7 month old who whinges during meal times

[cornflakegirl]

My son is 7.5 months and 22lbs. He's a very happy little chappy - except at mealtimes, when he tends to get quite whingey.
He'll generally eat half a dozen spoonfuls quite happily - and then he seems to get bored. He makes nasal whingeing noises (which get to me after a while!) and he won't eat anything more unless he has something to distract him - a spoon, a stick of celery, his food bowl to gnaw, his dad hiding under the table making submarine noises...
I'm pretty sure he is still hungry at this point - because if I offer banana or sweet potato, he'll wolf them down - and then usually go on to eat more of what we were offering before. He's also gaining weight much more slowly than before and even losing a couple of ounces some weeks, so I don't think I'm overfeeding him.
But I don't want to instill food issues - especially since I've always overeaten, and have the weight to prove it, and my husband is a fully-paid-up member of the clean plate club.
Anyone else been through this or got any suggestions?

Oh cornflakegirl, my dd (10 months) was doing exact;y this till a week ago when i allowed her to feed herself. I still help by shoving in spoonfulls but she really is so much happier.
I know he's alot younger but maybe a quest for independance??

Yeah, I did wonder that - but I'm not really sure how to go about it...

He regularly sticks his fingers in his food, but doesn't really show any interest in transferring the food to his mouth.

We also give him a spoon to play with - but any food I try to put on it ends up on the floor!

And I haven't managed to make finger foods work yet - his pincer skills aren't good enough for anything small, and although he has got a couple of teeth now, he still doesn't really chew - so fingers of bread, for example, get sucked until he tries to swallow them and nearly chokes himself...

Is there something else I should try?

Cornflakegirl, I think your ds is doing really well and sounds completely normal actually!

He's definitely too young to use a spoon properly, this happens more around one year(if not later), and it's still early days for finger food - it's takes a lot of learning!

i wouldnt worry at all.... sounds completely normal for a young baby to want a toy to play with etc while eating!

My dd (10 months) often does this too. She will either woolf down her food or get bored half way through. If she does get bored I normally open her fromage frais and offer alternate spoonfuls until she eats more of her main meal. Also, does he fill up on water first ? I try and keep dd's water cup back until she has eaten most of her meal, otherwise that puts her off as well. We also have the tv on (unfortunately a legacy of dd1 who was a terrible eater) and this does distract her too. As long as he is eating something I don't think you need to worry and 22lbs at 7.5 months sounds a pretty good weight to me.