Self Feeding

[*Natasha*]

My DD looks like she is starting to show interest in self feeding herself dinner. She has cereal and toast for breakfast she still lets us feed her the cereal and she has a sandwich for lunch which she eats herself. The last few days she has wanted to eat her dinner herself only allowing us to feed her a few mouthfuls. However she gets the food from the bowl and just dumps it on the tray and plays with it. I gave her the spoon and helped her use that and she ate a few mouthfuls that way. I am worried if i let her try feeding herself she will not eat enough. How long before she gets the hang of feeding herself?

[Kimberly®]

Natasha Kayla has been doing this for months. Try not to worry. I know its hard, but she'll eat what she wants. When she plays with the food try not to react. Just take the bowel and let her be. I know its messy but it takes time. Let her learn to self feed with her hands first. Then when she is really good at that start meals with a spoon/fork and when she stops showing interest take it and let her use her fingers again. It will take a while before she trully gets the hang of self feeding.

HTH

[andibig]

Natasha
Sasha was about 13 months when she was spoon feeding herself.now i would say shes very proficient and wants to eat EVERYTHING with a spoon (oh and also a fork now). i wouldn't worry how much she is eating. DD would do a combination of spoon feeding and using her fingers so food got in her somehow
As for the spreading it around the tray well DD did a lot of this as well i just didn't make a big deal of it and just assumed she was finished

[* Paula *]

Natasha,

Thomas has been showing an interest in feeding himself with a spoon too.  What we do is give him a small plastic bowl of his own and his own spoon, and just put a teeny bit of food inside the bowl.  He bangs the bowl with his spoon, and gets a bit of it in his mouth, and inbetween, I am feeding him the rest.  He is getting the hang of getting the spoon in his mouth, but actually having a decent amount of food on it may take a bit longer to master. 

HTH

Paula x 

[*Natasha*]

Thanks guys for all your replies. She decided this morning she didn't want me to feed her cereal either so i gave her some cheerios instead with her toast. Paula love your idea will give that a try tonight.

[* Paula *]

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[TDR'smom]

Sasha was about 13 months when she was spoon feeding herself.

HUH?      That is so young! DS can only get food into his mouth with a fork if we stick the food ONTO the fork for him!!!      She must be very coordinated.

Quick question....many times ds will start playing with the food and smearing it around.  So I go to pull him out of his high chair (very calmly and I don't make a big deal) and he will quickly reach for more food from the tray and stuff it into his mouth!!!!      He must still be hungry...right???  Not sure how to handle this.  Do I put him back into his high chair to eat more??

[andibig]

TDR's mom
Have to say Sashas fine motor skills have always been pretty good plus shes very independent (don't know who she gets that from  ) and would often scream if i even tried to help her by moving the food around in her bowl so it was easier for her.
Funnily if DH does mealtimes she'll quite often let him feed her  but me big fat NO.
Anyways getting back to your LO  Sasha quite often does this with her food. pushes the bowl away so i place it on the table (shes in a booster chair now) and then she usually grabs the bowl back and finishes eating.

[*Natasha*]

So as you can all see from my new avatar missy is now feeding herself and will only eat dinner when we are eating as well I have to help her put the food on her spoon at the moment but then she happily spoons it into her mouth herself or gives up and uses her fingers if it is something easy to eat with fingers. My little girl is growing up

[TDR'smom]

Oh my goodness Natasha..  She looks like such a big girl!!!

[wilkes]

I have a 13mth old boy who feeds himself well with his hands and tries with a spoon, but then gets fed up and he then either smears his food over his highchair or gets the bowl and throws it on the floor.  How do i react / deal with this situation?  Please could someone advise / give me any suggestions.

[TDR'smom]

Tyler went through this stage too.  And actually still does toss things off the side of the high chair.   

First, give him very small portions at a time.  We find that if we put too much food down, ds gets overwhelmed and starts playing with it.  You can always give him more. 

Also, try not to get upset when he throw something off the side or starts playing with his food.  Just say firmly, "We do not throw food, we eat food"  if he continues, he might be full so just take him out of his high chair.  Do it calmly which I know is difficult.

13 months is still really young to understand what he is doing.  He is just discovering trying new stuff out. 

Ds is 17 months and FINALLY is starting to hold up his food to hand to me when he is full.  Before he would just start throwing so we knew he was full.


Good luck.

[BabyBsMommy]

DS is almost 11 months and has gone through some of these same things.  He sometimes plays and smears with his food but I just don't react, as some others have said, as I think it is just part of his experimentation and curiousity with it and he always ends up eating it as he plays.  I know when he plays and doesn't eat after about 5 min that he is done.  I started off just giving him one thing at a time on his tray to eat, then started giving a few pieces of 3 or 4 things so he could choose in what order to eat and then would replace the bites he ate with more.  I've tried a plate a few times off and on and he would just dump it and play with it or throw it so I would take it away and put his food back on the chair tray.  Two days ago I tried the plate again and he ate off of it no problem.  Over these past few meals, he leaves the plate and eats until he is done and then he starts to play with it.  It makes it easy to know when he's full!

[Isaac's_mom]

Isaac started refusing letting us feed him around 10 months. He has been self feeding finger food from about 7-8 months, don't remember when he started being really good at it. We just went with it and spoon fed him between bites. Around 12 months he was really refusing us feeding him and started using a small fork (he has a baby fork he uses), it only took him a day or two to get really good at it. He trying to eat everything with a fork including yogurt. I just put a small bowl with a bit in it on his highchair. Recently I started giving him the spoon also, but he is having a hard time getting it to his mouth without the food falling off. He pretty much self feeds right now, unless its yogurt, then I feed him that ... its pretty much the only thing he lets me feed him. All kids are different, my pediatrician told me to start giving him a spoon between 12-15 months.