If variety is the “spice of life,” why not introduce variety into your baby and toddler’s diet?

Seeds

Seeds are Super Foods.  Think about it: an entire plant grows from a little tiny seed.  So seeds must be packed with nutrients.  Seeds should be ground thoroughly into a course powder for maximum digestion and mixed into another food like yogurt.  Feed immediately after grinding, as with flax seeds above.  Don’t forget about pumpkins seeds!  They are high in zinc content and lots of other goodies for your body.  Mix ground seeds into yogurt, sauces, and dips.  Complete seeds that have not been ground or chewed very well may pass through the body whole.  Our purpose here is to feed our bodies, not the toilet.

Dips

Dips are fun, but messy, of course.  Babies and Toddlers LOVE to dip so let your child eat them with her fingers. Give your child a tiny bowl or a stainless steel sauce cup. (Onyx makes stainless steel plates and bowls that are perfect for this adventure in eating) You’ll find plenty of uses for them.  Make healthy dips out of yogurt, applesauce, and homemade salad dressings.  Color them with herbs and spices.  Parsley is loaded with phytonutrients (nutrients found in minute amounts in plants – phyto meaning plant), so mince it and stir into dips often.

Give your baby a 2-3 inch piece “stick” of fruit or veggie.  Partially cook these sticks of food.  The stick should be soft enough to bite off a piece, but hard enough to not break apart when baby is holding.  Show her how to dip the sticks into sauce and lick it off.  Other food sticks for dipping are slightly toasted bread, French toast, or teething biscuits.  She can use something hard that she can’t bite a piece off of (may cause choking), such as a hard, fat, thick cold carrot or a piece of a hard bagel shaped like a crescent.  Remember, we are learning manual dexterity while eating, not trying to develop Vanderbilt etiquette, so try to go with it.  Of course, there is always the good old spoon!

Best of luck with your new knowledge of Finger Foods!  Thank you to Dr. Greene for allowing me to share some fun and important information.  Visit me on my Facebook page at Super Baby Food!

The possibilities for finger foods for babies and toddlers are endless.  Here are more nutritious, organic and delicious ideas:

Proteins

Cook beans, lentils, dried peas well and let cool.  Smash them a bit so they are more flat than round.  There are so many legumes available and they are so inexpensive and super healthy.  Remember that the darker the color, the more the phytonutrients, (plant nutrients) so black beans are the winners.

Another high-protein finger food is hard-cook omega-3 organic free-range eggs, being sure that all yellow and white are thoroughly cooked so any salmonella is killed.  Break the egg into bite-sized pieces for finger foods.  It’s fun to add natural foods colors to mashed hard-cooked eggs.  A little beet juice will make pink (as in princesses), turmeric is bright yellow, spirulina is extremely green.  (If you haven’t heard of these foods, such as spirulina and turmeric, search for them online or look for them in your local natural foods store – they are Super-duper foods!)

Dairy

At 8 months, begin your little sweetie on organic yogurt with “active yogurt cultures.”  Yogurt with active cultures must be kept either refrigerated or frozen.  (Buyer beware:  There are now brands of yogurt at room temperature on the supermarket shelf–these do NOT contain live cultures.)   Refrigerated kefir is another fabulous dairy product containing healthy active cultures. Yogurt and kefir (a drink similar to yogurt) contain calcium and lots of protein too.

Shredded pieces of natural organic cheeses make nice finger foods also:  Swiss, provolone, mozzarella.  Large or small curds of cottage cheese work nicely too, and since they are white, can be colored for fun.

WARNING: Only dairy and cheese products be made from pasteurized milk, not raw milk, should be fed to babies and toddlers and other people who are immuno-compromised (weakened immune system), such as those with HIV, chronic disease, the elderly, and women who are pregnant.

Omega-3 Healthy Fats

For DHA and EPA, break up small pieces of canned salmon that lists high DHA and EPA amounts on the can.  You’ll find them in the natural foods store.  Flax seeds are high in lignans other omega-3′s (but not DHA and EPA).  Ground flax seeds (or other seeds) in your “Tribest” grinder or in a coffee grinder.  Eat them right away and do not store, because the oils turn rancid very quickly after the seeds have been broken open.  Be sure to clean all oils out of your coffee grinder thoroughly because rancid oils become toxic.  I like the “Tribest” blender/grinder because it can be taken apart and washed in the dishwasher where even the tiniest crevices get clean.

We complete our talk of fabulous finger foods for baby and toddlers by introducing seeds and dips!

Think of finger foods as small bits of normal-sized foods.  Finger foods should be well-cooked so they will be soft on baby’s sensitive gums.  Try to buy fresh, local, and organic produce.  If you notice your baby having trouble because the food is too slippery, help him get a hold by rolling it in toasted (not raw) wheat germ, or in oatmeal ground into powder in the blender,  or in the “dust” left at the bottom of Whole grain “o” shaped cereal boxes.  Don’t allow your baby to get frustrated by allowing her to attempt tasks that are above her skill level.

Vegetables

Clean and cook vegetables until they are soft and cut into small pieces no larger than a Cheerio.  Tiny broccoli florets and cooked, mashed sweet potato rolled into Cheerio-sized balls are Super Foods for baby.  Sprinkle spices and minced herbs into the mashed veggies to add a host of nutritious phytonutrients (plant nutrients).  Do not use imported spices as they may contain heavy metals.  Start with cinnamon, parsley, turmeric, cumin, etc.  Do not buy imported spices, as they may be contaminated with heavy metals.  One safe, ethical, and organic brand of spices is Frontier, which you can find in natural foods stores.  Be careful not to give babies and young children the hot spices – hot peppers, cayenne, etc.  Babies’ mouths are much more sensitive than ours.

