Enough with the finger food!

[notenoughshelfspace]

Please help. My nearly 19month old absolutely refuses to use anything but her fingers to eat. I offer her a spoon/form with every meal but to no avail. She will occasionally let me feed her if she feels the food is too messy for her hands e.g. breakfast cereal but that is not often. What can I do?

[Lana]

Really you can only go with it.  I know that is not what you wanted to hear but its a fight you wont win.  I would suggest maybe toast for breakfast instead of cereal

[notenoughshelfspace]

I am not too stressed about it but I thought one of you bright sparks will come up with some genius idea I has not thought of yet. Yes; cereal as well as mashed potato is now an occasional treat!

[Lana]

I was told that if you give them finger food sometimes you can sneak the spoon in while they eat but that has never worked in my experience.  Good luck

[andrea21]

I am the opposite.

My 10month old DS refuse to eat finger food,but he loves putting rocks in his mouth
I am wonderring if i will have to make bread the shape of rocks,as he refuse to eat anything finger food.Any tips on getting him to eat it,as we are pretty limited on what baby food he will have and I no I am over feeding him the same food every day.

Any ideas for me??

Andrea...

[notenoughshelfspace]

Gosh Andrea; no suggestions at all; sorry. Mine throws wobblies everytime she can not feed herself...... (I never found the sneaking method worked for me either Lana...)

[Lana]

Andrea both of mine will eat off of a spoon.  Ewan did for ages, just lazy I guess . 

But when we started to give Bram baby food that had the lumps in it he was really reluctant to take it, like it would take 40 minutes and he still didnt eat hardly any.  It took us a week for him to get used to it and now he is fine.  When it comes to new things yo uneed to jus tkeep offering.

[dkjokisch]

Do you eat with your lo on a regular basis?  I found the best way to get dd to use utensils was to model the behavior myself.  Of course, she's 21 months now, and tries to take our silverware from us.

[sa]

my 21 month ds never refuse spoon .... well .... as long as he can have a go himself !! 
yes, agree with Deborah, try eat together with her and let her try using her spoon/fork and try with less messy food first (like mash potatos as it tends to stick on the spoon better )

[notenoughshelfspace]

We eat as a family all the time so she def; has good examples.... I will just wait I guess....

[Lilah'sMommy]

My 26 month old still prefers to use her fingers rather than a spoon or fork, though she's capable of using both, and is provided with both at every meal.   Hate to break it to you.