Only table foods?

kat_trina12

Hi everyone, my son is turning 11 months soon and I just have a question about his eating.

Is it normal for him to only want to feed himself? I try spoon feeding him whether it be oatmeal, baby food from the jar, or whatever and all he does is spit it out into his hand and squish it around! He barely gets anything in his mouth this way... so... I've only been giving him food he can feed himself like bread and butter, scrambled eggs, chopped up veggies and fruits... etc.

He loves cottage cheese and oatmeal though so should I just plop it in front of him and let him go to town trying to pick it up? or is that kind of food done for now until he can spoon feed himself? That's another thing.... when should I introduce the spoon? I don't want him to just get used to eating with his fingers... but all he does with the spoon is fling it around or chew on it and ignore the food in front of him.

I'd appreciate any advice, he seems to be doing fine and still having about 3-4 8oz bottles in between but I somehow feel like I should be doing more.

 

 

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MrsT2008

DD started refusing to be spoonfed around 8.5 months and by 9 months I had moved her to finger foods 100% of the time.  Even now, if I want to feed her applesauce or yogurt or something, I need to offer finger foods with it so that she can feed herself in between spoonfuls.

brewcitybride

DS hates being fed - I just make sure all is food is bite sized, or yes, he can explore and pick up messy stuff with his hands - he loves it! Too early for a spoon.

keeshondowner

My DD primarily feeds herself using her hands.  I've been trying to let her *attempt* to feed herself using a spoon.  I load up the spoon, hand it to her, and surprisingly, a lot of the food actually gets in her mouth!  I do this with cottage cheese, but a food that works really well is sweet potato.  Baked and smashed sweet potato is thick enough that it won't fall off the spoon.

phdprocrastinator

DD never let us feed her.  Maybe we should have tried harder, but when we introduced purees we just went with thick mashes (like PP said - sweet potato, or avocado and the like).  I'd take out three spoons and alternate loading them up.  She really liked it.  Recently, she just tosses the spoon aside to use her hands, so I'm trying to focus more on finger foods.  I figure "food before 1's for fun" so I'm not stressing too much about it.

blu-eyedwife

We started with table foods at 6 months, so my child has never been spoon-fed.    I usually just plop his food on his tray and let him go to town. 

Things like yogurt, oatmeal, cottage cheese get put in a bowl with a spoon.  Half the time he's really good about handing me the spoon so I can scoop it and hand it back to him (he then feeds himself) and other times he gets impatient and just goes at it with his hands.  (bowls with yogurt often get lifted up and poured into his mouth.)

Leap08

We never did baby food with either of our girls. They've always ate whatever we were eating. For foods that you eat with a spoon (yogurt, oatmeal, applesauce, etc...) I put the food on the spoon and then hand it to her. She's really good at getting it in her mouth and will usually hand me the spoon back for another bite. Sometimes I will put food on a fork and hand it to her, too. This is kind of how I started introducing how to use utensils to my older daughter.

kat_trina12

Thank you all for the advice! It was very helpful and I feel much more confident that we are on the right track