Finger foods for babies with no teeth are an excellent way to introduce your child to solid foods. These can be helpful in meeting their nutritional needs, improving hand eye coordination and in helping your child learn how to chew, albeit without teeth. However, feeding babies finger foods that can be swallowed without chewing comes with very limited choices. Yet, we have collated a list of 15 easy to prepare, nutritional and tasty finger foods for babies with no teeth.
Can Babies Without Teeth Eat Finger Foods?
You might be plagued with questions, like “can babies without teeth eat finger food?” or “do babies need teeth for finger foods?” and the answer is quite simple. Good finger foods, being small in size and easily digestible, can be a great option for your child (though you are strongly advised to take caution against choking hazards and allergies), so long as the foods are easy to chew.
Therefore, as long as the baby can pick the food up easily and mash it with their gums without much effort, the finger food should be ideal.
Deciding menu for babies is a daunting task as they are a few common foods that are unsafe for babies. Given below is a list of fifteen such finger foods that are safe and reliable for babies without teeth:
15 Easy To Make Finger Foods For Babies With No Teeth
When opting for finger foods for babies with no teeth, you need to ensure that they are soft, can easily be mashed in the mouth and can be squished easily between gums. Following are 15 finger foods with healthy ingredients that is suitable for babies with no teeth.
1. Homemade biscuits
It is a simple enough recipe and a great snack for your baby. However, be sure to avoid ingredients you know or suspect your baby to be allergic to. Keep a cup of chickpea flour in the freezer for roughly 30 minutes. In the meantime, mix butter, mashed banana, baking soda, vanilla essence and honey/syrup together.
Take the flour in another bowl and add ground oats and flax seeds. Mix it all together and prepare the dough. Flatten balls of the dough and bake the cookies on butter paper for roughly 12 minutes in a preheated oven at around 175 degrees Celsius. Wait until they have cooled down before serving.
2. Pasta
This is quite a straight forward and easy dish to prepare for your child. Pasta for babies with no teeth is exceptionally good due to its subtle taste and easy availability. Precise instructions on how to prepare it should be given on the package of the pasta.
You can also choose to prepare your own pasta over store bought ones. Simply boil water and slightly overcook the pasta until it is mushy and soft, and add it to a pan with a little butter or olive oil, depending on your preference. Stir for a while, and allow it to cool.
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3. Berry muffins
This is an extremely easy dish to prepare as it requires very few ingredients. Simply add around 3-4 bananas into a bowl, and mix them well with a little milk. Now slightly rub a muffin tray with a little butter, and add berries of your choice (strawberries, blackberries and so on) into each individual slot.
Pour the banana-milk mixture on the tray and bake the muffins for roughly 15 minutes, before allowing them to cool. You may add eggs, or cut the muffins to smaller pieces if required.
4. Banana pancakes
This is yet another among easy to prepare baby finger food recipes. Banana puree is considered to be one of the top Indian foods for babies. Mash around 3-4 bananas in a bowl and mix it with whole wheat flour and milk. Add some water to this mixture to control its consistency, and you have your pancake mix.
Add this mix as required to a pan and cook the pancakes until golden brown. Let the pancakes cool down and cut them to smaller strips if required. You may add honey or maple syrup as well, though it is advised that you moderate the amount.
5. Idli
Idli is staple in many Indian households, especially in south India. Idlis are easy for babies without teeth to consume, and relatively simple to prepare. Wash rice and dal and soak them in separate vessels for roughly 6 hours.
Grind the dal to a paste, and the rice until it is a little coarse. Prepare the batter by adding salt, and then add water to control the consistency of the mixture. Leave this batter to ferment overnight, and steam the mixture in an Idli steamer the next day. Again, let it cool and cut the Idlis to smaller pieces as required.
6. Dosa
Much like Idli, this is also a popular food in many Indian households, particularly in South India, and has much of the same preparation. Soak dosa rice, fenugreek seeds and flattened rice in one vessel and urad dal in another for at least 3 hours.
Grind them all to a fine past and mix together, adding water to control its consistency and salt as required. Prepare the dosa on a pan until golden brown after letting the batter ferment for around 8 hours. Add ghee if needed. Let the dosa cool, and tear it into smaller, bite sized pieces if necessary.
