Finger food recipes for baby showers

We took our beloved baked feta pasta and turned it into a dessert. The blueberries and feta turn into a creamy, jam-like dip and a fun alternative to fruit and cheese plate. Serve it with crackers and toasted bread, or go sweeter with some graham crackers and shortbread.

Get the Baked Feta & Blueberries recipe.

9

Antipasto Bites

Fresh tortellini make these the hearty bite-size appetizer of our dreams. If you're not a fan of olives, pepperoncini peppers would be a delicious substitute!

Get the Antipasto Bites recipe.

10

Cheese Straws

Crunchy, flaky, and cheesy. What's not to love? These are studded with cheddar, green onions, and sesame seeds for the most flavor-packed cheese straws we've ever had. Using store-bought puff pastry makes them extremely easy to pull together for your baby shower!

Get the Cheese Straws recipe.

11

Baked Brie In Puff Pastry

12

Cheeseburger Cups

We love using muffin tins for genius hacks like this. These kid-inspired "cups" are pieces of white bread that get molded and then filled with a ground beef mixture that tastes just like a cheeseburger. Don't forget to drizzle with your favorite condiments and top with a pickle chip.

Get the Cheeseburger Cups recipe.

13

Greek Feta Dip

Loaded with cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta, this dip was inspired by our Greek salad. (Though it's missing the olives, onion, and oregano.) For a smoother, fluffy consistency, we added yogurt and cream cheese. Full disclaimer: This recipe makes a LOT of dip. We've never had a problem demolishing it, but it's easily halved if you're having a smaller baby shower.

Get the Greek Feta Dip recipe.

14

Chicken & Waffles Sliders

15

Baked Feta Bites

If you’re a fan of our cranberry brie bites, we’ve got news for you: There’s a new app in town, and it’s inspired by another fan fave, baked feta pasta. This cheesy finger food features the flavors you know and love, all nestled into bite-sized cups of golden crescent roll dough.

Get the Baked Feta Bites recipe.

16

Black-Eyed Pea Bruschetta

Simply toss canned black-eyed peas with raw chopped collard greens, bell pepper, scallions, and garlic, and toss with an apple cider vinaigrette. Pile the mix onto toasted baguette slices and top with crispy, smoky pork to complete this super shareable appetizer.

Get the Black-Eyed Pea Bruschetta recipe.

17

Spinach Artichoke Zucchini Bites

These little guys are the perfect baby shower party appetizer. As the zucchini becomes tender, the spinach and artichoke topping gets nice and melty. If you want a little extra color on your bites, switch the oven to broil on medium and cook them a couple minutes more. (Just keep an eye on them.)

Get the Spinach Artichoke Zucchini Bites recipe.

18

Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Pizza Dip

We wanted to make sure this dip was absolutely perfect, so we tested it over and over (and over) again until it was. The Delish team never complained once. Make this for your baby shower and it'll be gone in 10 seconds flat—we can almost guarantee it.

Get the Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Pizza Dip recipe.

19

Loaded Cheese Ball Bites

These easy bites are perfect for a baby shower. We love their little pretzel handles, but feel free to leave them out or even make one huge cheeseball instead!

Get the Loaded Cheese Ball Bites recipe.

20

Shrimp Tostada Bites

If you want to make things easy on yourself, use store-bought guac to fill these adorable little cups, but we gotta warn you—homemade guacamole is ALWAYS better.

Get the Shrimp Tostada Bites recipe.

Finger menu. Meals for babies

Actually, there is a whole book with "finger" recipes for little children who have not yet mastered cutlery, but can already eat with their hands. But I didn’t read it (once), but in the course of random experiments in our family, such finger dishes for our baby became popular.

Babies usually begin complementary foods at 6 months of age in addition to their main food (breast milk or adapted formula). Of course, at first it is mashed potatoes and liquid cereals, juices - something that is easy to swallow. But the child grows and quickly masters chewing skills (even if he has very few or no teeth at all!), improves fine motor skills and shows independence. All these skills help to develop food, especially if it is appetizing, entertaining and you can eat it yourself.

After a year, it usually becomes easier for parents - the baby already eats a lot from the common table, allergies for many go away or are not so acute - and it's time to turn meals into a joyful activity.

It is common to give children dairy products/cottage cheese, cereals, vegetables, fruit and meat/fish during the day. Here are some examples from personal experience.

We have breakfast with cats and dogs (don't be afraid, not a single cat or dog was hurt!) Many kids refuse porridge from time to time. Do not want and that's it! You can diversify cereal food and give self-baked cakes instead of porridge (you can also just make children's cookies or bread, but this is not so useful and interesting).

It only takes a short time to mix 2-3 cups of baby porridge (rice, buckwheat, corn, or multigrain) with about 1 cup of milk (or if the porridge is dairy, water), an egg, and a tablespoon of cane sugar (but usually prepared porridge is already sweet, then you can not add sugar). You can add berries or some grated fruit or chopped nuts, put on a baking sheet greased with olive oil, an ordinary tablespoon or teaspoon with neat rounds, or faces, or hearts (the fantasy is limitless - you can "draw" everything that your baby loves) and put in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Voila, your baby will be happy to eat delicious and lovingly prepared healthy food by mom!

