22-month-old won't feed himself or eat non-mushy food

[veganfox]

Hello ladies.

I realized I needed some help here. My son has been pretty good about trying different foods, he loves to feed himself when it comes to finger foods but he doesn't show much interest in using his spoon. Most of the times he will pick up the plate and spoon and give to me so that I will feed him.  I guess my question is when he refuses to eat grown up food, should I just leave it at that or go ahead and mush it since 90% of the times that means he will finish all his food. I'm kinda puzzled here. I want him to start eating more grown up foods but on the other hand if mushed foods means more proper nutrition I feel like I should stick to it. Hmm..Opinions or suggestions please?

[caitryn]

Honestly, I would offer him the more "grown-up" foods first.  When he doesn't take them, I would then mash them to make sure he actually eats something.  Also, my son is 31 months and JUST started using a spoon regularly.  To him, spoons were just funny-shaped drum sticks unless I was feeding him with it.  (He will still sometimes "get lazy" and hand me the plate and spoon to feed him instead of doing it himself.)

Pretty much DS had a developmental evaluation last month where one of the things that lowered his scores was the fact that he still prefers eating with his fingers.  Naturally, within a few days of the completed evaluation and no extra effort on our parts (because we've been focusing on other issues), he randomly decided that eating with spoons is a good thing.  Go fig.  You can encourage certain behaviors all day and night long, but there are some things a toddler just will not do until he/she decides it's time to do them. :)

[veganfox]

Thank you so much for the reply and suggestion. I do think that maybe he needs his time but it's good to have some reassurance from other mamas. Today he fed himself soy yogurt for the first time (granted it's mush again but still.) We'll see how it turns out.