How to get 7 mo to take a spoon?

[trebleclef101]

This might seem like a silly question, but how do you get a baby to feed from a spoon?

We started weaning at 6 months, trying a mix of baby led finger foods and stuff by spoon (yogurt, mashed veg, porridge etc).

Finger foods are going ok, but I'm having problems getting my DD to take food from a spoon, if I try to feed her she just looks at me with her mouth shut, I don't think she even realises what I want her to do.

If I give her a loaded spoon it goes straight in her mouth but most of the food goes on her face and she just chews the spoon like it's any other toy. It's only by chance that some of it actually gets eaten!

Any tips on spoon feeding? Or do I just need to relax and keep offering stuff, and assume she will get the hang of it when she's ready?!

[originalmavis]

Sound like you are on track anyway. Eat in front of her with a spoon - monkey see, monkey do!

[ShinyShinyShiny]

When I was weaning DS a wise Mumsnetter said to me "food before 1 is just for fun". We did baby led, forgot the spoons, made sure he had plenty of follow on milk and if he happened to eat some food then it was a bonus. It worked really well for us once I relaxed and stopped worrying about how much he'd actually eaten.

[trebleclef101]

I know it's early days, mostly curious about how others went about it.

I see people saying that they were giving baby rice or similar at 4 months and think, how did they get it in?!

[FuzzyOwl]

My DD refuses spoons and she is almost 9 months old. We have stuck with BLW although she will suck puree pouches. She still doesn't eat a huge amount but every so often she demolishes loads, so I know she can do it and just generally prefers her milk or most likely dislikes the healthy meals offered.

[ShinyShinyShiny]

AFAIK some children taken a spoon happily some have to be persuaded. I read an interesting article about increased risk of choking in spoon fed babies as a young baby's gag reflex is far further forwards than ours and spoon feeding can train babies to ignore it.

[HollyC255552]

Treble i'm having exactly the same problem with my 7.5 month old!

[Sparrowlegs248]

My 7mo son won't take a spoon either and does the same thing if i give him a pre loaded spoon. I offer spoon fed stuff a couple of times a week but otherwise he feeds himself finger foods. I'm sure he'll get there. Today he had half a hot cross bun, 6 blueberries and two raspberries for breakfast. Two chunks of cheese, a tomato, some organix carrot puffs and a large strawberry for lunch. Ate all of it!

[Greenlanegal]

If she won't eat from a spoon
chances are she had decided that she wants to feed herself. I'm
Just going through this with my 10 month old. He has finger food and is getting a bowl with a suction cup and his own spoon so he can get stuck in! I'd say let her feed herself. Good luck