You can also add baby cottage cheese instead of milk to this recipe - it will also be delicious.

We dine with green trees and the sun. Boiled broccoli is so healthy and so similar to a tree or a bush that if you give a child a little show and show how you can eat it all, he will surely be delighted.

My daughter is one year old, she knows how tall the trees are in the street. At lunch, I once showed her, using the example of broccoli, how you can pick it up yourself and show a tall tree. She proudly takes a piece, lifts it up, and then happily puts it in her mouth. Cauliflower for her is a "blooming" tree.

Slices of boiled carrots or peppers (but it takes longer and you need to remove the skin so that the baby does not choke) or potatoes, or half an egg yolk can serve as the sun. You can also take the sun, show how bright it shines and ... gobble it up!

Cucumber straw weed, tomato flowers and green peas - the most common foods can be served as an entertaining side dish so that the baby develops fine motor skills by picking up pieces with his hands, learns to chew on his own (which does not happen with puree) and, importantly, learns to control feeling full, eating exactly as much as his body requires.

Meat or fish meatballs or pieces of large "adult" cutlets will perfectly play the role of "balls", "balls", running past the "bears". Yes, and just a "patty" like a child, if he sees how she likes her mother.

From the pulp of bread you can "make" a flower or an animal and give it to your child as a reward for a wonderfully eaten dinner!

We have lunch from a cup. All children learn to drink independently in different ways. Someone quickly learns to hold a cup with both hands and drink from it;

In any case, encourage and help your baby improve by giving him more opportunities to drink without your help, offer different options - and let him choose the one that he likes at the moment.

A glass of milk, milk drink, yoghurt or baby kefir is good for an afternoon snack. You can have a bite of not too hard chopped or even whole fruit (if it is convenient for the baby to hold it, for example, a banana) or a bagel, or diet bread (because it crunches so funny!).

Princess's dinner on a pea. In my case, this is the princess "on the berry". As soon as the season of berries has begun, the daughter no longer wants to eat porridge from a spoon, but if a delicious berry flaunts on top of each spoon, then another thing! Many more parents give the child a second spoon so that he also has the opportunity to carry it in a plate and learn to eat with it. In addition, sometimes the baby is so proud of this fact that even if he fails to get anything into it, he is distracted from the whims and for both cheeks he eats what his mother offers him from the other ("main") spoon.

Soft (for example, soaked from compote) dried fruits will be an excellent and healthy dessert before bathing and going to bed...

Let your little ones eat with appetite to please their mother!

Author: Inna Kashalot

Source: www.supertyle.ru

finger food - Encyclopedia baby food

Finger food is a fun way to encourage the development of motor coordination and skills for biting, chewing and self-feeding. Food in pieces should be easy to grasp by children's fingers and long-term storage, and should not contain bones or seeds.

As soon as the child begins to take food with his fingers and put them into his mouth with reasonable hand-eye coordination, then the fun begins! Let your child experiment with soft snacks such as a banana or peach that can be “hand-mashed” to the right consistency. The more a child experiments with finger food, the faster he will masterfully feed himself.

Finger food helps keep a child's food interest. As soon as he begins to feed himself on his own, then new taste horizons open up for him. What child refuses to try to bring the product to his mouth on his own, even if he didn’t really like it before.

Contents:

Very often mothers think at what age should they give finger food to their baby.

Honestly, even for me it's a difficult question. It's just that sometime between eight and nine months, the baby began to eat small pieces of food. The change in the consistency of food by age is very well described in the WHO recommendation, so it should be guided by.

Consistency of food up to a year. Click on me!!!

However, you should not do it blindly and try to feed the baby in pieces at a certain age, perhaps he will not be ready yet. Children are all different, some want food in pieces, almost from the beginning of complementary foods, others are not ready for lumpy food for up to a year or more. Therefore, any decision on finger food is made based on the child and his readiness. An excellent preparation for finger food is a nibbler, which will prepare the child for lumpy food.

The child has no teeth

A child's gums are incredibly strong, as is the tongue, so the number of teeth is not an indicator of whether to give finger food or not. If the decision has been made to start complementary foods and the baby is doing well with mashed foods, then you can safely start giving small pieces of soft food when the baby is ready for it. At this stage, it is important to let the child try to eat food of a different consistency, more complex, in order to train the maxillofacial apparatus. Thus, the child gradually prepares for the full chewing of food with the help of the entire jaw, teeth and tongue.

How to know if finger food is safe for a child

A good rule of thumb to help prevent choking is to avoid anything hard (e.g. raw carrots), round (e.g. whole grapes), sticky (e.g. , a spoonful of nut butter) or too gummies (such as gummies). At first, the child is given pieces of food in the form of sticks, which can be easily clamped in the child's chick, later, when the child begins to control the finger grip better, you can move on to cubes. At first, finger food should be soft, boiled and melt in your mouth. As a child learns to manage with such products, it is possible to complicate the task and switch to fresh soft foods, etc.

