15 month old feeding habits confidence wobble

[muminlondon]

Since 10 months DD has refused to be spoonfed by me or DH, and the solution seemed to be giving her finger foods like chicken chunks, fish fingers, chips, pasta, toast/bread, soft-cooked vegetables, etc. Recently she's been using a spoon herself, although needs help with loading it, so yoghurt and cereal is back on the menu. I was hoping she would progress to more savoury foods too. She eats well and there are no battles.

However, our childminder still manages to spoonfeed her when she has her 2 days a week and gives her more sloppy mashed or pureed food, which I suppose is more easily digestible. I sensed criticism when I described her diet at home. Could it be bad for her digestion to have all these finger foods? Out of interest, what age do most babies/toddlers feed themselves with a spoon?

Actually, thinking about it, I've got a baby cookery book on finger food by an author who also had a daughter refusing anything but finger foods, so I can't be the only one.

as long as its healthy finger food like fruit veg meat then i havent got a clue what you childminder is on i find it strange though unless shes refuseing to eat lumps which she aint because shes eating finger food why is she still giving her puree
the earliest i have ever heared a child feeding themselfs and being able to do it is nine months but there are still children still trying to grasp it at coming up two
plus if shes been on finger foods for a while now you would have noticed in her nappy if there was any problems

feeding themselfs with a spoon not finger foods only sorry missed that bit

I think that, like mummytojames says, as long as it's healthy and there's some variety, your dd should be fine. Mine is very similar (has just turned 1 year). As long as your dd seems to be thriving, I wouldn't worry about it.

thanks, I didn't think I was doing the wrong thing but our childminder makes me feel like such an amateur!