Soft cooked vegetables such as carrots are great first food for baby led weaning
The great thing about carrot is that you don’t need much to get started.
Only carrot and water!
How do you know when your babies are ready for finger foods?
When your babies are 6 months old, they’ll try to reach for the spoon you’re feeding them with or grab food off your plate.
How to cook carrots for baby finger food?
- Get mature, large carrots. They have more nutrients than baby cut carrots
- After washing and peeling the carrots, cut them into long, thin sticks.
- Steam the carrots for a few minutes. Make sure they’re soft enough for your babies to gum on. But they shouldn’t be too mushy so that they can grab them with their fists.
- This trick makes the carrot sticks easy to chew without losing their shape. Place your steamed carrots on a tray lined with parchment paper in a single layer.
- Let it cool first before transferring the tray to the freezer. This will prevent frozen sticks from clumping together.
- After freezing for a few hours, store them in freezer storage boxes.
With this method, you can make a large portion that provides several servings. You just thaw what you need.
[content-egg-block template=offers_grid]The main challenge is the appropriate size of baby food to avoid choking.
Remember, babies about 6 months are likely to use their whole hand to pick things up.
If they can’t pick up the food, obviously, it’s not going into their mouths!
Watch this video if you’re not sure what shape and size are ideal for your little ones.
At around 6 months — Most babies just starting solids haven’t developed their pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) yet. So to pick up foods they grasp them with their whole palm. Since you want your baby to still access the food while it’s in her palm, it’s best to cut food into long, thin sticks. Think about the size of your pinky finger.
Source
Baby Led Warning: Scared Of Choking
Usually, babies have good gag reflexes.
Let them try and get the food out themselves which they always do.
If they’re choking, they’ll be quiet and their facial colors will start to change.
Final Thoughts
For BLW to work, prepare finger food that fulfills their developmental stage.
Your babies must be able to pick up the food and eat. So, the size and shape of the food matter.
In other words, make sure that the carrot finger foods for babies are safe and easy-to-eat.