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7. Quiche cakes
These are an excellent way to introduce some vegetables into your baby’s diet early on, and boast a life span of around 3 days if stored in an airtight container. Steam vegetables that are chopped or diced as required.
Prepare a simple batter by mixing baking powder, whole wheat flour, eggs, cheese, olive oil, salt and yoghurt, and add the vegetables to it. Pour the batter onto a muffin tray and bake at around 180 degrees Celsius for around 20 minutes, or until they are firm and golden brown in colour.
Allow the cakes to cool, and break them to smaller pieces, if necessary, before serving.
8. Sweet potato fries
This is a very simple recipe that requires few ingredients and very little preparation time, but boasts more nutritional value than traditional fries. Simply clean and peel the required number of sweet potatoes, cut them to strips, add cinnamon powder, and bake them in an oven pre-heated at around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake until tender, or for a rough duration of 30 to 45 minutes. Serve after they have cooled down.
9. Steamed/Roasted vegetables
A plain, simple and timeless food, that also boasts about being a nutritional gold mine. Simply steam or roast vegetables of your choice (such as sweet potatoes, carrots, beans, cauliflower and so on) until they are soft and tender. One such nutrition packed vegetable for babies is broccoli.
Make sure they are chopped or diced well enough to make it easy for your baby to bite and chew. Simply put them on a plate and serve them to your baby once cooled. This is also an excellent recipe to go for if you are short on time.
10. Cheese crackers
These are delicious, crunchy snack with rich texture your child is sure to enjoy throughout their life. Simply prepare the dough by beating eggs and butter together until fluffy, adding flour to it, and beating the mixture until it crumbles before adding water to it.
Wrap this dough in film and refrigerate it for an hour, before removing it, cutting out biscuits as required and baking the crackers in a preheated oven for roughly 15 minutes, at about 180 degrees Celsius.
11. French roast fingers
This makes for an excellent breakfast recipe, or a quick evening snack for your child. Though this recipe usually contains eggs, it is best to avoid them if your child is under a year old, and use corn starch instead. Simply take salt and milk in a bowl as required and add corn starch or eggs to it and mix well.
From each slice of bread, trim down the crust. Heat the pan at medium and grease it lightly with butter. Dip the bread slices in the milk mixture from earlier and fry them until they turn a golden-brown colour on both sides. Allow them to cool before serving and cut the slices to smaller slices if necessary.
12. Paneer (cottage cheese) sticks
This can be quite a delicious snack and an excellent source of protein for your child. Start by cutting the paneer in to long strips and marinating them with just a pinch of salt. You may also add turmeric powder if you so choose. Put a little oil or ghee onto a pan and lightly sauté the paneer slices over a medium flame until they turn a golden-brown colour. Allow them to cool before serving them to your baby.
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13. Zucchini Chips
Zucchini chips makes a wonderfully nutritious snack that serves as an excellent alternative to traditional, unhealthy chips. Drizzle some olive oil over slices of zucchini and bake them for roughly half an hour in an oven preheated to around 110 degrees Celsius.
Take the chips out, flip them, and bake for yet another 30 minutes. Finally, take them out again, and allow them to cool before serving.
14. Parathas
Parathas, particularly vegetable parathas, can be an excellent source of nutrition and an easy way to satiate your baby’s rather demanding appetite. Simply, mix mashed vegetables with wheat flour and add some water to prepare the dough. Roll out small flatbreads using a rolling pin from the dough, in sizes suitable for your baby. Cook both sides of the flatbread on a pan greased with oil or butter, depending on your preference, over a medium flame. Finally, serve the parathas once cooled.
15. Scrambled egg
It’s a very common question that when can babies eat eggs? Eggs are an excellent way to introduce some extra nutrition into your child’s diet and diversify their palette early on. Early introduction of eggs reduces the risk of allergy as well. Beat egg and a little milk into fluffy batter. Grease a small kadai with some butter or olive oil. Pour the batter and scramble the egg until it is well cooked.
Conclusion
In case you were wondering “can baby have finger foods with no teeth?”, that doubt should be answered by now. There are a variety of healthy and delicious finger foods to prepare for your baby, as long as you are cautious against possible allergies and choking hazards. If you take the necessary precautions, finger foods can be a great source of nutrition and an excellent way to refine your baby’s palette in the earlier stages.