8 month old plays with food rather than eat it

[Biosblbay]

Is this normal? My now 3 year old at 8 months old would literally grab as much as he could and ram it into his mouth, whereas my baby just plays with it, she likes to get it and squeeze it in her hands and just makes a mess 😆😩

My DS would have done the same. It is why I did a combination of mashed up food and BLW. I went back to work at 6 months, I couldn't afford to let my DS play with a piece of broccoli 3x day. I always gave food in a bowl with a spoon (by 8 months not pureed anymore, but things like stews, spag bol etc) and alongside pieces of veg or meat or fruit, so he got to experience touching the food and whatever but also get some nutrition in him.

I agree with @StarsRobkts556, would it help if you spoon feed her while she plays with something?

Babies at 8 months don't have a concept that food = nutrition/filling hunger. It would be closer to a year before they associate food with that in a more similar way to adults.

Food is yet another fascinating thing for them to explore, using all their available senses. You'll probably need to do more modelling of how to eat - and crucially how enjoyable eating is (big exaggerated smiles!) - plus possibly spoon feeding alongside BLW to try and encourage her. If my son isn't eating something I like to take it and pretend to eat it myself with big exaggerated NOM NOM NOMs - you'd be surprised how often that works!