Will baby ever stop shoving food down his throat?

[LittleBirdy]

DS is very aware of what eating is and gets reallyreallyreally mad when DH or I is eating something and he can't have it.  We tried BLW and it just made DH and I waaaay too nervous so I trusted my "mommy-gut" and switched to purees.  I would like to give him some things to self feed so that I can eat my dinner in peace but I can't stop him from shoving things down his throat!  I got some rice rusks for him but he puts like half of one in his mouth and bites off a big chunk, which I then fish out of his mouth which really ticks him off.

He's 7 months old.  Is this normal?  Is there something else I can give him to self-feed, like maybe cheerios?  (Not sure if his pincher grasp is developed enough yet; my mom's theory is to let him try and at the very least he'll be occupied while we eat.)

When we did BLW we started with bananas and even that made us nervous because he would just shove SO MUCH in his mouth.  We do occassionally give him an apple slice to gum, which works because he likes it but can't really get any pieces off... but that's about all I've come up with.

(And yes, obviously, I am a first time mom!)

[carmen358]

We did blw too (starting about 7 months) and I was very paranoid at first. I gave DD a chunk of banana and she shoved the whole thing in her mouth! I tried "spears" or "trees" and she did the same thing. So, I started with very small pieces of food, mostly avocado and banana. I cut them into pea sized pieces and only gave her one at a time (sometimes she would shove a whole bunch in her mouth). She was very easily able to pick them up and eat them. I did learn as we went along that she was able to handle food very well and that made me feel better about it. She has never choked (knock on wood) but has gagged maybe 5 or so times. At 14 months now, she LOVES feeding herself, is able to bite off smaller bits when I give her larger pieces and is starting to feed herself her yogurt with a spoon too :) She does sometimes shove huge bites in her mouth still but she's very capable of handling it now.

I also felt better knowing that I had taken a first aid class so I knew what to do if she did choke.

We tried the baby mum mum rice rusks later on and I realized even when she bit off a big chunk they do dissolve very quickly and even if it didn't she was able to handle the chunks very well.

Eta: I have read that you can roll small pieces of fruit or veggies in your choice of fine crumbs to make them less slippery. We never had to do that though as DD was able to scoop them up the side of her tray and then grab them if they were a bit slippery