Finger food ideas for growing baby

Grand Rapids, Mich. (WOTV) - We're hitting a new stage in our house- finger foods!  My 11-month-old son, Easton, loves to munch on everything.  Most of the time I'm running around like a crazy women trying to stop him from eating things like a dead bug on the floor, a Kleenex that fell out my pocket, or a ball of dog fur that I missed when vacuuming for the hundredth time.  Though the bugs, paper and hair are all part of his expanding palette, my hope is to expose him to some tastier treats.

I find that I'm "that mom" already.  I'm super picky about what he's eating because I want to introduce him to healthy foods.  My philosophy is, he's still a baby and there's no need to give him things that are processed or full of sugar.  I think I drive all of his grandparents crazy with my food rules but I think it's important to give him a good, healthy start.  I do cave from time to time and let him have a taste of homemade peach cobbler, or a little nibble of something sweet.

If you've read some of my past posts, you know that I make all of Easton's baby food.  I LOVE to cook, so I find it fun to make him all sorts of fruits and veggies.   The problem I'm now running into is that Easton doesn't want to be fed like a baby on a spoon.  He is ready to be a big boy and wants to pick everything up himself.  So now I'm trying to come up with creative and healthy foods to fill him up that he can feed to himself.   We're also getting very close to the 1 year mark where it will be time to transition to table food and whole milk.   I thought it would be fun to share what Easton has been munching on and I'd love to hear what finger foods your baby likes!  Pass them along in the comments below and I'll add them to the list.

Finger Food Ideas for Baby

Every week instead of making baby food I've been prepping little Tupperware containers of finger foods so they are ready to go when Easton is ready to eat.  I pre-steam veggies in the microwave, have rinsed beans ready to eat, and have meat cooked and shredded.  I've also started to add in mild seasonings to expose him to lots of flavors.

Proteins:

Shredded rotisserie chicken

Cooked ground turkey seasoned with salt and pepper

Deli turkey or ham

Canned black beans (cut in half- I have a huge choking phobia so I make sure everything is super small)

Veggies:

Mixed veggie frozen steamers (There is a carrot/corn/green bean mix that is the perfect size for baby.  Be sure to cut green beans though)

Steamed chopped cauliflower

Cooked zucchini

Sweet corn niblets

cubed steamed hashbrown-style potatoes

avocado cubes

Fruits:

strawberries

cut melon

cut watermelon

pieces of pear

peaches/nectarine/plum bites

Starches:

Puffs (hey they gotta make the list!)

toast bites with a little bit of spray butter (Easton's favorite!)

blueberry pancake peices

bread

tortilla

whole wheat pasta (chopped)