My 11-month-old DD was weaned traditionally with purees at 24 weeks and started having a finger food lunch and grabable fruit/veg with her porridge/mashed dinner from 7+ months. She has always eaten well, but also loves chewing, banging and chucking anything small and plastic, so started to get more and more interested in the spoon itself after 8 months.
By 9 months, she insisted on grabbing her spoon at breakfast and dinner, shoving it to the back of her throat, banging it on the table, then chucking it on the floor. She still wanted the food, but I was getting through 6 spoons per meal, while she held then discarded each one. I referred to it (affectionately!) as the spoon dance.
I realised it would be easier, and create less mess (!), to just let her feed herself, so I started giving her stodgy weetabix for breakfast and chunkier meals for dinner. I even stopped giving her yoghurt a couple of weeks ago, as it was getting ridiculous. She happily eats with her hands now, but how/when should I reintroduce a spoon to encourage her to use it to self-feed?
I know this isn't a huge problem, but I'm concerned that she associates spoons with play and that they just distract her from eating. She's already a slow eater (although she gets through a fair bit), so don't want to prolong mealtimes with the spoon distracting her. However, I realise she needs to learn how to use a spoon properly at some point soon.
Any tips on how to introduce/re-introduce a spoon? Is it worth buying different spoons (I have the 6-pack green and pink Tommee Tippee ones at the mo)?
Thank you!