9m old won't feed herself at all

[Species8472]

My 9m DD will not pick up finger foods and put them in her mouth. She'll accept me putting them in there for her quite happily and is happy to be spoon-fed whilst holding another spoon herself, but she just doesn't seem to 'get' finger foods. Is this common? I have mentioned it to a few friends but they say their babies all shove stuff in their mouths.

I put little bits of food on her tray, like bread, toast, bits of fruit, raisins (which she can pick up quite well), bread sticks, rice cakes etc, and have started encouraging her to play with her food, but nothing's working. Any ideas anyone?? . She also rarely puts toys or other objects in her mouth.

Bump

Both of mine (DS 2.9 & DD 12 months) were like this.

With both of them, getting a booster seat that actually attached to a chair (I have a giant redundant highchair), so they could eat with us made a big difference.

DS also would only deign to eat from a spoon if he could hold a spoon - this didn't stop until he could feed himself! I just did a mixture of putting bits on the table, to which he would help himself and giving him a spoonful when I could. We finally got there.

DD is just starting to feed herself with her hands, again getting the booster really helped (I don't know why I didn't do it sooner).

They both like eating with us altogether.

My oldest child was like this. He did not want finger foods until well into his second year, and did not even attempt to spoon feed himself (would get quite cross, in fact, if you gave him a spoon) until he was around 3 yrs old.

My DD took to finger foods at 7 or 8 months old and can spoon feed herself at 17 mths.

They are all different, is what I guess I'm trying to say! Don't worry, just keep offering.

Thanks! She's my pfb, so I stress about it all . Will persevere! Maybe I'll have to sort out the dining-room table, currently a home for the laptop, ironing and DH's assorted junk..... I eat next to DD sitting on a stool in the kitchen, so she does see me eat.

My 9 mo was like this til about 10 days ago. Sitting her up beside us when we eat at the table made the fifference for her. if she doesn't eat much herself I spoon feed her a bit after to make up the difference.

Yes indeed made a big fifference.

Sounds like your doing everything you can so might just be a waiting game unfortunately.

My DS was attracted to a huge cooked carot very grabbable (if that's a word).

sorry, hope you didn't think I was implying that your DD didn't see you eat!

We always use to eat with the highchair beside the table, so with DD she did see us eat.

I think actually sitting at the table involved her more and helped her start emulating what was going on around her.

ds didn't really eat anything till 10mo. We gave up on blw, and tried spoon feeding, but with no success. When he eventually deigned to eat food, it was baked beans on a finger or yoghurt licked off a spoon, and he was a super fussy eater for ages. Now at 2yo he feeds himself with cutlery, and eats an increasingly wide range of food. Some children just take their own time to do things

My experience with my 2 was just like BillieJackson's - DS1 would not feed himself (unless it involved mugging me for my toast of course) but liked being fed and wasnt that bothered about food generally. I spent ages stressing about it but did no good at all - at around 3 he started feeding himself and he was pretty neat from day 1. His little brother - now 1 - was feeding himself from around 6 months with the same food as his brother (but the mess has to be seen to be believed) and loves his food so if he sees any around he'll try and scoff it - different children, different personalities...

DD2 was like this, she is now 17 months and only started feeding herself a few months ago, try not to worry about it (DD2 will not let me feed her at all now so things are very messy)

BeautifulllyScreaming - no, I didn't think that at all!

Thanks for all the replies, I was starting to think DD was strange or something - I only seem to see other babies that are very keen on self-feeding. Like you all say, they're all different. Must be more relaxed about this....!