My DS has fed himself with a spoon (once I load it with food) for a number of months now. However, for the past month he has started to take the spoon when I hand it to him, put the food in his mouth and immediately chuck the spoon to the floor. Each time I calmly say, "Aaron, you give mommy the spoon. Not on the floor. Give the spoon to mommy like this" and I motion him handing the spoon to me so he knows what I mean. Very occasionally he will hand it to me after he feeds himself instead of throwing it on the floor. When this happens, I make a huge deal of it, smile and say "Thank you!" which makes him very proud and clap for himself. However, 99% of the time, he will just keep chucking the spoon on the floor as soon as he has put the food in his mouth. After 3-5 times of this I say "you've lost your chance to use the spoon yourself" and he then has to feed himself using his hands as most of the food we give him can either be spoon fed or finger fed. If it can't be finger fed, then I just switch to food that he can feed himself with his hands. After 5 min I may try the spoon again but the same thing happens again.
So, I'm not sure what to do. Continue doing what I'm doing?
Also, he is generally a good eater, however he tends to get tired of foods quickly or some foods he just refuses to eat so I usually have to have 4-5 different options available at each meal as I know he's hungry but he's just refusing the food because he doesn't like it or doesn't feel like eating that certain food that day. However, I'm wondering if by having options, am I just teaching him he can say "no" to foods I give him and eventually get what he wants? Am I teaching him to be picky?