Foods that squeeze easily between fingers are good for older children and for younger children. Around 16-18 months, many babies are ready for more complex textures. During this period, cutting food into pea-sized pieces is also a good idea - many babies tend to put large pieces of food in their mouths, so small cubes are used to avoid choking. We always adjust the sizes of products according to the age and eating experience of our own child.

Usually the first finger food is biscuits or baby biscuits, which are very soft and dissolve easily in the mouth. The baby first sucks it, procrastinates, and learns to roll pieces of food in the mouth with the help of the tongue. A little later, when the teeth appear, you can give the product a little harder, for example, a soft apple, some parents play it safe and give a baked apple without a peel. Later, as new foods, vegetables and fruits are introduced into complementary foods, they are offered in the form of finger food, such as boiled broccoli or cauliflower. In general, the child can be offered almost all products in the form of finger food, which is introduced into baby food.

Should the product be peeled or not?

The first finger foods in the form of vegetables and fruits are given without skins. Yes, the skin of many fruits and vegetables contains valuable nutrients. It is often recommended to leave the skin on in order to take full advantage of the nutrients contained in the product. But removing the top layer from fruits and vegetables helps reduce the amount of pesticides that may be in the product. Peeling fruits and vegetables helps avoid choking hazards due to the rough texture of the skins. The peel also usually sticks to the palate in the child's mouth, thereby hindering him, and can be there for a long time, and when the child swallows, the probability of choking in the absence of an adult nearby is higher. Getting rid of the skin at the beginning of complementary foods also helps prevent disorders

digestion. And we also take into account that there are some vegetables and fruits, such as pumpkin and avocado, which need to be peeled, because their peel is really inedible. It is not worth getting rid of the product from the peel for a long time, only at first. Usually the first couple of months of complementary foods and exposure to finger food. Then the product with the peel is given to the child in the presence of an adult, after which it is advisable to check the baby's mouth to see if he swallowed everything. Forcibly open your mouth should not be, play the game "Show your tongue or where are your teeth." By the age of 1.5, the child copes well with the peel of fruits and vegetables, if it is too rough, then it easily spits it out.

Choking

The presence or absence of teeth does not mean that a child can chew. Sometimes children can bite off a piece of food, try to swallow it whole and choke, so never leave a child alone while eating. Some children can store food in their mouths like hamsters, so we always check to make sure the child has swallowed everything before leaving the kitchen. You can read the article on suffocation here.

Our finger food

At first I gave biscuits to my first child, later I switched to a fresh apple, mostly fresh fruits, he sucked and procrastinated them more than he ate. Later, food appeared in the form of a toy, i.e. we crumbled it, crushed it, and sometimes something got into our mouths. However, since breast milk is always given at the end of complementary foods, I was not too worried about whether the baby was full or not.

With the second child, finger food was a gradual transition from the nibbler. We used it for about a month, then I ventured to give the first pieces of food. But to be honest, the child himself tried the first pieces of food, namely, he stole an apple and took a bite. The first experience of finger food is always scary, because at first the child often coughs and spits out food, he is learning, so it is important to be with the child, if something goes wrong, then the parent will be able to provide first aid. I remind you that the child is suffocating quietly, not a single sound. If he coughs, clears his throat, then everything is within the normal range, you need to help get rid of the food that interferes. Rules for helping with choking know before introducing finger food into complementary foods. It is imperative to look and study, and then give a new consistency of complementary foods.

Of course, at first, only one type of finger food is placed in front of the baby, later a plate is bought, divided into three to five sections, which is filled with finger food. The baby is already given a choice of what to eat, so you can easily determine the taste preferences in nutrition.

Finger food quick hacks

• The first finger food should be well kneaded between the gums.
• Snacks should be age appropriate - do not offer 8 month old baby whole eggs .
• If the child cannot raise his head and sit up without help, do not offer him finger food.
• The child should always sit in an upright position, not walk, especially at the first meeting, when he is offered baby food in the form of pieces, to avoid suffocation.
• NEVER leave your child unattended when serving finger food.

Examples of finger food

The first finger food is a biscuit or a baked apple. Those. food that does not need to be chewed, it melts easily in the mouth without additional help from the child. You can start with foods that have been well received by the child in a pureed form on a spoon, serving them in convenient cubes or pieces - the size of a pea for harder items, the size of a stick or wedge for softer foods.

*All products must be familiar to the child or introduced into complementary foods.

Finger Foods to Avoid

When it comes to feeding your baby with small pieces of food, the biggest problem is preventing choking. So we do not allow him to eat anything without the presence of parents or any adult nearby. And we exclude any food that can get stuck in the child's airways:

• Popkorn,
• Nuts, Arachis,
• Raisins and other dried fruits,
• raw vegetables (for example, carrots),
• Grapes,
Cherry 9018
• hard fruits and vegetables from the skin 9018 with skin
• with skin
• COSS
• popcorn, pretzels, corn chips and other snack foods
• marshmallows, etc.

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