Refusing spoon - DH has issues with this!

[becj86]

Hi,

DS is nearly 8MO. He has been happy to eat breakfast and dinner from a spoon and lunch BLW-style for a while now and in the last week, has refused first breakfast and now dinner as well unless he can feed himself. I have told DH this is a phase and we just have to let him have finger food and keep trying a spoon til he gets it... he is unhappy with this answer and says he doesn't remember his little brother having this stage.

I suspect his parents either just got through it with a minimum of fuss, fed him snacks out of packets constantly (which is what they do now, he's 13 and won't eat anything other than chicken nuggets or ham sandwiches), or fed him with a spoon regardless.

We're going to stay with said dietary variance-resistant brother and parents for 2 weeks over christmas and I think DH is actually worried about what they will think as I currently get around the feeding himself breakfast thing with gluggy porridge (which DS loves, but is quite messy). They commented on the colour of my lamb and vege mush when we visited last, suggesting that I was cruel for feeding him something that looked like that and offering him biscuits instead.

HELP! I either need a reasonably mess-free breakfast that FIL would eat or tips on getting a spoon-refusing kid to eat off a spoon.

[Khalam's Mama]

Dry cheerios can be eaten with fingers. He could drink the milk afterward. Or an omlette is easy to pick up. Cheese on toast. Or v thick porridge that he can feed himself on a preloaded spoon?

[Lemonthyme]

Pancakes.  Salt and sugar free, either fruit ones:
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/03/pancakes-and-toys-returned-to-pram.html

Or potato ones:
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/08/potato-pancakes.html

Freeze brilliantly too and are great for snacks.

Trust me they won't think you're strange for feeding him these, they look and taste lovely.  My son will regularly scarf down 6 and he's only 18 months!  His daddy only has 6 banana pancakes (with cinnamon syrup) and he's not known for having a small appetite!

[becj86]

Thanks, love the omelette and pancake ideas. Banana pancakes are pretty popular around the IL's house but has a bucketload of sugar the way MIL makes it, shall try some of the sugar-free ones on DH and DS on the weekend

[Khalam's Mama]

Oh how could i forget pancakes? Ds1 loves them. We add banana and ground almonds too.

[rach321]

Scrambled eggs, toast with any kind of spread, ommelette cut into strips, cheerios, shreddies, maybe mini sausages, cheese and ham depending on how far along you are with weaning! Also beans on toast - not too messy! My ds1 never ate anything off a spoon and he does just fine with cutlery now at 3! Thankfully ds2 is a bit easier!

[Lemonthyme]

Ooh my son and I had bubble and squeak for lunch the other day, can't post a link because I'm on my phone and it takes me ages on here but something like that would work.

[creations]

Lemothymes pancakes are GREAT.  They really don't need sugar at all.  I started with her recipe then experimented with how much fruit I could cram into those beauties.  Rather a lot as it turns out.  And they are YUMMY!!

Toast is a pretty normal breakfast food which I'm sure no one could argue over, as is fruit.

Here's a recipe for lovely yummy oat cookies (bit like flapjacks) which are neat to eat as finger food, basically porridge without the mess so lovely and healthy and if the in-laws like giving cookies to kids then they won't be able to question this.

These are SO easy to make

3 ripe bananas (whizzed)
2 cups rolled oats (uncooked)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract (variation use cinnamon or mixed spice or almond extract)
optional dried fruit (choose whatever you want, around a cup worth, raisins, apricots, figs (remove stem), dates, prunes etc.  After measuring out a cup full either chop or whizz or a bit of both - whizzed spreads pureed fruit sweetness throughout whilst chopped gives a chewy bite)

stir all together well. leave to sit for 15 min or more.
dollop onto baking parchment on a baking tray, spread out with fork/spoon until about 1cm thick.
mark out into flapjack size squares with a knife.
bake at 175 deg C for about 20 mins (do check it for browning)
after removing from oven re-cut the marked squares
place on cooling rack

keep in an air tight container if you have any left to keep.  Also freeze well.

[becj86]

Shall cook up some oat cookies, sounds good.

Turns out mango pancakes aren't that great - i think just too liquidy to cook properly, but bananas are in stock in the house again, so we'll give those a go.

Omelette went down an absolute treat - he screamed when it was gone! So that's a winner we can repeat

I saw the bubble and squeak recipe on your blog Lemonthyme - made me a bit homesick I really like the way you've adapted it into a little cake too.

Oh, and no need to worry about how far along with weaning. This kid eats anything... at the moment. He ate off a spoon happily 2 weeks ago, so I know I can't bank on anything staying the same lol

Loving these ideas

[creations]

Another breakfast that isn't too messy.
muesli balls.  I use baby muesli (in the UK it's a brand called cow & gate, for 10 months + but BLWers don't tend to care about ages on packs eh?  If you don't have this type of thing I imagine regular muesli would be ok or whizz it in a dry blender to break it into smaller pieces) mixed with the smallest splash of milk.  Give it a good stir (only just wet) and leave it to sit for a few mins whilst you chop fruit or make a coffee, whatever.
Then it should be a good consistency to roll into small balls without going to mush in your hands.  If it's too wet add some more dry muesli.
These are really easy to pick up, leave just about no mess anywhere and easy to eat too.
DS loves them.  I had problems with breakfast for a while because he kept going off cereal but these are a big hit.

[Khalam's Mama]

Oh Ds1 still loves that cereal. I Will try the balls for Ds2. Thanks

[creations]

KM - I always add too much milk and end up making way too much of the stuff by the time I've added more dry muesli...so do just give it a small splash of milk, it will look too dry but if you give a good stir and let it sit it should be ok.