BLW: I need a little help with progression please

[IlanaK]

My ds3 has just turned 7 months old. We started at 6 months with BLW. His poos changed within a week so I knew he was ingesting stuff. He did really well with sticks of food and no problems with gagging or choking.

We are now at a point that he is still only able to hold food in a full fist grasp so can only feed himself stick shaped foods. I do not cook specially for him - he eats what we do. A few meals recently I have spoon fed him (not pureed, just delivered by spoon) such as spaghetti bolognaise and bean and rice casserole as there was no way he could get it to his mouth any other way.

My problem now is that he is less keen to do it himself! At dinner tonight we had homemade leek and chicken pies. I spread the filling from a pie onto a bit of pitta bread for him to hold and he just dropped it. But when I spoon fed him some pie he loved it and got cross if I didn't give it him fast enough. On the otherhand, he was happy to hold the mango piece I gave him afterwards.

Is this a normal part of BLW?

In my experience, yes!

DD went through a phase when she was about 8 months where she only wanted to be fed mush, lumpy mush, but mush all the same. Now she is back to BLW and refuses to be fed at all.

Ok, thanks. I am happy to feed him if that's what he wants, but I wasn't sure if it would mean the end of him feedig himself! He is not getting pureed food at all. In fact, he is lucky if it is even mashed - generally just cut up!

Anyone else experienced this?

I think it's quite important that they're not tooo hungry at mealtimes when starting out, so give a milk feed about an hour beforehand. That way the LO doesn't get frustrated through hunger.
If you can, make sure that one part of the meal is something you know he can hold and feed himself. If DS is struggling, I'll chuck him a slice of bread and butter or a banana, and then he'll go back to the trickier stuff afterwards.
Have you tried loaded spoons? I used greek yoghurt to start with, as it's quite thick and sticks to the spoon. I just load the spoon up and either hand it to him, or put it in front of him and he can then spoon-feed himself!

Thanks - he is definately not hungry for mil at mealtimes as I usually feed him within a half hour before hand.

He is dairy free so no yoghurt laden spoons, but I have given him a spoon with other things on it.

I always try to give him something to hold like bread, but he will most often drop it and wait for me to put something in his mouth.

I think I will just go with it for now as it seems to be what he wants.