advice / opions needed on feeding a 18 month old

[cherith]

My 18 month old has eaten really well up untill now. he does not like to eat when he is spoon fed. The majority of his food is spoon fed. He is still awkward at times about lumps. Will not eat veg or meat as finger foods. He eats bannana, melon and grapes as finger foods. Other fruits i have in the past incoperated into spoon fed puddings and breakfasts.
Normally i cook him alot of casserolls that i blend up for him. i use jars too because it is hard to blend to the right consistency and feel that they help him when it comes to chewing practice. However he is becoming difficult to spoon feed and is starting to refuse alot of his spoon fed food. Please advice welcome.

hes my secound child ........ i did things differently last time but not for the better. The quality of food has beed better this time round. I had to learn to cook from scratch.

oops .. sorry .. put my big foot in that one didn't I?

last time i struggled to feed home cooked food early on and fishfingers and prepacked food where on the menu. My first never used the spoon and i fed him if the food was to messy for fingers.oo000000h table manners! However he eats fine now.

dont worry about it...........i would of assumed the same

he started to use a spoon himself when he was well over two and did not use a knife and fork until he was three.

no sorry four

hes five in january

cherith I would gradually stop blending the food.
Agree with others, can you give him the spoon? Don't worry if he makes a mess. 18 mo is yongish to succcessfully eat with a spoon (!) but most toddlers want to try and will soon master it.
Some sound advice here as ever.
Would certainly second sitting down with him and eating the same so he can see how it's done and that he's a big boy!

I always found that eggy bread/french toast was a good standby if ds refused what I'd offered him. I never wanted to chance him waking in the night being hungry. Nice and stodgy to fill him up and easy to eat with fingers. Good protein from the egg too.
Make sure you havne't given him any snacks or milk too close to dinner as that always put my ds off tucking in.

i think the most important thing at this stage is to eat altogether as a family and give your child exactly the same as what you are having

my 2 dd's always have the same as me - dd2 is 13mths and has hers chopped up into very small pieces, and i give her a plastic fork for her to hold and 'try' with, and i have a spoon to help her, but she mainly uses her fingers at the moment

and she only has one tooth! she mananges fine

My DD is 16 months and has never liked purees or being spoonfed. From about 8-9 months she has had finger foods mostly the same things as us. She will eat practically anything as long as we are eating it. You don't get to eat anything in this house without her wanting some.

I would give him a range of finger foods for each meal, eat with him give him a fork to play with and let him get on with it. A good game is one forkful for Mummy one for him.

when my DS was that age we had two spoons, one for mummy and one for DS, he played with the spoon and I fed him with the one in my hand, he was never big on puree though even as a little baby I had to mix his fruit puree with baby rice or rusk to give it better consistancy. He ate the same as us from about 9/12 months but with everything just cut up small. also, kids are a lot more aware than one might think - take a look at a jar of puree and think about how appetising it looks - not very :D, and your 18 month old likely thinks that by now as well . One other thing you could try is putting some food on the spoon and putting it on the highchair table for him to pick up and put in his mouth himself, and try not to get anxious about mess, getting messy is the only way kids learn to feed themselves and getting anxious about it can lead to food phobias. Also, it is important that kids start being introduced to more and more lumps as soon as possible, the muscles that you use to chew are also very important for speech, feeding a child puree for too long aan actually cause delayed speech in toddlers

good luck

Cherith my 20 month old doesn;t like to have food mixed / mashed up anymore, he likes to see the different individual pieces on the plate. I read somehwere that's quite common at this age.

Also, why not try a fork, show him how to stab things with it, he might think it's fun and carry on.