How to entice self-feeding?

[Anonymous]

I have read that nine month old babies can supposedly feed themselves finger food. DD will be 9 months this week and will not put any food into her mouth. We give her cheerios, cut up fruit & veg, gerber puffs on the tray to her highchair---at least something at every meal...none of it goes into her mouth. She will muck around with it on the tray, get a piece in her hand, and then open and close her hand over the floor, and watch it fall. She will happily take any of it if we put it in her mouth, but she just won't do it herself. Even her favorite things, like peaches. She loves them, but won't put them to her mouth if we leave them on her tray. Whether it's the beginning or end of the meal doesn't seem to matter. I have even tried putting a piece in her hand, and helping her transfer it to her mouth. That usually doesn't work either, because she will get mad because I am kind of pushing her hand, or not open her hand once it's in her mouth. She does, interestingly enough, put everything ELSE into her mouth. Keys, remote controls, cellphones, toys, and sippy cups with water....just no actual food. It almost seems like she doesn't have the motor skills to open her hand sometimes....but I think she could do it if she wanted to. She doesn't even make a move towards her mouth with it when she picks stuff up, she just plays.

What age did your DC start feeding his/herself finger food? What enticed them to do so?

other than putting it on her tray and NOT giving her any other food for the entire meal---which seems a bit harsh to me....I don't know what else to do. Anyone have any ideas? TIA!

[Anonymous]

I say, don't sweat it. This will come soon enough. It's actually easier now than you will find it when DC does start to self-feed, because there may be learning curve when everything ends up in the hair, all over the fact, etc. My 11 month old now grabs the spoon from me and flings food around the room....

[Anonymous]

It's obvious that your DD has the hand-eye coordination to bring things to her mouth (you mentioned she'll stick the remote, cellphone, keys, etc.) and it's obvious that she is comfortable eating small pieces of solids when hand-fed by you or DH and, finally, it is obvious that she has the dexterity to pick up the pieces of food, but would rather test gravity and drop them than test the food and eat.

Those are all good signs. It just has to connect, right?

Have you tried putting cheerios or puffs (something non-messy) out on, let's say, the coffee table and see if she'll eat them from there? Or maybe another surface area that isn't the high chair? Also, I know the peaches can be slippery and hard to pickup. My DD got frustrated with canned fruit because it was too slippery so she ended up ignoring them because she got too frustrated.

DH offered the tube of puffs and allowed our DD (12 mo.) to dig in. For some reason, that was really appealing to her. Of course, it sorta set a bad eating habit so we don't allow it very often, but that might be an approach to at least encourage self-feeding.

good luck.

[Anonymous]

Keep offering, but don't sweat it. My DS started self-feeding at 10.5 months.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP's. Just be patient and keep trying. Let her watch you eat and keep encouraging her but don't make it too stressful of a situation for your DD. My son didn't really get the hang of it until closer to 9.5 months, and when he finally started feeding himself, he gagged on everything he ate... It was terrible. It wasn't until 10 months that he got really good at self-feeding.

[Anonymous]

Agreed- just keep putting stuff out there and at some point DD will get it. Worked for DS, he just started grabbing the food from our hands and one day it started making it all the way into his mouth Same thing happened with utensils, he kept grabbing them and playing with them and one day (I think around 15 months?) he started putting the utensils in his mouth. Took another month before he started stabbing food with his fork THEN putting it in his mouth. Just let her go at her pace, it will work out. And yes, it will become quite the mess when she starts to feed herself

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. It's helpful to know that she's got company. And I do also like the idea of putting the cheerios in other places (coffee table, etc) I hadn't thought of that.

I look forward to the messes to come!