How to feed a 10 mo old who wants to grab the spoon?

[lkmiscnet]

I'm having a hard time feeding my DS when he keeps trying to grab at the spoon with both hands. Even trying to distract him doesn't work or giving him his own spoon. He just wants the one headed toward his mouth.

He still hasn't moved past purees, so it has made for some big messes and extra laundry when he does manage to get the spoon. Needless to say, the food doesn't end up in his mouth and goes to waste then.

[batsister]

Our 9-month-old is also a spoon-grabber. He has actually just now gotten to where we can (sometimes) feed him from a spoon (I usually do this if we are out some place or I need his clothes to stay clean for some reason). We've done sort of a mixture of baby-led weaning and finger/spoon-feeding (though we never really did purees per se). Mostly, our solution is to just let him feed himself... either using his fingers (pieces of soft cooked veggies, clumps of rice, small pieces of pita bread with hummus, peas, beans, etc.) or by loading a spoon for him then handing it to him (e.g., with banana). Yes, it is messy (and our son pulls at bibs until they are removed, so we don't use them), but we just wipe him down and change his shirt after or let him go shirtless.

[firewoman]

To me this is a sign that he wants to feed himself. I know it is messy but the sooner he learns to use utensils, the sooner he will be a little less messy so go ahead and let him. You may be surprised how skilled he will become in a short period of time.

[MeepyCat]

You kind of have to pretend that babies can absorb nutrition through their shirts if waste in early feeding bothers you.

At this stage, my temptation is to tell you to stop bothering with spoons. Give him soft chunks of things that he can eat with his fingers - plain rice, bananas, cubes of cooked sweet potato or squash, bits of stewed meat if you do meat. Whatever you feed him, assume that you will find it behind his ears.

There's a simple fix for the laundry too - strip him down to a diaper before you put him in the high chair.

[fruitfulmomma]

We also let our kids feed themselves and don't do purees. I just feed little bits of whatever is on my own plate that they can have. Finger foods are probably the easiest at this stage, though I wouldn't give too many grains, if any. Lightly scrambled eggs or bits of semi-soft cheese are good choices.

[lkmiscnet]

He's been very slow to accept new textures and just last week, starting eating cheerios like puffs on his own for the first time. Yay!

He has, thus far, not eaten any "finger foods". I tried pancakes and teething biscuits (which he gagged/choked on when he bit off too big a piece).

I am so scared about him choking and having a few false alarms where he looked like he was choking (very scary to see). Since he's still at the beginner stage, what size food is considered safe finger food size? Size of a raisin? For veggies, what are good finger foods and how small should they be chopped up? Should I mince them?

[hakeber]

I would invest in one of those sideways spoons with the super grippy handle that he will be able to manipulate better, and get a drop cloth...maybe even consider getting a bib like they use at the hair dressers and cut arm holes in it for him and just cover the whole dang high chair.

Purees are messy.

You could make them into smoothies and give him a straw if you think he might not be ready for chunkier items, or even freeze them into cubes and put them in a mesh feeder for him.

My ds did small bits at that age, banana bits, mango bits, mashed potaoes to eat with his hands. Everything cut small enough to go down with a pat and sip of juice/water. was really good for practicing his pincer grip too.

Also I would try to mitigate the waste and the mess by only attempting to give him about 2-3 tbs of any puree per meal. Most of his nutrition should be coming from your milk or formula before one year anyway.

ETA good veggies are stewed carrots, potatoes, broccoli florets, sweet potato, peas, zucchini, avocado, beans of all kinds. Fruits for us were bananas, mango, papaya, melon, cooked apples and pears, peeled grapes cut in half, raspberries, strawberries, blue berries, dragon fruit, kiwi...softer fruits.

We cut them into nibble size at that age, about the size of my pinky nail. like 1/2 inch cubes?

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by lkmiscnet

I am so scared about him choking and having a few false alarms where he looked like he was choking (very scary to see). Since he's still at the beginner stage, what size food is considered safe finger food size? Size of a raisin? For veggies, what are good finger foods and how small should they be chopped up? Should I mince them?

At ten months, I'd really be more worried about smushiness than about size. Teething biscuits don't smush, so babies can wind up with big chunks in the windpipe. It can be scary.

We really don't mince anything around here, for the simple reason that it's a PITA, but mincing doesn't make it better for babies. (Have you ever aspirated minced carrot?) Really, it's more important that it be soft than that it be small.

For beginner veggies, I would go for cooked things or things that are pretty soft when raw (like bananas and avocados), and if they're going to be effective finger foods, I'd say not smaller than half inch cubes. I wouldn't get out a ruler for this though - the half inch limit is about keeping me from going insane while chopping.

We liked butternut squash as starter food - cut into cubes, toss in a bowl with olive oil, spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until soft. Serve to adults warm with salt and pepper and to babies cool and unseasoned. Baked potatoes (sweet or regular) are handy - bake potato as you usually would, then split it open and flake out the insides any which way, let cool and give to baby.

DS was (and still is) the world's biggest fan of plain rice, so when he was starting out he ate a lot of that. We used to sneak shreds of chicken into his rice to get him used to it.

[colsxjack]

We give our 9mo DD finger foods. But sometimes we feed her stuff that needs a spoon, such as yogurt. She will not accept any food if she doesn't grab the spoon and feed herself. We let her grab it and we still lead it to her mouth before we let go. Sometimes she wont give the spoon back and so we use two spoons, as soon as we load the next spoon with food she will let go of the first.

It is still messy, but food gets into her.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by lkmiscnet

ISince he's still at the beginner stage, what size food is considered safe finger food size?

I read that the size of a pea is safe. That's been my rule of thumb with ds2.
I started with bananas and pears. For the bananas, for example, I cut a slice and cut each slice into 6 pieces. tedious, but it works for us. If I give him "fry size" pieces, he mostly just mushes them up in his hands.