Refusing spoon feeds (9mth old)

Just wondering if anyone out there has a baby who won't let you spoon feed solids anymore? I have a 9month old girl who will only eat a few spoonfuls of food if I try to feed her, but will eat everything if I offer her only finger foods. (It does make it easy....at least I don't need to sit there spoonfeeding her!) Does anyone else have a baby that does this? I'm not concerned about it, only concerned that she gets enough nutrition from the finger food I give her. Does anyone have any ideas how to make mushy vegies an interesting tasty finger food? At the moment I give her a lot of fruit that she eats herself, and quite a bit of bread. I don't want her to be stuck only on bread...she'll just get fat!!!

Any ideas??

Hi

Have you tried letting her eat the mashed food with her fingers, i know its messy but my daughter went through the same stage at about 9 months and she would only eat it if she could do it herself and now at 13 months she takes it off a spoon no problem (as long as she has a spoon too), so its worth a try if you dont mind the mess

good luck

Hi George,

I have a 10month old boy who refuses to eat anything you attempt to give him with a spoon. He has always been this way with solids however.
I have just been giving him finger foods, though I am also still breastfeeding. He is really quite healthy and is gaining plently of weight. Infact, some people even remark on how chubby he is??
Just try giving her finger foods like pasta, vegetables, fruit, rice cakes and give her little pieces of food from your own plate. I find that Sebastian loves pasta, and it is great energy food for him.
Good luck

I am going through exactly the same thing with my 9 month old son at the moment. I have been cooking vegie sticks (carrot, zucchini, potato, asparagus etc) and letting them cool, them letting him feed himself. Bread, baby muffins, rice cakes, pasta, meatballs, fish fingers and fruit are also good. The only trouble is, when you think they have had a good meal you look under the high chair and it looks like a lot of it ended up under there.

Danielle.

Thanks to all of you. It's nice to know that there are other babies who like to be individuals! I've decided to give up stressing and bother about teaching her to eat from or with a spoon when she is old enough to understand. Thanks for the good ideas, I'm going to see if I get a chance to make some baby muffins this afternoon while she sleeps. My main concern is that she gets enough veges and meat.....guess I'll just have to get some cooking done!!
Thanks again.....it's true that finger food leaves a lot of mess!!! Sometimes I think I need some chooks so I can feed them the scraps....but somehow, I don't think they'd be appreciated in suburban Sydney!!!!

Georgina