Finger foods help

[Narya]

I have been weaning 8 month old DS on a mixture for purees/mashed meals and finger foods. However in the last few weeks he is getting more and more reluctant to feed himself. Now nearly all finger foods get chucked straight on the floor - he might have a tiny nibble first but often not. He will eat them if I hold them, but to my mind that's not the point of finger food!

He has quite a few teeth already, and the other thing that sometimes happens is he takes a massive bite that is too big for him to cope with chewing, then gags and then won't have any more.

He used to be better with the finger foods, I wonder if he's just playing around until he gets spoon fed. I don't want to go pure blw as we had problems with weight gain in the first 6 months of his life which have gone away since starting solids so I'm keen he keeps eating decent amounts. Should I just not worry about finger foods for now?

Hopeful bump

I would absolutely carry on with the finger foods, but also accept it's normal to go through phases where they don't seem to want to eat much, which is fine too. Perhaps offer a finger food only meal a day, then other meals a mix, but make the spoon fed part of the meal really calorie dense (add coconut oil, butter, nut butter, avocado, etc.). And make sure he's getting plenty of milk, which should still be his main food anyway at this point. My first was small too. We did blw from the start and I made sure she got lots of nutrient dense foods and plenty of milk.

Thanks! I really like the idea of doing one finger food meal a day, why didn't I think of that?? Its frustrating because I know DS can feed himself perfectly well, he just prefers not to!

OP not sure of this helps but I've found my SA is lazy he can do it he just prefers to be fed I've just kept persisting with both spoon fed and finger foods he is now 11 months and prefers to feed himself more often than not as painful as it is persistence is the key - good luck!

Just give a bit of what you're eating as the finger food, expect it to get thrown but at least he's touching it to throw it. He'll start to eat it when he's ready. Like you say he's adjusting to how to eat with teeth I found DS went off cucumber when he got teeth as the bits were too big. Try softer things like cooked veg, savoury muffins etc

Mine was super lazy and would only be spoon fed at that age. At a year old she got more independent and now refuses point blank to be fed at all. So I wouldn’t worry, still offer the finger foods, but stick to mostly spoon feeding if that’s working better. It doesn’t have to be pure purée though, you can do soft lumps and chunkier textures to encourage chewing.

Thanks all, there seem to be some foods he is much more enthusiastic about self feeding than others - banana, broccoli and cheese are the current favourites. He's good with lumps and textures when spoon fed so I think I'm just over worrying!