8 mth old who wants to feed herself

[custard1]

My 8 month old prefers to feed herself than eat from a spoon. She has had soft fruits, toast, soft cheese, hard cheese etc but I don't know if and when I can give her meat and fish and what else to give her. I want to make sure she is getting what she needs. She will opccasionally eat prepared meals from a spoon but much prefers to do things herself.

Any ideas?

mie is exactly the same its amazing how quickly they learn how to use a spoon. twas only last week i was on here posting 'help my baby wont let me feed her but cant use a spoon' she is an expert now. well almost.

try giving her a spoon and you have one spoon, also 'soft' meats can be eaten as finger food if they are chopped. i.e. chicken, fish, turkey, home made burgers. and boiled veg can also be used as a finger food.

if she finds it difficult using a spoon try a fork its easier for them to 'stab' food onto the fork, obv food that is chopped into bitesized pieces rather than mashed. imo at 8 months a baby should be eating pretty much the same as the rest of the family.

Go onto the babyledweaning site which is all about self feeding babies with masses of ideas of what to give them.

Basically she can have anything but chewier things like meat needs to be in fist size pieces so she can gnaw at them without choking.

DS was the exactly the same at that age. From about 8 mths he wanted to do it all himself and drastically cut down on the amount he was eating. Now nearly 1 and still doesn't eat a great deal, but does it all himself.

Here a few suggestions:

Fruit
Veg fingers - steamed or roasted
Mini fish cakes (fish and mashed potato)
Mini meat balls
Pasta
Sandwiches
Anything mixed with mashed potato so that it is quite solid for them to pick up with their fingers
Wheatibix or porridge made very solid so they can pick up with fingers

DS now quite good with a spoon, so can give him more runny stuff again, like yogurts!

My ds is the same. Funny, isn't it? How do they decide they want spoon no more? I posted a link about fingerfoods myself a few days ago here
Sometimes I make an egg omelette with some pureed vegetables as my freezer is full of prepared stuff my ds doesn't eat anymore! Also potato cakes, boiled, steamed or roasted parsnip, carrot, asparagus, broccoli, beans, courgette, sweet potato etc. I made homemade potato chips - in the oven, just smudge little bit of olive oil and put on a rack. He loved them! Make some homemade fish fingers.
I will try to give him a spoon...when I feel brave enough!

My daughter was just the same, too.

Omelettes were really popular in this house, and you can put just about anything in them, chopped up, including meat. At 8 months, your baby will probably be able to handle pieces of meat and fish just fine. Fish fingers work brilliantly as they're so easy to pick up and they're v easy to make. I'd have thought thin slices of meat would be fine at this age, too. Cut across the grain, if you see what I mean, and they are easy to bite. Also stewed meat is usually quite soft. I used to stew chicken pieces with tomatoes and garlic and hand her a drumstick to gnaw on. If the chicken's been cooked long and slow it will be practically falling off the bone anyway.

well my dd2 who couldnt use a spoon last week but wouldnt let me spoon feed her fed herself cheerios and milk this morning with a spoon so i say just give her her own spoon and let her get on with it. she will get the hang of it.

equally she had a massive tantum at my nans yesterday because they wouldnt let her feed herself her own yoghurt, they said she would get it 'everywhere' it went every any how because she was very annoyed and kept snatching the spoon away and throwing it in temper independant little mites at times arent they?

as everyone has said, its fine! my ds was like this and v stubborn with it, he is 21 mo now and v healthy indeed

avocado, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoe oven fries, chopped steamed spinach, tofu, steamed beets, quesidilla cut up in tiny bits, steamed carrots, zuccini and summer squash, these are some of the things i gave my lo since she also had no interest with a spoon. ( part of her not liking the spoon i think was she did not like the texture so soft so she would eat cottage cheese from a spoon but not yougurt!?)

I used to give dd two spoons, and while she fed herself with one, load the other up with food for her, hence we ended up with a little system going, and I was never actually spooning food into her mouth.

My ds is becoming a bit funny about the spoon again. He's been happily combining self feeding with hands with me spooning some stuff in as well but now he keeps snatching the spoon. I let him take it and help him quide it to the target!

Takes forever and makes a right blardy mess but I don't really care as long as he eats.

how old where these little ones when they did their own spoon thing please?

Mine didn't learn to use a spoon properly until about 20 months, moocow. But she managed to get plenty of food into her mouth with very little mess anyway. We stopped using bibs at about 10 months as she just took them off and I've never had to do a full change of clothes or anything like that. Have occasionally changed her top when she has been eating yoghurt without a spoon...

olihan is right about the babyledweaning site - its great and full of ideas
there's also a good book by Jennie Maizels called Finger Food - she has lots of ideas about obvious things like wedges, and not so obvious things like reusing the family pasta bake the next day...