2 and a half year old will not use cutlery, help!

[amy90]

I'm going to put this very briefly.
My son is 2 and a half with suspected autism.
The only finger foods he will eat ear: toast, apple, crisps, malted milk biscuits.
He will not eat any other type of food I chop up and put infront of him.
For example the other day I tried him with some fish fingers. He wouldn't touch them. So i pretended to eat them, saying yummy this is nice etc and then tried giving him some myself and he hated it. Soon as it touched his tongue he rejected it.
I've been trying to get him to use a spoon to avail. I have been guiding him holding his hand to show him what to do and eating with him so he can see how I am doing it too. He still won't do it himself.
If I put food on the spoon for him and then give him the spoon, he will put the spoon in his mouth successfully, he just won't grab the spoon and put the food on it himself.

I know it sounds pathetic but this is really starting to upset me now. I've tried everything. I feel bad for taking his dinner away because I know he's hungry, but I really don't wanna spoon feed him anymore when I know that he is MORE than capable of feeding himself.
I don't know what to do.

*are

probably move post to behaviour not travel.......

Why can't he eat fishfingers with his fingers?

Maybe try putting food in front of him withouth a fork or spoon and let him get on with it - get him eating more and then introduce cutlery later.

My 2.5 year old does sometimes use a knife and fork, but just as often uses her fingers. It doesn't really matter as long as she eats.

You'll have to avoide anything too wet, but most things can be eaten with fingers.

Suggest you ask for this to be moved to special needs children or re start it there. Loads of people with loads of experiance over there. This isn't at all uncommon
My DS 1 now 16 still hates wet foods like cucumber and melon. A textural thing.

Ok, the suspected autism makes my experience a lot less useful I guess, but my nearly 3yo only ecently has really taken to spoons and forks, and still often/mostly uses fingers. She is fussy as hell too.

I am a big exponent of "this too shall pass".

@toomuchtooyoung, sorry. I'm new here and didn't even realise I was posting to a specific board. I'm usually good with forums but this one's a tad confusing haha.

@BloominNora - I have tried just putting food infront of him with no cutlery.
I've tried sitting and eating with him, I've guided his hands, I've tried putting things in his hands, I've tried cutting stuff up, not cutting stuff up, putting tiny bits in his mouth, singing, dancing, ignoring him and eat mine to see if he copies, leaving him on his own for half an hour to see if he does anything, tv on, tv off, I don't know what else to do. The only finger foods he will eat are: toast, apple cut into very specific shapes, and malted milk biscuits. He won't touch anything else. He won't even pick up any of the cutlery.
How do I ask this to be moved please?