dd is9 months and i havent really started her on finger foods,is that ok?we stick to the gerber jars, everything i read seems to promote thicker foods by now, we're just moving onto the gerber 2nd foods here. I know someone already just asked a birthday question to( what a coincidence!!). But mine is different. i was wondering the healthiest choice of cakes? any ideas? recipes? To tell you the truth i am not the best at making cakes, if possible i'd like to just buy one! if worse comes to worse, i will probably en dup baking one. does anyone know what to avoid?like sugars eggs etc.? her birthday is still 3 months away but i know it will come up before i know it and that will give time to look up recipes if i have to! i don't think the adults will be happy about a "healthy" cake though,lol. my family is not the healthiest but i've become a health freak. ↓
Its not a bad thing you haven't started finger foods yet but I would think about moving on to the 3rd foods. They are lumpier and encourage them to mash the food around in thier mouth. 3rd foods are very soft and mash easily. After she has mastered the 3rd foods, start with some diced bananas, cheerios, steamed veggies, baked chicken mashes easily, ground turkey, cut up cheese, crackers, pretty much anything soft and easy to chew. As far as cake I know there are lots of recipes that are made with splenda and you can subsitute applesauce for oil and make it lower fat. The spenda web site has lots of recipes. There are also lots of cakes made wih fruit juices and fruit to sweeten them, instead of the splenda. Just do a search online. Also I know some bakery's make sugar free cakes too. ↑
Finger foods - you can start when you're ready. I ddon't think I did till around 9 months but I can't remember! Gerber has a lot of finger foods you can buy too - little puffs that pretty much dissolve in their mouth, mini pastas....you can try chunks of banana too. For the birthday cake - make a cupcake for your LO. We made a bunch and got one of those cupcake trees to display them on. My dd didn't have any special recipe - just a boxed cake mix. :) I figure it's one cupcake, I don't need to freak out about sugar just yet. She generally doesn't have a lot of it anyways. For a baby, you don't need to worry about the fat either - not at this stage. ↑
thanks!! i don't know about cupcakes. it is a good idea but it just sounds so unbirthdayish lol. maybe i will check out the store for healthy cake mixes or find a carrotcake or strawberry shortcake if it comes to that. ↑
You can get an angelfood cake (fat free) and put some fresh berries and peaches on it. Tastes great and doesn't have a lot of sugar either. You can probably find a splenda recipe and make it pretty healthy. ↑
Puffs are my favorite finger food right now. DD is 8 mos and she's been loving these for about a month now. They make almost no mess, especially compared to biter biscuits, wagon wheels, and zwieback toast. Those other things seem to just get sticky and all over everything, where the puffs go right in her mouth and usually don't come back out. For the cake, I had a regular bakery-bought cake for all the guests at my son's 1 year party, and I made a small batch of cupcakes so I could give him one of those. I guess I didn't want to cut into the regular cake for his piece, but I don't really remember the reason. But take my advice if you use a cupcake....don't put a big, heavy #1 candle on top, just use a regular candle, or hang onto the whole thing until the candle is blown out. With DS, while we sang happy b-day, the big candle on top make it top heavy and it tipped over when he touched the frosting, and it burned his finger a little..... :-( I quickly picked it up and blew it out, and I felt so bad!! Better yet, whatever type of candle you put on top, even if you don't use a cup cake, hold onto it away from your baby's reach until it's blown out. ↑
aw, i hope he is ok. well here is the thing. i have been reading the gerber graduates packs and they all say things like this is intended for children one year of age. i did buy some baby mum mum's. But i'd love to try those puffs. Do they just say it is intended for babies one year in case something happens? i am on this food that says " for 8 months plus" now and dd almost choked on this turkey stuff, now i am a bit nervous! Do they know to blow out the candle?lol. ↑
I'm sure there's some element of liability and precaution in those warnings where the food mfgr's have to go a little overboard on the warnings in case something happens. It probably does have to do with choaking concerns, but DD's never had a problem with that. We always feed them to her while we're in the same room just in case, and that's another thing the package mentions - always feed under adult supervision. I think it also said that if your baby is sitting up well on her own and crawling with her belly off the floor, she's probably ready for finger foods (if I remember right). As far as blowing out the candle, no, don't expect a one year old to be able to do that on her own. You'll probably have to do that, or if you have other children at the party, maybe enlist one of them to do that after everyone sings. They'll probably love the opportunity. Or skip the candle entirely if you want to. ↑
