Weaning begins with single fruits and vegetables. The best thing to do is to start with mashed, blended, or soft-cooked types of foods.
That is usually potato or sweet potato, broccoli, carrot, or when it comes to fruits, pears, or apples. Most parents try to mix rice with the baby’s milk and see how the baby will react.
Do many parents have questions about what finger foods can I give my 6-month-old? They do. As a general rule, you should introduce one new food at a time, and only when your baby shows signs of being ready.
As soon as your child has reached six months old, she/he can eat most types of finger foods in small amounts.
Food is meant to be fun for babies so there’s no need to limit them if they are eating the recommended amount as long as it is healthy food (with an occasional treat thrown in).
A baby’s appetite will change as they get into different stages of growth. Besides fruits and vegetables, there are other finger foods a 6-month-old can enjoy like breadsticks, graham crackers, and oatmeal cookies.
Are finger foods safe for 6 month old?
Yes if your baby is 6 months old and if the foods are prepared in safe ways, it’s safe for babies to eat. For example, the most effective method is to make food purees.
Therefore, make sure that all finger foods are nicely squashed, and they are soft so that the baby can swallow them with ease.
Under six months of age, there is no specific food that would be considered safe for a 6-month-old baby. Parents should proceed with caution if they are feeding small finger foods to their infants.
What finger foods can I give my 6-month-old? We established that, but some items might be unsafe for an infant like raw honey, fruit juices, soft fruit, and soft vegetables.
There are risks when infants have these types of foods as well as when they consume older finger foods such as melon and grapes in large quantities.
What can I give my 6-month-old to eat?
What can I give my 6-month-old to eat, or what finger foods can I give my 6-month-old? The answer is the same. You can give them vegetables and fruits, as well as breadsticks and oatmeal crackers.
Here’s the list of the foods your baby can eat:
- Breast milk or formula
- Fruits that are pureed or strained like pears, bananas, apples, peaches, etc.
- Vegetables cooked or pureed, like potato, sweet potato, broccoli, carrot, etc.
- Meats like chicken, beef, and pork, also pureed or mashed
- Oats and barley cereals
- Mashed or pureed legumes
- A small portion of pureed cottage or pasteurized cheese
Baby food is generally made of pureed, cooked vegetables and fruit. But that’s not to say that your six-month-old won’t enjoy veggies or fruit cut into pieces raw.
They may be more used to the texture after six months at the breast than they are from being fed with a spoon.
Most vegetables are safe for your baby to eat when raw. However, many fruits can be too acidic for an infant’s stomach until after they have weaned off of it completely.
You can offer your 6-month-old a variety of new foods for a healthy start. Offer your baby strained pureed vegetables, fruits, and cereals.
Purees are easy to eat by simply using a spoon or “piping” it into their mouth with an infant feeding device.
If your baby is ready for finger foods, offer him or her pieces of cut-up banana, apple slices, celery sticks, and other soft vegetables.
How Big Should finger food be for a 6-month-old?
Babies that are around 6 to 8 months old grasp food with their entire hands, therefore the food should be around 2 inches long.
They must hold a piece of food by enclosing their fingers around it. If the food is too small, they are not able to reach it, as their fist cannot be opened.
So, what finger foods can I give my 6-month-old? Well, it’s important that the food is not too small. For this age group, the easiest way to eat is the food of long strips.
The answer to this question depends on your child’s age and size as well. Some children will be able to sit with just one finger inserted into food before chowing down.
For other babies, this could be more difficult as it involves sitting in their lap to eat the food.
Can my 6-month-old have toast?
A day after a 6-month-old is born, most babies can have a piece of bread, often about ½ inch thick. Of course, this is not strict, but do not give a baby a toast before she or he is younger than 4 months.
This is because babies can be exposed to potential allergens, that can be in certain products, as well as fruits like strawberries, and we want to avoid that.
Soon after your baby starts eating solid foods, you can introduce bread to him/her. If it is done appropriately, there is no reason to delay it!
Summary
When your baby turns 6 months, you can start introducing different types of foods. When it comes to finger food, this is a perfect time.
This is leading us to the question, what finger foods can I give my 6-month-old? For starters try single fruits and vegetables, like potatoes and carrots, apples and pears.
You can try to prepare it in different ways, blend it, mashed it, or even serve it as soft-cooked. Besides mentioned fruits and vegetables, you can also try to give to baby pureed meats, oats, and even breadsticks.
When it comes to the size, the food should be bigger than the size of babys’ palms.
At this stage, they are grabbing the food with their whole hands and they are unable to open the fist. At this point the best food to offer a baby is long strips of food, so they can eat it with ease.
