Spoon or hand feeding?

spinsoffresonance

We've been doing baby led weaning and DD eats like a champ. My mom of course is freaking out that DD will never have proper table manners because she eats with her hands and isn't spoon fed. She keeps telling me I need to spoon feed her purees. I tried to explain to her that even if we had started out with purees, DD is now at the age (almost 10months) where we would be transitioning to table food and would be feeding herself anyways. My mom, however, claims that she never let me and my sister eat with our hands, that she always spoon fed us until could do it ourselves. So I'm curious for those who didn't do BLW and whose LO eat table food, do you let them eat with their hands and feed themselves or are you still spoon feeding chunks of food?

Neary2011

I let my daughter eat with her hands and I spoon feed her things that need to be like mashed potatoes and yogurt.

 

CLLDLL

I pretty much always let him eat with his hands unless it's something like soup or applesauce. 

With DS1 we did purees and then transitioned to table foods around 1 year.  I spoon/fork fed table foods until like 18 months.  Then my Dr. suggested that we really needed to let him start to learn to feed himself. It was awful because as a FTM I thought he'd just "get" how to use a spoon.  Instead he flung it all over, dumped in on the floor, smeared it in his hair!  Once I let go of my "fear" of his messes and just let him use his fingers or play with the spoon, it was much better.  And believe it or not as a 7 year old he uses silverware like a champ! 

With DS2 we did a few purees, but mostly table food.  I let him feed himself whenever possible.  It doesn't always go in his mouth, or even stay on the tray, but overall he eats more than his older brother did, and seems to enjoy eating more than his older brother did.  Not sure if that's just personality related or also related to the feeding method though.

Either way, trust your gut mama!  You know your baby and what works for her better than anyone!!

kjsmith9

We do BLW too, and when we do applesauce or other foods like that, I just pre-load a spoon and give it to her.  I'd say about 50% ends up in her mouth, but it's definitely getting better.  Yes, it makes a huge mess, but she's only going to learn how to do it when she's given the opportunity!

ellebee2

Hands.

The only thing I spoon feed her is yogurt.

ASmallWonder

Your mom is a trip.  Proper table manners?  At 9 months?  You might want to point out that nothing about her eating habits now is indicative of her habits when she's older.  If it were, then you spoon feeding her would be bad too since that's not how older kids and adults eat.  SMH

spinsoffresonance

Thanks ladies for the replies. I have no intention of changing the way I feed DD because of what my mom thinks. I was just curious what seems to be the norm since I don't really know anyone with babies IRL.

@elmoali, @christel811, this is exactly what I'm trying to explain to my mom, but I think she's a lost case, oh well!

jennygirlmt

It appears that you are able to spoon feed yourself despite your mom doing it for you, so I think your LO will be ok

I did/do BLW and DD1 could feed herself yogurt at 15 months and cereal with milk without spilling a drop at like 2. She didn't insist on throwing manners to the wind bc that's how she started and neither will your LO. Hello the "I do it myself like a big girl" phase.

Sometimes I wonde if these Moms actually remember/know anything about children.