My baby isn’t a great eater but does love finger foods.  Can you give me ideas of what foods I can give him other than the oatcakes he loves at the moment?

My baby isn’t a great eater but does love finger foods.  Can you give me ideas of what foods I can give him other than the oatcakes he loves at the moment?

It’s very common for babies to prefer to feed themselves than to be spoon fed, particularly about the ages of 7 – 9 months and as long as you provide them with a wide range of healthy options it’s definitely to be encouraged! 

Lots of foods can be offered as finger foods. Simply cut or slice the foods up into a shape your baby can hold and manoeuvre easily, chewing or gnawing or sucking and always stay with your baby when he's feeding himself.

Choose from foods such as:

• slices of bread or toast (breads like pitta, nann or chappati are good, too)
• slices of eating apple
• sticks of carrot, celery, cucumber
• tiny sandwiches with Marmite, smooth peanut butter, grated cheese, cottage cheese; sugar-free fruit spreads; mashed banana
• savoury cheese biscuits (no-salt versions)
• cubes of cheese
• peas (cooked, or even frozen, as a snack)
• cooked pasta shapes - bow shapes or chunky macaroni are easy to pick up
• cooked vegetables

Good Luck!

I’d like to sweeten some of the fruit purees I give to my baby but I know that too much sugar is not good for him.  Can I use honey instead?

Honey shouldn’t be introduced into a baby’s diet until some time after his first birthday.  This is because it contains a spore that, whilst harmless to adults, can cause a severe form of food poisoning in babies – called Botulism.   It’s not a good idea to add sugar or syrups either as they can encourage a sweet tooth and may lead to tooth decay when teeth first start to come through.  Instead, buy seasonal, ripe fruit as these will be naturally flavoursome and sweet.  Finally, it’s worth remembering that a babies taste buds are nowhere near as accustomed to the sugary tastes that we are so even if a food tastes a little bland to you it will probably be fine for your baby.



I am about to start weaning my baby and want to make quite a lot of her food myself but I am unsure of what texture it should be.  Can you help?

First purees should be quite runny, resembling the consistency of thick soup and made up of only one or two ingredients.  This is because your baby’s digestion system is very immature and copes better when it is confronted with very simple foods.  However, as your baby becomes accustomed to eating solids it is advisable to start making the transition from pureed to more textured mixtures by introducing a little mashed or grated food into his usual purees.  This is because research shows that babies that are not introduced to more chewy food with lumps between the ages of 6 to 9 months are twice as likely as other children to become fussy eaters when they are older.


I have just started to offer solid foods to my baby but whenever he sees the spoon he gets frustrated and sometime starts to cry.

This is a fairly common reaction for some babies.  Afterall, ever since he has been born he has always known food to come from a soft bottle teat or, if your are breast feeding, from you.  A hard plastic spoon is a totally new ball game that not only feels different in his mouth it also requires him to use his tongue in a very different way.  Feeding from the breast or bottle requires your baby to push his tongue forward as he sucks the milk.  However, taking food from a spoon requires your baby to use his tongue to push the food towards the back of his mouth ready to swallow.  This is why, when babies first taste solid foods they often push the food straight out again as they automatically push their tongue forward.  Many parents mistakenly take this to mean that their baby doesn’t like the food when in actually fact he/she is simply learning the art of eating.  One way to avoid your baby becoming distressed when you present him with solids is to offer them to him half way through a milk feed.  That way he won’t be so hungry that, if he can’t master the art of eating from a spoon straight away he gets frustrated.  Try dipping a clean finger tip into the bowl too and let him such the food from it.  Most importantly, don’t worry about it.  You’ll find that in a very short space of time he will be happily eating off a spoon as though he’s done it all his life!

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