8 month old refusing to feed from a spoon ........... please help

[busywizzy]

Have also posted this in 'Food' as I wasn't sure of best place.

My DS (8 months) was quite a good eater but now is refusing to open his mouth to have a spoon put in. He will open wide if I'm putting bits of food in his mouth with my fingers (toast, fruit, chicken, fish, vegetables) but just refuses to take food off a spoon. Not sure feeding him from my fingers is a good habit to get into and whilst he can pick bits of food up from his tray himself, he gets it into his fist and then can't transfer it into his mouth. I've also tried giving him his own spoon to hold but that was hopeless - he still refused to open his mouth and had no idea that he could put his own spoon into the food and then into his mouth (not that he could manage that yet anyway).

Do you think I should just make up some finger foods and leave him to it? I'm worried he's not getting enough food, although he still has four milk feeds a day and is sleeping quite well.

Any advice please as I'm getting a bit stressed by mealtimes

Do finger foods if he doesn't like spoon feeding. What size pieces have you been giving him?

biggest piece of advice is don't get stressed at mealtimes .. he'll eat honestly he will . .he won't starve unless he thinks that its a good game getting you stressing and paniced

I'd do the finger foods and leave him to it tbh

don't give him milk before a meal ever .. nor immediately afterwards

eat at the same time as him

don't worry about him getting into good or bad habits either .. if you want to pop some into his mouth, just do it ..

good luck ... and honestly sweetie calm down .. nobody is judging you and he WON'T starve

pasta and pesto with batons of veg is a good bet for finger eating

I would also reccommend giving finger foods. As he sounds like he has not perfected the pincer grip (ie cannot yet hold things between a finger & his thumb), then you need to make sure that you offer foods in stick or wedge shapes so that when he holds them there is a piece of it sticking up for him to put into his mouth. We started my ds (now 16 months) on stick shaped carrots, parsnips, broccoli spears (ready made for finger foods!) and apple & pear wedges. He soon got the hang of eating these and so I moved on to different shapes like cubes & discs etc.

Please don't worry about how much food he is actually eating - milk as far more calories and should still be his main source of nutrition & calories until he is at least a year old. If you simply offer finger foods for him to feed himself at mealtimes he will also learn to listen to his own body when it tells him he is full and the problems associated with overfeeding will be minimised.

Thank you, thank you everyone for posting so quickly and with such reassurance and good advice. Will give finger foods for a bit and see how we get on and am now off to Amazon to buy that Finger Foods book.

Tonight, he had pieces of cheese and cucumber for his tea and sat happily in his highchair for 45 minutes playing with the food and eating some (although not a lot). Far less stressful than lunchtime where he started screaming within 5 minutes and I was as frustrated as him.

Thank you again.