No to finger foods

[mummyv]

My 14 month old son will not do finger foods- although he has plenty of teeth to eat it with! We offer them to him all the time, during meal times, in between meal times, but he just won't touch them.
We won't feed himself with a spoon either, we have to do it. I have started putting a small portion in a bowl with a spoon in front of him at the start of the meal time. I then will leave him to it- supervised- he just pushes the food around, then it ends up on the floor. He gets cranky after that when we attempt to feed him, then we have to distract him with toys to get his meal down!
We have tried eating in front of him too, to get him to copy our actions, but still no progress.
Help! Any ideas anybody? We are starting to get frustrated by this behavior....

[the pero clinic]

Dear Mummyv,

It sounds as though your little boy has some clear expectations of how his meals should be served to him, and how to behave when this doesn’t occur!

The best thing to do at this point would be to take him by surprise and turn feeding into a game where, at first, there is no expectation for him to feed himself at all.

Start with helping your son feed you – finger foods or from a spoon. Make a big deal out of him helping, and you eating the food. Then give him the same praise if he allows you to help him put an empty spoon or the food towards his mouth. Hold your hand over his. Gradually move to putting a full spoon / food into his mouth and decreasing the amount of assistance that you are giving. Keep giving your son immediate praise for each attempt he has at feeding himself until he has the hang of it, and during meals, alternate between spoonfuls that you give him and those he feeds himself.

For more information on helping bubs to develop the hand and arm skills for self-feeding, see my reply to “1 year old feeding self with fork or spoon” under the Fussy Eaters section (29/9/06).

the pero clinic