BLW - what do you do when your baby wants to eat more than she can feed herself?

[SnowyGonzalez]

If I feed her, she'll scoff about four times as much as she can manage to feed herself with no intervention.

She's 7 mo, so still clasps her hand tightly round the finger foods, which means that if I give her finger food which is soft enough for her to easily mash with her gums (and therefore take in more volume), she ends up squishing it in her hand before it gets anywhere near her mouth.

Any tips?

Half and half. Feed her main part of meal for nutrition but provide finger foods for her to learn with. You'd be surprised what gums can get through though so maybe she doesn't need the mushy foods as much as you think.

Yes, don't get too het up with BLW apparently meaning "no spoons". It's obvious that your baby is leading you to the fact that she wants more food. So provide some bits she can feed herself with, and some that you can feed her with.

In no time she'll be able to do the spooning or forking for herself. My DS is now 12mo and will only eat his fruit if he's speared it on a fork

Thanks for your wisdom! I more or less did this with DS, and having read Gill Rapley's book I feel as though I'm cheating slightly, but if it works for DD, it works for DD.

And Cies - ironically, as you say, feeding her softer foods when she asks for it is still 'baby-led'!

Cheers!

Have you tried pre-loading spoons? My DS has been eating off spoons since he was 6 months, but I pre-load them and either hand them to him or leave them in front of him. It's how we manage the more liquid food like yogurt and porridge and it's still baby-led.

Good idea, fantasia, I'll try that.

Wombat - whatever works! . What an inventive son you have!

sleepywombat LMAO!

I scrape up the mashed up bits of soft food that DS leaves behind, mix them with a bit of water/rice/couscous/yogurt etc (depending what kind of mush he's left) and give it to him on a spoon. He's had a good chance to explore them with his mouth, touch them and smell them, but then he gets to enjoy eating them as well. He seems pretty happy with the arrangement.