When and how to get a blw baby to feed self with spoon?

[CastsSpellsWitchySpells]

Sure I've seen comments from Aitch about Babybear eating food off a parentally loaded spoon, and just wondering how to go about teaching DD to do the same.

She's 8.5 months at the moment, so think this is still quite early to expect her to manage it, but since she doesn't eat from a spoon at all, I'm not really sure how to go about teaching her not only to eat from one, but to self feed herself with one.

Before we switched to blw, I used to give her her own spoon to distract her from grabbing the one that I was feeding her with. She would pick it up and chew it - sometimes the spoon end and sometimes the handle end, but the bowl of the spoon would always be upside down, and generally banged on the table lots before heading mouthwards, so how do I get food to stay on there and actually make it in?

i am not sure how it worked with ds2, i think he just wanted a spoon sometimes so i gave him one.
It was a while before he used it in any way... probably about 10-12months IIRC.
he had alot of sandwiches and wierd textures before that

I can just imagine what BabyDragon would do with a loaded spoon!!

soup-- exactly what babyxena did with the yoghurt that I loaded with his spoon earlier today and the carpet which he fired it onto bears the scars!!

Oh go on Soupy - I dare you to try . But please take photos so we can all share the entertainment.

Actually DD very kindly reduced the amount of food I had to mop off the floor this evening by throwing some of it across the room onto the head of the mop, where it was waiting for use. How kind and thoughtful of her .

didn't friend's new partner think to put a top on? (sorry couldn't resist! )

pmsl, can imagine ds throwing food to a soon to be very fat dog.

snigger @ D-bint. It was a black T Shirt too. COuldn't have been better.

I stopped some of the mess by putting BabyDragon's food in the beak bit of her pelican bib. She can pick it out but not scatter it far and wide with repeated sweeps of her hands like she can on the table. but nonononono and no again, I'm not giving her a spoon But I've just remembered a thread I meant to start...

wher can i get one of those bibs, i cant find any, only rubber ones that he can turn upside down.

asda sell the solid plastic ones, i believe.
and the only spoons that dd can use are the ones with the bent arms/stems/legs (what the hell are they called? my mind's gone blank).

we use some old Tommee Tippee ones that as i recall were supposed to be from 4mths onwards but have had more success recently with a solid spoon with a really bent handle (THAT'S the word!). the problem is that i inherited from a friend, and i can't see any like it in the shops. I really need another one, because i need to wrangle one out of her hand while loading up the other.

I should say that we don't use them a lot, but for things like cottage cheese and yoghurt they can be fun. DD doesn't fling the contents at the curtains immediately, but it is how she signals that she's finished so i have to be on the alert...

dd2 is 22m and still uses her hands most of the time
I blw'ed her - there is always a fork and spoon for her to use and omreo and more she uses them, but always ends up using her hands - I don't see it as a problem. messy yes! but it works for us

yes, hana, both my kids use mostly their hands to eat. ds1 has regressed if that is the owrd when i started to wean ds2
they both scoop up rice and museli with thier hands, more often than using a spoon.
ds2 is a demon yoghurt eater with spoon tho'

Alfie has been self feeding from a pre-loaded spoon for the past few weeks (he's 7 months now). A fair bit gets splattered around but he also shovels a fair bit in

I just load it up and hand it over. Sometimes I feed him one spoonful so he knows it's something nice to eat then he immediately grabs the spoon from me. I wrestle it back to refill it then hand it back. I'll be so glad when he can fill it himself too BLW is fab - although it means I can NEVER spoon feed him as he's so independent - a good thing IMO though

Wow Blackalice - very impressive!

Maybe I'll give DD another try at it once she starts eating properly again (off her food since she was ill at the weekend).