BLW and non-finger foods

[Girrafio]

Probably a stupid question but what do BLWers do about non-finger foods, like say lasagne, pasta dishes, fish pie and anything that is not easily grabbed in the hand? Do you just put it in a pile on the highchair tray in front of your baby and let wait for them to help themselves? (given that a bowl would just get flung...).

I'm not actually doing BLW but do want to encourage DS to self-feed as much as possible. Just not sure how to go beyond the stuff he can hold easily (at 6mo)

Yes, on the tray, warn her that it's HOT, and she learnt to judge if she would like it pretty quickly - by 8 months, not that we actually gave her any really hot food of course but often put it on her tray before it was cool enough for her to eat as it cools much quicker there.

DD actually had way more success initially with shepherds pie or Lasagne (the meat/cheese portions not the pasta) than she ever did with any sort of finger shaped foods. Scooping/grabbing up huge amounts of mash or mince etc. and eating it, scrambled egg was another successful thing that isn't "finger food".

Interesting qu; am not intentionally doing blw, but have a 6mo spoon-refuser. And a freezer full of blooming purees that I don't know how to get down his neck. He loves self feeding though so should I just bung it in front of him then?

And how do you get them to ever adopt a spoon then if they learn to eat just with hands? (DS1 was wielding his own spoon at 10 months but he was mainly spoon fed)

I have seen lovely but messy photos of blw babies eating spaghetti bolognese. :) They just get stuck in.

NoSpag could any of your purees be used as a topping/spread and used up that way? e.g. fruit purees as an alternative to jam on toast or bread?

Spaghetti or Noodles were another early pleasure of DD, easier than many other pasta shapes, and I didn't find them particularly messy.

NoSpag we often gave DD a spoon - for things like yoghurt, at 13 months she still can't really scoop it out of the bowl very well, but sort of gets the idea just not much success - she just places it in the bowl for us to refill and then takes it from us - has been doing it since very early. She'll let you spoon feed her on occasion too (although on MIL and PIL have ever wanted to do it, the rest of us are too lazy)

Good idea, reckon lots of them could work on toast or mixed into pasta pesto-style! Thanks!
I will give spaghetti a go too.

Thanks all for replies.

NoSpag - DS refused spoon since first offered (at 5 months) but suddenly changed his mind this week (6.5mo). At last some food is going in rather than ending up on the floor. Maybe yours will change his/her mind too at some point? Spreading your multitude of purees on toast sounds like a good solution though.

p.s. Wish I was organised to have a freezer full of supplies!