How do I get him to finger feed

[bubblymummy]

Advice needed as I think I'm going very wrong somewhere.

10 month old DS does not do finger food. Great manual dexterity - will play with it, put it my mouth if I ask nicely but does not see the point of putting it anywhere near his mouth. Same with the bottle/cup. He can hold it but will scream until I give him his drink.

Any tips gratefully received.

Do you give him some to explore every meal time? Do you have a piece of the same thing at the same time, so that he can see you eating it?

Yes and yes - in fact I think I end up been fed quite alot of it!! Should he be confidently finger feeding now?!

There aren't many 'shoulds' when it comes to weaning bm. I've used blw, so in our case, yes, dd was self feeding by then (in variable amounts), but not all babies are. Does he ever eat any of it?

Presume you have done purees the rest of the time - is he now having lumps in those ok, so it's not actually that he can't eat it, just that he chooses not to feed himself?

Yes, he can chew pretty much anything but chooses not to self feed.

I've seen threads for baby led weaning but I just did what my health visitor said and is it now too late to try a new approach.

Maybe I should just hold out until he puts into his mouth. Battle of wills. He's absolutely fine in every other respect and is easy going. So frustrating because I also feel he's missing out on the fun.

It sounds like there's nothing to worry about then - he's just a lazy mite and will do it in his own good time!

Just keep on offering and make sure he doesn't sense you getting stressed about it. And when he does eventually put something in his own mouth, make a big fuss of him so that he can see it's a good thing.

Think you're right. He will tend to avoid doing things he cna do himself and just holler for attention! Will just have (yet more) patience. Ho hum. Many thanks.

my son is advanced with his eating in my opinion as he is only 11 months old but quite happily sits and eats whatever i am eating at meal times just chopped up and the way he learned was eating the same as me and with me in his high chair at the table.
if you start off with really easy things maybe like grated cheese, little squares of toast, bits of sweetcorn, ect.... then gradually let him experiment with more flavours and textures and he will be eating finger foods in no time!

i wouldn't get into a battle about it, tbh, that's the last thing you'd want.

as a matter of interest, though, it was at about 11 months that dd started to insist on having her snacks while standing up at the coffee table. i'd forget about asking him to eat finger food at the highchair and see if he'll pick something up (an oatcake, bit of cheese, toast, that sort of thing) while he's cruising around.

don't stress about it though, keep giving him the opportunity to pick food up but don't worry if he doesn't. i think it was vvvqv who said that in order to get her baby to eat anything she had to leave it lying on the ground...

I'll give anything a go! DS a bit too relaxed sometimes....

Just picked up this thread and have same issue with my 10 month DS. Fed up with wasting good food thats crumbled and thrown on the floor!

What happened? - does DS now finger feed?

not at all. im doing blw with ds. he's 10.5 months now. for 4.5 months he first of all made no attempt to even pick it up after about 2 months he would pick it up but just drop it on the floor. about 2 weeks ago he finally started to pick it up and attempt to put it in his mouth. yesterday we finally got it in his mouth and now he is eating everything i give him

some babies don't get the hang of it til they are 12 months. as long as he is getting plenty of milk he won't be going hungry.