self-feeding

how & when did you start encouraging your LOs to self feed?

 

We started at 7 months (almost 8 months old now) just with some "snacks" like baby mum mums...we've moved into puffs/crunchies/wagon wheels. Next month I want to start with some fruits (pears, peaches, bananas, ect), veggies (peas, carrots, avocado, ect), bread, and cheese. I wanted to start as soon as we could although it definately is much messier.

 

We started self feeding with finger foods at 8 months and then started encouraging using a fork around 14 months. They used to demand to hold a spoon while I fed them baby food, so I let them, but they didn't know how to really use it yet. They are actually still practicing on that! I don't think they even held their bottles themselves until at least 10 months.

 

Around 7 months with Puffs.

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ May 9 2009, 12:08 PM) [snapback]1306978[/snapback]
We started self feeding with finger foods at 8 months and then started encouraging using a fork around 14 months. They used to demand to hold a spoon while I fed them baby food, so I let them, but they didn't know how to really use it yet. They are actually still practicing on that! I don't think they even held their bottles themselves until at least 10 months.


yeah, i was thinking more along the lines of using a spoon themselves. i was just wondering because Annabel Karmel recommends starting them on the path to self-feeding at 9 months ( ) but i just can't get past the mess potential. anyway, i give them finger foods but haven't started giving them their own spoons & bowls but then of course was wondering if i should be. sounds like it's probably not a big deal to wait for a while yet though.

 

QUOTE(miss_bossy18 @ May 9 2009, 09:57 PM) [snapback]1307111[/snapback]
yeah, i was thinking more along the lines of using a spoon themselves. i was just wondering because Annabel Karmel recommends starting them on the path to self-feeding at 9 months ( ) but i just can't get past the mess potential. anyway, i give them finger foods but haven't started giving them their own spoons & bowls but then of course was wondering if i should be. sounds like it's probably not a big deal to wait for a while yet though.

Yeah, I don't think it's a big deal to wait a while-especially if they're getting practice in feeding themselves with the finger foods.
With Eleanor I've been gently encouraging her to use a spoon for a while. I started off just letting her have a turn now and again with the spoon when I was feeding her something like yougurt (that wouldn't easily fall off) putting just a tiny bit on, handing her the spoon, and making a big fuss when she got it in. Recently (this past week, so just after her first birthday) her parents and I have begun pushing the spoon-self-feeding more. Now she gets her own bowl at breakfast and sometimes lunch with about four (baby) spoons of food in it. The bowl has a suction ring on the bottom so it doesn't slip and she can't throw it around, which, together with the small amount of food, limits the mess. She has actually come very far in just a week. She still needs help getting the food onto the spoon a lot of the time and towards the end of the meal I have to discourage/stop her from putting her hand in the bowl or waving the spoon around (when she's hungry the spoon goes straight in her mouth) but I think it's going well.

I remember feeding Naomi and Luke when they were at the point where they could get the food into their mouths very well but weren't so good at getting the food onto the spoon in the fiirst place. I'd sit in front of them and load a spoon up with food for Naomi and then do one for Luke, by which time Naomi had eaten hers so I'd put more food on her spoon and then immediately would need to put more food on Luke's spoon and repeat for the rest of the meal. It was non-stop spoon loading. :lol:

 

I have to second the part about it getting messy! I only started foods at 8 months and it was at least until 9 1/2 or 10 months until I let them feed themselves cheerio type cereal... its great for dexterity. between 10 and 11 months I quit doing so many purees and started just cooking and cutting up into small pieces the veggies... or just slightly mashing the peas etc. I try to double bib them if the necks are too big on the bibs, I also got the bibs w/sleeves at IKEA and use them sometimes... it doesn't help when they get food on their hands and then their hand goes to their head...

My girl especially likes to grab a spoon, so now I come with 3, one for each and one for me... mostly they just hold theirs but sometimes I put something on them... I think I'll start to be more diligent about trying and I like the idea of just putting a little bit in the bowls to help them out and yet not get the mess everyhwere... on a side note our dog loves this phase... lots of droppings for her!

 

QUOTE(miss_bossy18 @ May 9 2009, 04:57 PM) [snapback]1307111[/snapback]
yeah, i was thinking more along the lines of using a spoon themselves.


Mine didnt start doing really well with spoons until about 15 months. I think for now just let them finger feed.

 

QUOTE(maybell @ May 10 2009, 01:55 AM) [snapback]1307252[/snapback]
I try to double bib them if the necks are too big on the bibs, I also got the bibs w/sleeves at IKEA and use them sometimes... it doesn't help when they get food on their hands and then their hand goes to their head...

That is a good point, I forgot about bibs. We use a scoop bib-something like these-which catches almost all the bits that get dropped/spilled (also good for finger foods) so it's a big help with any mess. If it's something really juicy/messy I put a cloth bib underneath the scoop one. I tend to just roll up sleeves, although Eleanor also loves rubbing her sticky hands through her hair!