13 month old eating habits

[LucyJones]

I still spoon feed ds and let him hold his own spoon, breadstick or piece of food at the same time. But I've been watching The House of Tiny Tearaways (I know, I should put down the remote and move away from the parenting programmes) which says if little ones don't get all messy with their food they can get food phobias. So should I be whacking a bowl of weetabix in front of ds and letting him get down and dirty with it!!

my ds (13m) doesn't show much interest in feeding himself with a spoon. He loves eating with his fingers. If i pick the food up with the spoon or fork he will put it straight in his mouth but wont pick the food up himself. I am just perservering with it.. he should get it soon. You have got to let your baby get messy.. i sometimes cringe but take their top of or be prepared to change them, put a mat underneath the highchair!

My Ds (almost 14mths) does now feed himself, on 2 out of 3 of his meals, he started it after he went to nursery for 2 days and they let them there, now he's so independent he hates me feeding him, but I worry that he's not getting enough food as it's all in his ear/down his clothes/on the floor! I think it depends on the child, you could try stuff like toast and move on from there stuff like roasted veg are good too (Ds likes squishing the veg between his fingers!).......DS gets in to a right mess with fruity chicken cous cous!!!!!!

I've been watching that too Lucy and I think it's more of a problem if you are obsessively clean about everything (you could see that poor child didn't want to be dirty at all).

I can't remember when mine started spoon feeding themselves but I think it was much nearer 2 but both mine used to prefer dipping their hands into a big bowl of spag bol than trying to eat with a fork or spoon! I'm a big fan of letting them get dirty with their food otherwise they never really learn how to eat messy stuff so I would say, let him get messy (stick his hands in his food etc.) but if he doesn't want to then I don't think it will matter.

my ds hates having anything on his face he will always wipe it off with his hands, today is the day i will give him lunch give him a spoon and let him get on with it!

thakks everyone. I've just made him sapg bol for lunch so will let him get his hands in!!!

lucy - don't have much choice with my DS - every meal is just CHAOS - DH has joked (well, I think it was a joke), of stripping him off to a nappy and putting him out on the lawn for each meal so we can hose him off afterward

i think, let them experiment - you can't throw food around when your 30!

Koalabear, your Dh may have just saved my life (and my kitchen floor)...altho it is a bit cold today!

on the practical side, we have a wipeable wooden highchair with plastic covers and not too many cracks, DS wears the "coverall" bibs with arms, and then ontop of that, a plastic pelican bib to catch the things he drops (although not the things he throws), and we put the highchair on a wooden or tiles floor and have a special "floor cloth" just for cleaning up after each meal - DH did by a handheld wet/dry vacuum, but I find it easier to get down on my hands and knees with a cloth

i make myself feel better by telling myself he wont do this when he is ten (but quite possible when he is 18 and on the beer in a curry house )