Drink from a cup with a little help? Hold and lick the spoon after it is dipped into food? These are the first steps in learning how to eat by one's self. Have your baby seated and watch him closely as he eats.

If your baby grabs for the spoon, you can make meals easier by using two spoons - one for you and one for him. While your baby practices, you can feed him a few spoonfuls.

Let your little one try out the new skill of picking things up with his thumb and forefinger. Sometimes a baby will chomp down on the spoon with new teeth--so hard you can't remove it from his mouth. He's playing a game. Laugh and offer him another spoonful of food. If he's hungry, he'll let go of the spoon in his mouth.

• Small pieces of soft, mild cheese. However, big pieces can choke your baby.
• Soft toast, pieces of tortilla, rice, and bagel halves.
• Plain crackers or wafers.
• Cooked vegetable strips or pieces such as potato, carrot, peas, green or waxed beans, Zucchini, and sweet potato. Avoid round carrot slices - raw or cooked.
• Peeled soft fruit wedges or slices like banana, apple, peach, pear, plum, avocado, melon.
• Soft, tender, small pieces of cooked meat, chicken or cooked egg yolk. Stringy meat can get caught in the baby's teeth.

Praise your baby for feeding himself, even if he is very messy. If the mess bothers you, spread newspapers or a shower curtain under the high chair to catch dripped food.

By now your baby can eat most things the rest of the family eats. Take his portion out before you add salt and other seasonings. Don't give baby round and slippery foods, such as grapes or hotdog circles, or small, hard foods such as nuts, seeds, carrot slices or popcorn that could choke him. Finally, avoid peanut butter, as it may cause an allergic reaction.

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