10 month old finger food

[sleeplessinyork]

Hello,

My DD is 10 months and weaning has been quite tricky so far. She was probably 7.5 months before she ate anything at all. She was a spoon refuser so we mostly did blw, but she mostly just played with the food and spat it out for a long time. She's been a lot better the last month or so since her pincer grasp developed but it's still up and down.

Anyway the main point of my post is that the only way she will eat is if I put bite size pieces of food in front of her one by one. Then she'll pick them up and put them in her mouth. If I put more than one piece she just swipes her hands back and forth on the tray and throws things down onto the floor. She won't pick up one piece to eat and then the next etc even with things she really likes and eat loads of if I hand it to her bite by bite. This is hugely frustrating as it's constant guesswork on what to offer her off her plate. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we could try so she will eat if I put the whole meal in front of her?

TIA

[Iwritethissittinginthekitchensink]

Sounds totally normal to me! ‘Food before one is just for fun’ with baby led weaning.

She’s learning so much just from what she’s doing. Don’t worry about food actually making it to her stomach until past 12 months.

Do you eat with her? You could try giving her and you exactly the same food, like a pear (take a bite out of it to get her started) or banana, and just let her get on with it while you concentrate on eating yours. She’ll learn by watching what you do.

[FlounderingFruitcake]

I think the hands thing is pretty normal. DH used to call it DJ mixing fingers when ours did it! We would say ‘all done’ and remove the plate, hand it back, repeat and 3 strikes and that was meal time done and they got down from the table. They cottoned on quickly! We also had plates with divided sections to keep things separate, they seemed to prefer that. And yes to a fork, sometimes they’d use it, sometimes they wouldn’t but they were definitely capable.

[sleeplessinyork]

I have tried on my knee but same thing happens. She just bashes at the food and throws things around.

I have not tried a baby fork. Not sure how that would work. Are they capable of using one at this age? DD can get a preloaded spoon to her mouth but never managed to load it herself, she doesn't even dip it.

[PritiPatelsMaker]

I know this sounds like an odd suggestion but have you tried sitting her on your knee whilst you eat? My little fussy DD would often eat if she was pinching food from my plate

[Cormoran]

Have you tried using a baby fork?