self feeding......what age?

[ninkynonkpinkyponk]

My DS is just 9 months and loves his food. My concern is that he will not self feed and has no interest what so ever!
He is not a baby who explores with his mouth and never has done, he much prefers to just chew on his fingers. so of course BLW has not really been an option. I do offer finger foods but they just end up on the floor.
I do not mind feeding him, but with everyone elses babies around the same age and some younger self feeding to some degree, i worry that he is behind and that by now he should be taking some interest and know what to do.
Does anyone else have any experiance of this with their babies? and at what age did they pick it up?

How much opportunity does he get to self feed?

It's one of those catch 22's for a lot of people I think. Because LO can't self feed and just get in a mess, people don't offer enough. But LO's learn how to self feed by making a mess.

DD has fed herself from 5 months, in that we started BLW at 5 months. But it took until she was 7 months to be able to do it more efficiently, and another 3 months after that before she'd properly eat her meals consistently. But she spent 5 months exploring food, tasting food, playing with food, copying us, practicing, trying, learning...

I agree with with Justalittle. Just keep giving different finger foods to practise with. If he likes chewing fingers what about sloppy things he can dip his fingers in? Will be messy though!

We have the opposite - ds picks up and tastes everything but hardly swallows a thing!

Get a mat under the high chair, and only put a little out at a time. I would stick to 'dry' stuff - toast, cheerios, steamed apple, carrot, rusks. They need to practice.

Hiya, thanks for your thoughts. I will try more, I think your right I don't give him enough of an opportunity to do it because he doesn't seem to be bothered. I feel like I battle with him and BLW because he naturally doesn't put things in his mouth so it is completely new for him, so it's not like with many babies where he'll put anything in his mouth and give it chew no matter what it is!

Do you eat with him? Does he have much opportunity to copy you eating?