Fruits

Make finger foods by cutting up soft pieces of peeled and cored fruits into bite-sized pieces:  banana, avocado, apples, pears, kiwi, peaches, papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, pomegranate and cucumbers with seeds removed.  Be sure to buy organic, especially those fruits considered by the Environmental Working Group as “the Dirty Dozen.”  Search their website (www.ewg.org) for “US: high pesticide level marks `Dirty Dozen’ fruits, vegetables.”

Whole Grains

We probably all know what raw kernels of brown rice look like—yes, the plain brown rice in the one-pound plastic bag on the supermarket shelf next to the lentils and beans.  But perhaps some of us are not yet familiar with the many other organic whole grains available at your local natural foods store.  Just as your baby should be introduced to a variety of vegetables and fruits, she should also be introduced to a variety of whole grains, such as quinoa, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, millet, oat groats, popcorn, rye, spelt, and, of course, brown rice.

They are easy to cook:  put one cup of whole wheat kernels into two or three cups of boiling water.  Cover, turn the heat down to low, and cook for 20-45 minutes, depending on the grain.  For example, to cook brown rice, boil two cups of water, measure in one cup of raw brown rice, turn the heat to low, cover and let simmer on low for 30 minutes.  Complete instructions can be found in cookbooks on the subject of whole grains at your local library, or search the internet.  The Super Baby Food book has complete instructions on the many ways you can feed your baby the cooled, cooked whole grains.

Whole grain “o” shaped cereal seems to be the staple of finger foods for babies for decades.  You may want to look for similar O-sized boxed cereals at your local natural foods store that are organic and unsweetened. Whole grain, organic pasta is also available at natural foods stores.  Cook and cut into Cheerio-sized pieces for finger foods.

Coming up…more Finger Foods starring Proteins, Dairy and Omega-3 Healthy Fats

Just as he has to learn any motor skills, your baby has to learn to use his hands and fingers to manipulate food into his mouth.  He must learn to use his mouth, tongue, and jaw muscles to move food around in his mouth to get it to the back in order to swallow.

The Rake: At first he will use his fingers shaped like a rake to move food on his high chair tray closer to him.  He will use the side of his hand—the pinky side of his hand—folded against the lower palm to scoop up bits of food.  It will take practice for him to get the food into his mouth.  Until his aim improves, food may miss his mouth and get mushed on his face instead.  Be patient with the mess during this learning process.

The Palmer Grasp:  At around 5 months, the palmer grasp develops.  Now your baby will use her four fingers to fold food against palm.  Her thumb is not yet used in the palmer grasp and sticks out like a sore thumb!  By about 7 months, thumb opposition begins to develop and finger foods will be held against the palm by both the fingers and the thumb (radial-palmer grasp).  At around 8-9 months, the fingertips, instead of the palm and fingers, begin to hold the food against the tip of the thumb (radial-digital grasp.)

The Pincer Grasp: Beginning sometime between 8 and 10 months, your baby will begin to use her index, ring, and pinky fingers against the lower thumb to grasp an object.  This crude pincer grasp eventually develops into a neat pincer grasp, where index finger and thumb delicately meet to pick up a Cheerio® or other small object.  This neat pincer grasp (also called the fine pincer grasp) usually develops around 12 months and allows baby to become very skilled at finger feeding.

Releasing:  After grasping is accomplished, your baby will practice the skill of releasing.  Yes, voluntarily releasing food is a skill that must be learned too!  Remember that she is learning, and not trying to annoy you, when she endlessly practices opening her hand to release food—most of the time to the floor.  When she looks down to see the food on the floor, she is learning object permanence—the understanding that objects out of sight still exist and do not disappear into thin air.

Now that you have been introduced to all the different ways your baby will self-feed, the next blog post will get to the good stuff – the food!

Finger foods are food pieces that your baby can pick up and eat by himself.  At first, finger foods are mostly tools for practice in self-feeding, which will help your baby to develop manual dexterity and give him more control of his mouth muscles. Practice at finger feeding also promotes the skills necessary for later self-feeding with a spoon.  Once these skills develop (9-10 months), finger foods will become an important nutritional part of your baby’s diet.

Babies’ tummies are small and they must eat frequently—no more than a few hours apart.  They should eat three small meals and two or three snacks daily.   Snacks should be as nutritious as main meals; don’t think of snacks for babies as dessert foods or sugary treats.

WARNING:  NEVER LEAVE YOUR CHILD ALONE WHILE SHE IS EATING.  WATCH HER CAREFULLY AS SHE EATS IN CASE OF CHOKING.

Remember that baby’s mouth taste and sensitivity changes often. You may have to offer the same food up to 15 times before baby will accept it!  Baby may accept a food one day and refuse it the next.   Offer your baby a variety of healthy foods.  Never push or force your baby to eat.  Keep mealtimes pleasant and as stress-free as possible.

Let your baby eat plenty of finger foods. Your baby may stop accepting the spoon from you and insist on feeding themselves. This is normal and a good sign of independence. Don’t dismay, just let her feed herself with her fingers, a spoon, or by dipping foods into sauces as explained in the next few guest blog posts. This week’s blog posts will tell you everything you need to know about feeding your baby healthy, organic, nutritious finger foods. Stay tuned!