Finger Foods

What should I eat?

Baby J. has been on a lot of finger foods for awhile, and it seems like we're going to have to come up with even more. She absolutely hates being spoon fed now. She loves the actual foods on the spoon, but she hates the process. She wants to be in control. Unfortunately, so many foods are still choking hazards, and a lot of foods she just doesn't like when they're in a more solid form. For example, I tried cooking sweet potato chunks, until they were soft enough to mush in her mouth; though she loves sweet potato, she doesn't like it in chunk form; she just eyes the sweet potatoes disdainfully as if they were nasty orange-colored rocks.

Foods that have worked include blueberries, banana pieces, piece of cheese (she loves cheese, will kill for cheese), macaroni, ground turkey, pieces of bread, and kiwi. Unfortunately, I don't think she can live on these foods alone. She certainly thinks she can, but I think she needs a little more. We have been trying our hardest to spoon feed her vegetables, but after a bite or two, she has had enough of being force fed. It's at that point that she uses both of her hands to deflect any more attempts at getting a spoon filled with peas or corn or anything else anywhere near her face.

So, any readers out there, I ask, what finger foods worked for your babies? What should I try? Any suggestions for vegetables? I was thinking if I overcooked peas, then they'd probably be mushy enough that she could pop them in her mouth. I also thought I'd try sweet potato in mashed form and see if she'd dive into a bowl of them (though I think this might result in 99% of the sweet potatoes on the floor and on her face rather than in her mouth).

D.