Finger foods questions

[lotus_1023]

I'm not really too worried about this but just wanted to check that it's all normal and whether I should keep persisting.

I've been feeding my almost 9mo DD finger food for a few weeks now, and she really enjoys playing with the food, but she eats very little of it. I've given her toast, rusks, banana, pasta, boiled vegies, small chicken pieces and bits of rice cake so far. The only things she's actually eaten are rusks and chicken. The rest she'll spend ages playing with, putting in her mouth and spitting it out again, dropping it on the floor and in her lap. It seems as though she has trouble biting it into pieces small enough for her to swallow. She's never gagged at all, and will eat chunks in her spoonfed food with no problem, but she just spits out most of her finger food. I've persisted for a while thinking she'll just get used to it eventually. Is this normal?

[Freya'sMum]

Not sure if it's normal, 'coz they're all so different, but I don't think it's a problem at all - I encourage folk to think of solid food as an Activity rather than Eating in the EASY routine, so the fact that she is exploring it and working out what to do with it in a playful, non-stress kind of way is absolutely the right approach to introducing finger foods!

Keep up the good work!

Ax

[lilmonkey]

My friend and I just had a talk about this yesterday and the way she solved the problem was placed her dd (11 mos) on the floor and have a picnic.  Apparently her dd ate more food this way than in her high chair (as more food ended up on the floor than in her mouth.)  Maybe you can give this a try for variety?