Self-Feeder
No photo to go with this entry yet, but just to share that this has been a big week of transition for us in feeding our little boy. He rather abruptly began refusing to take any food off of his spoon. Every time we went to feed him, he would hit the spoon, sending the food flying. He got really upset if we tried to manipulate the situation to force the food into his mouth (obviously), but we just didn't know what to do! We tried breaking finger food into small pieces for him to feed himself, but that just seemed to frustrate him, because he couldn't pick them up.
So after several frustrating meals, and lots of messy meals (food ALL over the floor, his chair, him, and us), we decided to not worry about how much he was eating, and to just let him feed himself. Thankfully we also realized that we needed to present bigger pieces of food to him, so he could grab them in his whole palm, and get them to his mouth easily. With these two changes, we are all a LOT happier! As long as the food is presented in a way that he can easily pick up, he happily eats it. The new challenge is to creatively get the balanced diet that he needs to eat into long strips or big pieces that he can feed himself. (any suggestions for yogurt or applesauce?) But we are happy that he is more independent. We weren't expecting it to happen this early (he's only 10 months old!) but it actually is much easier at mealtimes and we get to eat more ourselves!
So after several frustrating meals, and lots of messy meals (food ALL over the floor, his chair, him, and us), we decided to not worry about how much he was eating, and to just let him feed himself. Thankfully we also realized that we needed to present bigger pieces of food to him, so he could grab them in his whole palm, and get them to his mouth easily. With these two changes, we are all a LOT happier! As long as the food is presented in a way that he can easily pick up, he happily eats it. The new challenge is to creatively get the balanced diet that he needs to eat into long strips or big pieces that he can feed himself. (any suggestions for yogurt or applesauce?) But we are happy that he is more independent. We weren't expecting it to happen this early (he's only 10 months old!) but it actually is much easier at mealtimes and we get to eat more ourselves!
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