Annabel Karmel - Top 100 Finger Foods

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Epub ISBN: 9781448117031

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Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing,

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Text copyright Annabel Karmel 2009

Photography copyright Dave King 2009

Annabel Karmel has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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First published by Ebury Press in 2009

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Colour origination by Altaimage, London

Design & illustrations: Smith & Gilmour, London

Photography: Dave King

Food stylist: Seiko Hatfield

Props stylist: Jo Harris

Copy editor: Helen Armitage

ISBN 9780091925079

For my children Nicholas, Lara and Scarlett, and Oscar, my puppy, who gets to enjoy the leftovers

Please note all flour is plain unless otherwise specified, all butter is unsalted, milk is full fat and eggs are medium.

Until now, feeding your baby has been your job, but at around 8 or 9 months old your little one will start to want to do this on his own. Quite often babies are determined to feed themselves before they have the level of co-ordination required to use a spoon. This is an age when children experiment with their food, and if you are the type of person who likes everything neat and tidy you are going to have to draw a deep breath as your child will want to play with their food. They are going to want to touch, hold, drop and, occasionally, throw their food.

Finger foods are about to become an increasingly important part of your babys diet, and the more you allow your child to experiment, the quicker they will learn to feed themselves. Dont be concerned if your child ends up wearing most of the food to begin with. At this early stage, its simply practice. But do keep offering finger foods and more lumpy textures as this will help refine your babys chewing technique, which in turn helps with speech development and strengthens your babys jaw muscles. Interestingly, many babies refuse to eat lumpy food from a spoon or fork but will eat finger foods even though these also require chewing.

Initially its important to choose foods that are quite soft as babies can bite off a piece of a hard food like raw carrot and choke on it so, to start off, I like to offer the following:

Steamed vegetables, such as carrot or sweet-potato sticks, small broccoli or cauliflower florets

Soft ripe fruit: for example, banana, peach, melon, mango

Toast soldiers or fingers of grilled cheese on toast

Cooked pasta shapes with a very small amount of sauce or a little melted butter and grated cheese

Among the suggestions that follow, there are lots of accompanying recipes throughout the book from which to choose.

Sticks of cheese

Raw vegetables, for example carrot, cucumber sticks

Apple slices, strawberries, blueberries halved peeled grapes

Dried fruits, for example apricots, apples, raisins use the soft ready-to-eat variety

Unsweetened breakfast cereals

Rice cakes

Mini meatballs or burgers

Pieces of chicken or fish with or without breadcrumbs

Wafer-thin cooked meats, rolled up into a cigar shape

Pitta bread, naan bread, bagel

Mini sandwiches mashed banana, cream cheese, peanut butter (provided there is no history of allergy in your family or atopic disease, for example hayfever, asthma or eczema, it should be fine to give peanut butter from 7 months old)

Mini home-made pizzas

Mini muffins

Mini home-made cookies

Mini ice lollies made from fresh fruit

Peel apples and pears initially, but as your baby gets older, introduce the skin as well as the vitamins lie just below it.

Often its better to give a large piece of fruit or vegetable that your child can hold and eat rather than bite-sized pieces.

When making sandwiches for little ones, its a good idea to slightly flatten the bread first with a rolling pin so that the sandwich is not too thick for your child to eat.

There is no need to be obsessive about germs. Its fine to use an antibacterial wipe to clean your babys high chair but remember your baby picks things up from the floor and puts them in his mouth all the time.

Your babys hands should always be washed before they eat.

One very common thing that paediatric dieticians talk about is children who are afraid of mess. This seems to be at the root of many toddler eating problems. Allow your baby to experiment they are bound to get into a mess but its not a good idea continually to wipe your childs face clean when they are eating.

Try not to buy dried apricots that are treated with sulphur dioxide to preserve their bright orange colour as this can trigger an asthma attack in susceptible babies.

A large mess mat placed under the high chair to catch food and recycle it is a good investment.

Just because your child can chew off a piece of food, like a chunk of raw carrot or apple, doesnt mean that they can chew it down properly. Sometimes children bite off pieces of food and then store them in their mouth, so always check when your child comes out of the high chair that there is no lumpy food left in their mouth.

pieces of raw vegetables

grapes you should peel grapes and cut them in half or into quarters

raisins these can get caught in the throat

fruit with stones

cherry tomatoes best to quarter these

chunks of hard cheese

nuts

If your child chokes, check inside their mouth and remove any object, but be careful not to push the object further down the throat.

Lay your baby face down on your forearm with their head lower than their chest. Give them five sharp slaps on the middle of their back with your other hand.