1 year old won’t touch finger foods

[FTM2023rosie]

I’m a first time mum to an almost one year and wondering if anybody has been in the same situation as me with their LO. I started weaning my little boy onto solids at 6 months. From day 1 I introduced mostly purées but with some finger foods . Ds wasn’t keen at all at first (I know most aren’t). He was reluctant to eat any puree and would chuck all finger foods on the floor.

Fast forward (almost 6months) and he now eats purées well (including thicker / lumpier purees, although he spits out some of the bigger lumps) and will eat pretty much anything that has been blended or mashed. He also picks up and drinks from a beaker independently. However, he completely refuses to eat any finger foods. What I mean by this is, he will play with them and mush them up/ throw them on the floor, but point blank refuses to put them anywhere near his mouth. If I try to bring them to his mouth , he pulls a disgusted face, closes his lips tightly and moves his body away. He isn’t a particularly ‘mouthy’ (for want of a better word) baby and doesn’t generally put toys in his mouth either - only his hands when he is teething (he allows me to put teething toys in his mouth but doesn’t keep them in himself/ isn’t really interested)

I mentioned this to the HV about 6-8 weeks ago and she suggested swapping one meal a day for a meal consisting of only finger foods (rather than including puree). I have been doing this and have also been eating the same foods as him in front of him, making ‘mmm’ sounds , but we have not made any progress. I have also tried making myself look busy (but secretly keeping an eye on him) as she suggested that he might feel less pressure this way and be more likely to eat. Also didn’t work. I also tried dipping his solids in his fave purées (eg. In yoghurt) but it has made 0 difference. I am starting to worry.

From what I read on Google, the majority of parents posting that their LO’s won’t eat finger foods talk about their babies gagging or spitting them out. My concern is that my little boy hasn’t even reached a point where he will let a finger food in his mouth, as he point blank refuses to.

anyone been in the same situation or have any tips? TIA

side note: He seems on track with his development in other areas. He has been crawling since 8 months and is pulling himself to stand and taking aided steps. His speech and understand is coming along well. He is a generally happy little boy. He is a healthy height and weight. The HV had no concerns at his review last month.

how many teeth does he have?? I’m in no way a qualified professional but found all the pressure to eat solids a bit mad when they’ve got no teeth. I started weaning like you with purées and even now at 21 months my DS hasn’t got all his teeth and finds eating big chunky or dry food tricky. He’ll polish off vegetable soup or mashed things but wouldn’t eat a stir fry for example. I feel like he’s got all his life to eat chunky things so never mind for now. If your baby seems happy, gaining weight and healthy I wouldn’t worry about the pressures to eat solid food. Xo

Take a look at solid starts on instagram, it's a great account for when starting weaning and loads of helpful advise
Are you bringing baby to the the table hungry or after a bottle , may need to look at reducing / cutting out some bottles

Thank you for your reply, it’s so reassuring to hear that my little boy isn’t the only one who isn’t keen on solid food!
As for his teeth, that’s the strangest part..he actually started getting teeth quite early in comparison to lots of his baby friends and already has 8! So it seems even stranger that he has more teeth than babies his age and yet he struggles more/ is more reluctant to eat solids.

Thank you, I will take a look at their page. He is breastfed but I try to leave an hour after breastfeeding before I serve him food. I think him being full might have something to do with it though tbh. He doesn’t feed loads in the day any more (around 3 times a day) but we cosleep and he is currently on and off the boob all night (I kept track the other night and he woke up 9 times!). He will settle with rocking / singing for my partner at night but will only settle for me when I feed him, so we have fallen into a habit of him having loads of milk at night. It still seems a bit strange though as he will happily accept being spoon fed 3 puréed meals a day in addition to these feeds, but won’t touch any finger food.

My daughter has never been particularly mouthy, she did do ok with finger foods though. Have you tried a highly motivating finger food (I'd be tempted to try a chocolate finger tbh, or pom bears/skips😂) maybe because he has teeth he associates solids with pain? Its a good thing that he's exploring food with his hands, it's a good step before trying to eat it. I used to do porridge breakfast, puree lunch and then finger foods off my plate for dinner. When she slept badly at night I switched to giving her leftover dinner in the morning and porridge in the evening because she was getting too tired to eat before bed so wanted something familiar. She grew out of it and just has dinner again now 🙂