spoon/finger feeding

[bobsi]

Does this sound normal? DD is 2 next month and she eats pretty well. However, she still eats a lot with her hands. She manages a bowl of cereal and a yogurt really well with a spoon but meals like spag bol, fish fingers potatoes & veg, casserole, pasta and rice all start off with spoon/fork for about 3 mouthfuls and then she resorts to her hands. We eat as many meals as possible with her and I really try and resist the urge to spoon feed her myself but I'm weak sometimes and give in. She seems to get bored of her meal and never eats the kind of amount I think she should be eating.
If this is normal for her age, please let me know and I'll stop worrying or if anyone has any top tips, I'd be grateful.

My ds still uses his fingers sometimes and hes just turned 3.i wouldnt personally worry as think its not a big deal to use your fingers for something that can be trickey to get on a fork or spoon.

I also feel that as long as they are not grinding it into the table or throwing it around then its fine to use your fingers. i load up his fork and spoon for him when hes using his fingers so he does a bit of both

My dd is 3.7, and when tired, or when its tricky stuff to use a fork/spoon on, she'll use her fingers. My requirement is that she make a reasonable effort to use her cutlery first, but if its too hard/slow I'm fine with fingers - I've learnt that dd will do most things eventually, and battling to get them done in MY time has all sorts of negative consequences and no positive ones whatsoever

Your dd sounds as though she's doing beautifully.

Firstly, I think we generally tend to expect to eat our Kids more then they really actually need....
secondly, I would think her feeding herself with her hands is better then feeding her at this age...
she will not starve herself.

i still let my ds 2.4 use fingers when eating as cutlery can be tricky all the time getting right angle etc sounds fine i too used to panic about portion size but was told to remember each portion is a table spoon for each yr of there age so your dd should have 2 tablespoons of each portion the same as my ds he was soon clearing his p[late as too much food on a plate can be daunting if they want more after then give them seconds but dietician told me this

Thanks everyone, it's so good to come on here and get some reassurance. I'm going to completely stop feeding her myself and listen to her when she tells me she's had enough (because she does tell me but I push on sometimes :-/)