8 month old won’t feed himself

[Moonshine160]

8 month old DS2 started off as a champion puree eater at 6 months. Two months on and I feel like we’re still stuck on spoon feeding him mashed, slightly textured purée. He has been offered finger foods on his high chair tray with every meal, but all he does is play with the food and squish it between his fingers or throw it on the floor. He will sometimes pick the food up and bring it to his mouth but doesn’t actually proceed to eat it, then just starts playing with it again. For example tonight he has big wedges of sweet potato and broccoli florets but he just played with them but let me spoon feed him some of it all mashed up. If I break a bit of sweet potato off for him and pop it into his mouth, he will eat it, it’s the actual feeding himself that he’s disinterested in.

I know it might come with time but DS1 is 4 years old, is an extremely picky eater now and I was stuck spoon feeding him for ages and I’d really like to encourage some self feeding this time. How do I do it? I sit and eat with him at mealtimes to try and encourage him.

Milk is the main source of nutrition until age 1. Until then, solids are for exploration. Keep offering age appropriate textures throughout the day. This is a good site:
https://solidstarts.com/

Totally normal and fine, just keep offering ans he’ll get there

try preloading a spoon too and give to him

Loaded spoons.

Here's a free page in case you took a look and think you must buy the courses:
https://solidstarts.com/foods/

Ignore PP with their only milk until 1 rubbish.
Keep doing what you're doing. I do agree with PP about preloaded spoons. DD was happily spoonfed until about 18 months. Only way I could get food down her and she ate full jars of baby food every meal. I kept offering finger foods and by 2 she was confidently grabbing and eating.

My dd went through an ONLY SMOOTH food phase after initially starting off great. We kept offering and she started happily eating, at 4.5 she is a great and extremely non picky eater who loves veggies!

Ignore PP with their only milk until 1 rubbish.
PP didn’t say they should only have milk until they’re one, she was reassuring OP that it’s still their main source of nutrition so not to panic. Which isn’t rubbish at all, it’s official NHS advice.

Just let him keep playing OP. Let him make a mess. Offer him small amounts so not to overwhelm him. And keep eating with him so he can see what you’re doing.

Can you think of any reason your elder son did the same? (I assume that’s what you mean when you said “stuck spoon feeding”)?

8 months is still really young. Just keep introducing all the new foods and flavors - he will get the hang of doing it himself in time.

How is official NHS guiding rubbish?

I wouldn't worry, 8 months is still really young. It's more experiencing different textures, even playing with the food a bit, getting used to it. Offer, let him try, follow his lead on what he likes, let him play. Preloaded spoons is worth trying.

Not one PP said that.

I would load the spoon and give it to him so he understands that he can eat things that he brings to his own mouth.

Also playing with the finger foods is a totally normal and healthy part of weaning. Gets them used to textures and colours etc.

Checkout solid starts Instagram and website for excellent free resources on all this. If really recommend it.

At that age my son WOULD NOT pick up a single thing to eat. He inhaled any food that came his way though!

Don't remember when he finally started selft feeding with finger foods - he may have been closer to one. But by 10 months he was self feeding with a preloaded spoon. Even at 6 months he would grab the spoon out of my hands and shove it in - but just stared at a peach slice sitting in front of him!

He's a slightly picky 22 mo now - nowhere near as bad as his cousins and still loves his food.

Food under one is just for dun.

Everytime I get a bit worried about stuff like that I tell myself that every 18 yo can do that, so they all learn in their own time.

Dun=fun

Sorry fat fingers

8 months is very little still, you're expecting a lot! My DD only really started bringing food to her mouth at eight months and then cracked self-feeding at 9.5 months. She just suddenly got it and has been doing great since.

@ReeseWitherfork thank you. I think DS1 ended up only being spoon fed through my own fault. He dropped a couple of centiles and I was under pressure to get calories in him. He seemed disinterested in self feeding so I kept spoon feeding him to just get some food in him and ended up stuck in that cycle. He still wants me to feed him now at age 4! I just want to try and do things differently this time with DS2 but worried things are headed the same way. I suppose all I can do is keep offering him a variety of different things and let him make a mess for a while.