Baby Led Weaning - Frustrated 6 month old!

[Tinyflutterby]

My baby just turned 6 months last week and he seems very keen on the idea of food and will try to pick it up and get it to his mouth, but the struggle of not being able to so this efficiently yet is making him really frustrated with the result of him crying every mealtime. I thought this was meant to be the 'fun' way of weaning, but I'm on the verge of giving up as I can't stand to see him so upset. Anyone experienced similar or have any tips please? Thanks.

I think different things suit different children. Would your DS be happy if you loaded a spoon with yogurt or mashed potato for him to try to aim at his mouth? Or does he want you to feed him?

For finger foods, anything slippery is really hard for some at 6 months. Try toast fingers or broccoli florets.

My ds was the same, I used to give him chunks of stuff and offer the same thing on a spoon as well, just mashed up not pureed thou. it was about 2 weeks after he was 6 months that he became a spoon refuser and just fed himself. I just used trial and error
I also used to make soup and spoon feed him but dip strips of bread in it or bread sticks so he ate it from that.

I was having a similar issue a couple of weeks ago, what helped was if I held the food and then let my daughter guide my hands to her mouth. Her hand eye is getting better rapidly but at first it was frustrating for everyone!

I think the point is their outside development mirrors the inside.

So when they are able to digest foods they are able to get them to their mouths, break some off, chew and swallow.

That is purported to be sometime round the middle of the first year.

Like anything else he'll get there.

I suspect he if probably eating more than you think.

They usually take a wee while to get going.

Every baby is different thought and you know him best.

Just do what you think is sensible.

Ds is six and a half months, am doing a mix of spoon feeds and finger foods. In the last week his skills with finger foods have come on in leaps and bounds. He finds crusts of french bread, broccoli florets, toasted English muffins, long batons of raw carrot, cucumber batons easiest to pick up.

Is your ds hungry when you are giving him finger food? If he is not hungry he may be less frustrated by being unable to pick up his food.

Would you consider spoon feeds until his motor skills improve? If mealtimes are making your ds unhappy it may be worth trying a different approach.

Thanks everyone. Fluff, he isn't hungry as he has a milk feed roughly before each 'meal'. Today for breakfast I spoon fed him porridge and mashed banana and he actually managed to eat some of it. I gave him a spoon to hold at the same time and he didn't cry once and actually seemed to enjoy it. Lunch I gave him houmous on oatcakes and he licked and sucked away at that quite happily with some carrot and cucumber sticks on the side. Dinner was cooked carrot sticks, cauliflower florets and soya 'cheese' (he can't tolerate milk) which he managed to get a chunk of stuck to the roof of his mouth and I had to go in and try to fish it out, poor baby. In saying that he just sat there at first as if he was expecting to be spoon fed and it wasn't until I held out a carrot stick that he took it and started getting interested.

I'm just going to do a mixture of both until I work out what he's happiest with. No point in trying to 'label' my approach one way or the other, just have to go with what he prefers.

Glad it's going well, they soon get the hang of things, do what works for you and your baby, and change as they change.