Stealing the spoon when feeding...

I know that if your baby takes the spoon and tries to feed herself that you are to just sit back and let her try...it is a good developmental step. But what about if she steals the spoonful of food, mushes it between her hands, rubs it into her hair and then starts banging the spoon on her tray? Is that something I should allow? I tried to go with it tonight, knowing that baths were just around the corner. But, she wasn't trying to feed herself but wanted to play with the spoon. And she cried when I took it from her so I gave it back and allowed her to keep pounding away.

WWYD?

 

Two things to try:
-give her a spoon and you still spoon most of it in with your own spoon
-this is when I did more finger foods, let them feed themselves those while you spoon feed

 

QUOTE(excitedk @ Apr 1 2009, 07:59 PM) [snapback]1255320[/snapback]
Two things to try:
-give her a spoon and you still spoon most of it in with your own spoon
-this is when I did more finger foods, let them feed themselves those while you spoon feed


Thanks for the good ideas, Kristi.

We are now doing a lot more finger foods (especially for DD), because she is seems less willing to eat from a spoon. HOWEVER, neither baby can self-feed finger foods yet...a topic for another post!!

I think I am worried about starting bad habits...

 

This is Eli...don't let him grab it, but I don't fight him. I try to use distraction or I try to move back and give Mark a bite; however, my guys also eat puffs so they get some finger food action too.

 

Yesterday, while DP was feeding the twins, DD stole the spoon. While DP was making sure DD was handling it safely, DS stole the food bowl and started pouring it out! :lol:

We haven't had anything as messy as OP described, but I think we would follow Kristi's plan of giving their own spoon.

 

QUOTE(excitedk @ Apr 1 2009, 08:59 PM) [snapback]1255320[/snapback]
Two things to try:
-give her a spoon and you still spoon most of it in with your own spoon
-this is when I did more finger foods, let them feed themselves those while you spoon feed


this also works really well for us.

 

My girl does that, but she has no intention of feeding herself. Its more to smush it in her hands, on her face...pretty much the same as yours! I just give her a new spoon to play with, and feed her with the "real" spoon. She likes finger foods, but I save these for afterwards so that she gets a decent amount of her meal.

 

Both of my boys do that. I allow it and just wipe them off afterward. I keep a wet wash cloth by my side at every feeding and a basket of clean spoons next to me and just grab a new spoon when needed. Over the last few weeks they've been getting much better at getting more food in their mouths and less food everywhere else, and I've been going through much fewer spoons. It's just easier for me to not worry too much about it. My William is very adamant about this, he has a strong grip and he will not let me put the food in his mouth unless he *helps* and he won't give the spoon back once he has a hold of it.

I bought some great bibs from Ikea. They have sleeves and cover from neck to wrist and have little pockets at the bottom to catch spills.