loves all foods but won't self feed?

anakin

DS has been on solids since 4 months and has always loved them.  Has yogurt for one meal and purees with either rice cereal or oatmeal for a 2nd meal.  Occasionally he has a 3rd meal of puree and cereal.  He's been having gerber puffs and yogurt melts since 7 months.  And he loves everything we give him.

But despite the fact that he loves everything we give him he will not feed himself if the pieces are small.  We now give him some small pieces of meat (mostly chicken), bread, pancakes etc.  But if the pieces are small we have to feed him.  

He will pick up the small pieces in his palm like most babies but he doesn't even try to put them in his mouth.  And it's not that he tries and misses so he gets frustrated, he doesn't try at all.  I realize that playing with food is normal for a baby, but I think that he plays and doesn't even try to get he food in his mouth is unusual.

So we started giving him larger pieces of pancakes and toast and he will put those in his mouth but I then get concerned that he'll get too much in his mouth and choke.  Plus there are some things that I don't want to give to him in large pieces.  We want to start steamed veggies, but want to give those in small pieces.  Same with meats.

Do we continue to feed him ourselves, stop finger foods and try again later, let him just play with the food and not try to eat it?  Or is there something else that I'm missing?

 TIA

egankn

I think the pincher grasp is pretty hard for babies with small objects until 8 months or so, my DD just started feeding herself small objects this week though she could stick a biter biscuit in her mouth for a long time now..

anakin

I'm not really concerned about the pincher grasp.  I've been told that takes a while, but that most babies will "palm" the food and try to shove it into their mouths.  Is this info wrong?  DD had the pincher grasp down early and never played with her palmed her food.  So I'm not sure what is the norm when a baby doesn't use the pincher grasp.

No matter how he picks the food up shouldn't he be trying to get it in his mouth?

Mee83shell

My LO will be 9m old next week and he will only feed himself SOME stuff, like mum mums, biter biscuits, and toast. Anything that's small, he can pick up and WILL pick it up, but refuses to put it in his mouth :-) Stinkers.

I'd say keep going with finger foods. Our pedi said, the more you feed them with your fingers, the quicker they grasp the concept.