My DD is 10.5 months old and a joy. She weaned herself off breast feeding completely about the same time she decided baby food sucked, about 9 months. She really only wants to eat stuff she can pick up herself. Meals are not a problem, good well rounded, I read too many books and all that. Snacks are a problem. She realy only wants raisins, which for lack of a better phrase, don't really seem to be digesting much. She'll also eat cheerios and kix but not many. The thing is that she really wants me to feed her the snacks one by one or put them in a pile on the coffee table so she can crawl around and graze throughtout the day. This makes any sticky or moist snack a little messy. Any good ideas on appropriate snack finger food that won't make my coffee table look like I served a midevil buffet on it and make her stick to the furniture?
Thanks, this is my first real post by the way, I like it here.

By Missymelissy on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 11:28 am:

Try rice cakes, crackers, arrowroot cookies, toast. Hope these help.

By Mechelle on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 11:39 am:

Um.
Can you try little gold fish crackers?
My mind just went blank........try again here later

By Sunny on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 12:05 pm:

After going through this 4 times, I never found any snack foods that didn't become sticky messes after my kids put them in their mouths. Even dry foods like crackers and cookies were always stuck to my floor, furniture, and them. If you find a good, semi-clean snack food, let me know. I have one more who will be snacking in the near future.

By Mechelle on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 12:10 pm:

pretzels.....

By Palmbchprincess on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 12:49 pm:

My twins are 7.5 months. I was giving them the Biter biscuts that Gerber makes, and my son almost choked on the end of one. Now I give them Club crackers. They're Nabisco. They are like Ritz, but rectangular, and thinner. They dissolve in their mouths and are MUCH easier to wipe off than the Biters. Another thing is good old Cheerios. Helps with developing the pincer grasp, since they are so small.

By Familyman on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 01:18 pm:

I thought of goldfish but I think they're on the 'too salty' list posted by DW. Sugar and salt are sort of a no-no around here. It's how we were both raised so it's what we're doing. I really have to go check the sodium on some crackers I guess. Thanks for the advice.
Really, raisins are perfect, she loves them and no mess, the only problem is that I see them again the next day and it sure doesn't look like she's getting any nutrition from them if you know what I mean.

By Colette on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 02:11 pm:

Watch the raisins they are a choking hazard. See the following site

http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/feeding/pdfs/4_3%20choking.pdf

By Familyman on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 02:32 pm:

We always get nice squishy raisins and I eat the big ones leaving only the small not choke likely ones for her. She's also always supervised. Thanks thought, I appreciate the article.

By Candace on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 02:45 pm:

Our Ped. told us to always have snacks out, to let him graze. We did and it worked great. I kept goldfish (which I saw you don't give her), cherrios, etc. I am drawing a blank on what I fed him for snacks back then (he is now 3 1/2 yrs old) SORRY! Um, I know he ate a lot of fruit, (anyone else have memory loss since having their 2nd child? I can't remember anything anymore...) animal crackers. I am sorry , I have not been much help. Let me see if I remember anything and I will post again!

By Terri4him on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 03:10 pm:

My son loved cut up grapes...tiny little pieces...bits of oranges...and pieces of naner..( banana)....he's a friut fiend..and loves..LOVES..cherries!! I think as long as everything is tiny..tiny..you're ok..like cheese for instance...he loves that too!! and NOW that he's 7..I often find him in the pickle jars!!!! hmmmmm something strange going on with that child...LOL LOL...God love him though..

Blessings to you and Welcome
Terri

By Truestori on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 04:06 pm:

Familyman,

I would say be careful of the raisins they promote really bad tooth~decay if they are eaten on a regular basis. If you do feed her them just make sure you brush her little teeth! (assuming she has them..LOL)

They have low sodium goldfish crackers and you can even try the health food stores for things that have no preservatives and very little salt!

Goodluck!!!

By Kaye on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 04:29 pm:

For snacks I try really hard to have baked goods like muffins, banana bread etc. But I make my kids sit and eat them, only because I got so tired of cleaning up cherios! But for finger foods I would suggest crackers, cheese cubes or shredded cheese and cereals, my kids love chex cereal. I also would suggest try to put things in those small cups.

By Luv2fly on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 05:09 pm:

Small cups is a great idea!! Along the same line of raisins is dried apricots and other dried fruit. You can cut them up or used to be able to find some small dried fruit bits in boxes (just like raisin boxes that include pineapple apple apricot etc. by Sunmaid). Real fruit is messier but probably better tasting. Tiny bites of cheese, little bits of whole wheat bagels, peas.

You are only 10 months into it, but trust us when we say your standards for a clean house will be changing drastically! Especially after August!! When I only had one child it was easy to keep clean after them, but with two little ones.....whole different ballgame.

By Luv2fly on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 07:58 pm:

Even better, get her a little table she can make a mess on! We have little tykes picnic bench, but Target has some cute table chair sets too. My kids love to snack eat color etc on it and they like to help clean it too.

By Kimsilly27 on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 10:55 am:

I see a couple posts mentioning Golfish. Just a little thought on that...I gave my 9.5 month old those. She likes to suck the flavor off and in the process ended up with one lodged in her throat. It was pretty scary. Maybe she was too young but I don't even give them to her now.
P.S I'm a paranoid mother...lol