to think we've missed a key stage with finger foods?

[SparkleHorse82]

Long story short: baby is 10 months, slow to wean due to allergies (now better understood), only really got going properly at around 8 months. At 8.5 months she was hospitalised with rotavirus and it set her back a few weeks, took ages to take anything other than fruit puree despite having done well before she got sick.

So now she'll eat a range of things if spoon fed but doesn't have a massive appetite and the ONLY finger foods she will even touch are dry things - toast, rice cakes, baby crisps, sometimes a pastry pinwheel.

She has five teeth and is actually reasonably good at dealing with lumps and chunks, and has a pincer grip (can pick up o shaped crisps) but seems to loathe the texture of anything remotely gooey. She won't even eat a sandwich once she's noticed the filling. I wondered if the reason for this was because she ate a few fingers of chicken the night she got ill and associates it with feeling sick?

I'm worried that she's getting delayed on self feeding - she seems really behind others of the same age as she just looks at and then ignores 90 per cent of what I put on her tray unless it's a crisp or rice cake.

She has egg and dairy allergy so we havne't done muffins, fritata, those kind of things which is annoying as I think they might suit.

Did the

She’ll be absolutely fine, keep offering a wide variety of foods and as she gets older she’ll increase her repertoire.

Posted too soon!

Did the virus mean we missed a key stage with experimenting with picking things up and putting them in the mouth? She seems to refuse to do so now...

EDIT: Should also say that she seems to loathe the FEEL of anything gooey or sticky

She'll be fine. DD had little interest in food at all until about 9 months, and then wanted us to spoon feed her as it seemed so much easier to her than feeding herself.

She picked it up in her own time. She's 6 now and walking advert for the "fact" that BLW babies eat much better and varied diets not being so true

That sounds about normal to me though...

Weaning is a minefield to them where texture is concerned. You just have to keep offering stuff and they either get over it, get over it to a point or don’t. There’s no set ‘stages’ of weaning that must be completed and 10 months is still pretty early in the food journey. Just keep going!

There is no 'key stage' to eating.

She may just not like gooey food's texture. Just offer a good range of things.

My son was like this. Not fussy as he will eat anything off a spoon but at 10 months would only eat baby crisp puffs, rice cakes etc. I just kept offering stuff and eventually he decided cucumbers and strawberries were ok and has continued to branch out. I’ve kept offering stuff and if he doesn’t eat it no big deal. He’s 12 months now and has lots of finger foods for lunch now and a lumpy purée/ pasta / stew for dinner. There’s nothing you’re doing wrong. Some babies are just slower to like finger food I think

Dd2 we had similar she was a great eater, she has an egg allergy which was only diagnosed at 11 months and due to cleft repair at 7 months when she ate it hurt her stitches shed only take banana, baby porridge or the odd bit of toast for months after and shed only gum the toast no teeth till over 1 evetything had to be spoon fed.

Shell get there it took a lot of family meals her with plain bits us with more exciting food but sitting close enough she could steal off our plate lots of food dotted about the house as snacks so no pressure

Dd2 is still suspicious of textures and new food but is better at 20 months but still has issues
I got food poisoning at 4 or 5 and associated it with the egg id had with dinner still can't eat them now at 30

And you can make great egg free muffins if you use Apple sause as the binding agent use less sugar than you would have done though