On a finger food strike!

[cam621]

My 9 1/2 mo dd has decided she wants no part of feeding herself finger foods.  She used to pick up cheerios and put them in her mouth.  Now she picks them up but ALWAYS just lets them go as if it is the funnest game she has ever played!    She eats them fine if I feed them to her though.  So I have been totally feeding her all of her finger foods.  Isn't the point of finger food to learn to eat herself?  Not sure if I am enabling her by feeding her but she just won't eat them if I just leave them in front of her.  That goes for all finger foods btw. 

Thanks for your help as usual...

[RachelC]

How are things going?
Did you try just letting her go and not feeding her?  Sounds cruel as I write that, but maybe she would start eating again herself if you just said "ok, if you're not going to eat, we'll clean you up" and get her down and try again later.  Or perhaps it's a phase and next week it will be something new.  Let us know if you're still in this delemma
~Rachel

[tylersmommy]

It sounds like she's discovered gravity! It's a phase, and I always dealt with it by taking the fun out of it. If Tyler started to toss his food, I'd take it away without a word and offer him something from a spoon instead. At that young age, I wouldn't worry too much about enabling her. She won't forget how to feed herself. All you can really do is make sure you aren't positively reinforcing the tossing by laughing or making a big deal out of it, and give her something else to eat.