baby-led weaning not working well

[AnaGon]

posted a week ago about my 9 month old son going off the spoon. So, as advised, I've went full on to baby-led weaning loading his tray with bread, pasta, steamed veggies, meat (which he would only touch once and discard).

so he seemed happy to sit there for an hour at the start. then the last few days, it shortened to 30mins before he starts throwing a fit. now it's 15mins. I am sure he's not full yet as he gets hungry again quickly.

i have tried not helping him at all, just reloading his tray when he's finished a portion. i have tried distracting him with songs and toys. i eat in front of him. varied his pasta and bread. offered him purees on foil pouches. what worked one time will not work again.

help!

Sorry YABU to expect a 9m old to sit in one seat for that long!

15 mins is perfect. If he's hungry what he needs is milk at this age.

Don't distract, don't sing, don't dance....

Just make sure he has plenty of milk and then a few times a day include a 10-15 min (until he gets unhappy) stint in the chair with a range of foods. He may or may not touch them.

I suggest you read a bit more about the baby led weaning approach if you want to follow it. One of the key messages of the approach is that food before one is just for fun.

When I started weaning I borrowed the BLW recipe book from my local library. The first couple of chapters contain a condensed version of the approach. The main BLW book goes into much more detail.

An hour?! He's 9 months old. Adjust expectations immediately.

Put him in the high chair. Give him food on his tray (not too much - I tend to put about 4/5 bits on my DS's tray with the rest on a plate near me). When he eats, reload. If he stops eating and just throws it all on the floor etc, stop. If my DS clearly isn't interested at all, I end meal time. Although if I want to encourage him to eat, I find it helps to eat a bit myself from his tray and/or let him feed me a bit. Obviously I try to do this before it all gets too soggy/mushed up/chewed up!

thank you so much for the replies and tips! didn't realise 15mins is long enough, i just wanted him to fill himself up. spoon feeding with finger foods was bliss until all of a sudden he refused the spoon so I am still recovering from the shock LOL!
i am totally unprepared.
i've read blogs that promised a fuss free mealtime - been reading the wrong stuff then! i'll find this book in the library and borrow

Definitely read the book or the cookbook (which is great for meal ideas as well).

You don't need him to fill himself up - that's what his milk is for. Food is to complement the milk until at least one so it's fine for him to eat more at one meal and less another day or just to have a mealtime experimenting with the tastes and textures. If he's interested let him eat/experiment; if he's not and you've finished eating your meal, just tidy up.

Definitely don't overload his plate. I was like another poster: I put DD's meal on a plate and just put a few bits at a time onto her high chair tray. If she ate them (or they went on the floor), I'd put a few more bits out. BLW is supposed to be about them taking the lead with how much they eat.

Have you tried loaded spoons? So you fill the spoon (with something that will stick well like porridge or mashed spuds with other stuff chopped in) and pass it over and let him feed himself.