Your baby’s diet is intended to become more varied over time. Make sure your child is happy and finds new foods it can eat by itself.

When starting on finger foods, your baby will also easily learn to drink from a cup and feed independently. Commercially-prepared finger foods such as rusks, bread and biscuits are not suitable for young children with food allergies. Only use foods when you know all the individual ingredients are tolerated by your child.

Here are some suggestions for finger foods you may like to try:

• Vegetables – cut into strips and steamed or micro-waved to soften (e.g. cooked potato or carrot sticks)
• Fruit – ripe, peeled and cut into strips (e.g. pear, apple or melon)
• Rice shortbread
• Plain rice crackers or cakes
• Meat – cooked and cut into strips (e.g. home cooked roast chicken or lamb)
• Homemade potato chips cooked in permissible oil (e.g. safflower, canola, sunflower)

The process of finding foods that can be tolerated can take some time. This period of trial and error can be a difficult time for both the parents and the child. Science has not been able to prove that you can reduce the risk of allergies in your potentially endangered child by avoiding possibly allergenic foods, such as fish and eggs, or by delaying their introduction into your baby’s diet. At this stage, Neocate LCP or Neocate Nutra might be prescribed for your infant. The amount of formula needed must be discussed with your doctor or dietitian who will assess the nutritional content of your baby’s diet and adjust the amount of formula accordingly.

ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. J PediatrGastroenterolNutr, Vol. 46, No. 1, January 2008