how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

The only thing Kailey will feed herself are puffs and cherrios and the chicken from my chicken and broccoli.

Bananas, pees, small pasta...no interest. but she'll sometimes eat it off her spoon (ETA: that I then feed to her)

Any suggestions. she is just over 9 months old

Message edited 1/10/2009 2:51:28 PM.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

You are really asking two questions.

DS didn't start self-feeding until he was about 13-14 months old, so I wouldn't expect her to be doing that yet. He is now 20 months and uses a fork and spoon as well.

As for getting him interested in finger foods, just keep offered, I fed him everything til he was about a 11-12 months.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

I don't expect her to self-feed using a utensil, I just wanted to know how to get her intersted in finger-foods.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

9 months is still kind of young-Kyle just started with some basic finger foods at that age too (cheerios, puffs, etc)-he def become more proficient closer to 11 months. We havent' tried utensils yet-I still feed him yogurt, applesauce, etc...but i'll put some finger foods on his tray and let him pick between feeding him myself.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

DD is almost 10 months and getting so much better. In the beginning, I never thought she would get it. She would pick up 3 pieces and that would be it. I would then feed her piece by piece. A lot of times, if I picked it up, she reached for it off of my fingers. Now, she feeds herself a lot more. I still will feed her some but it is ususally more of a time issue. Today she ate almost a whole slice of american cheese herself. I also found I was cutting everything up too small. I was so afraid of her choking but if it was too small she couldn't get it easily. That was especially true with bananas since they are so slippery. HTH!

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

I started by offering her everything we ate (within reason of course!) on her tray. She loves to eat anything we are eating, so it wasn't much of a challenge for us, but I think presenting items multiple times was helpful as well. Sometimes she needed to try it a few times to decide she wanted to eat it.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

My DD didn't start really doing it until 10 months, DS is 7 months and really isn't interested or good at it

Just keep offering different things - once day your DC will just start doing it!!!

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

ok, I'll keep at it. My ped made it sound like she'd just start putting things right in her mouth.

I guess I'll just keep offering what I am eatting.

Re: how do you get your infant interested in eatting finger foods?

I wouldn't be to concerned since she CAN pick up food.

Maybe the other things...bananas...peas and pasta is to hard to pick up?