Baby grabbing for spoon

[Momof3Labs]

LOL - I love the picture! I see defiance in those eyes - hee, hee!

Since we aren't at this point yet, I don't have much to suggest, except maybe feeding him in a diaper only - it would mean undressing and dressing him a few more times a day, but at least he could go back into the same outfit, alleviating your laundry problem.

Can't wait to see others' suggestions!

[ATJ71]

Adorable picture! Does he grab the spoon and clamp down on it with his mouth? My son is "trying" to self feed too. We go through several changes a day. I have found that if I give him a spoon to hold (a clean one)it's not as bad. What is the worst thing of it, my husband is so anal, it drives him crazy when he's messy. so feeding him when he is around is a nightmare. I always get a laugh inside watching him feed the baby and he can't control the food any better than i can.

I am interested in hat others say too.....good luck
ALI:)

[egoldber]

Is he feeding himself otherwise? At 9 months, he is probably VERY interested in feeding himself. Sarah was mostly self feeding (with her fingers) at 9 months. Babies start to get pretty independent around that time. I would let him feed himself with his fingers as much as you can. Cheerios, small pieces of fruit, toast cut in little squares, etc. Whatever he likes. He will enjoy it and it will be less messy.

Personally, I fed Sarah all the "messy" foods (like yogurt and cereal) until she mastered the spoon. The way I got her to not grab for the spoon was that if she grabbed for it, I stopped the feeding session. I DID encourage her to self feed in other ways and gave her plenty of outlets to learn that skill. Not everyone is comfortable doing this, but it worked for me. But it was important for me to be able to feed her in public without making a huge mess.

HTH,

[nigele]

As for finger foods, he only wants things that are big and he can grasp his hand around (Biter Biscuits, fries, zwieback toast, etc.) and chew tiny bits off. I have given him Cheerios which he dives for but if he gets them in his mouth, he hates the texture, yells and gags (he's even made himself spit up once from a Cheerio.) I keep trying different things and he seems interested in picking them up and aiming them towards his mouth. Once he sees the spoon coming, he drops whatever he has in his hands to grab the spoon.

He does chomp down on the spoon but then moves it around in his mouth, then pulls it out, turns it over and around and continues doing this in a mad frenzy!!

[Karenn]

Lisa,
You've described Colin's spoon eating to a 'T'! When he was just trying to grab the spoon, I went ahead and let him feed himself. I would strip him down to his diaper or onesie at each meal. That worked for a while until he started doing the clamp down on the spoon bit. Then, I started offering finger foods at the beginning of each meal, and ending the meal with spoon feeding. He seemed to respond to the spoon a little better if he'd already had a chance to feed himself. Last week, he actually filled up on finger foods for the first time. I was amazed because he really hadn't seemed interested in them before. It was as if someone had flipped a switch! Don't have much other advice, but plenty of empathy! :)

[Andrea S]

No advise we are not at that stage yet. But, I just wanted to say that picture is tooo cute.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02

[mamahill]

Oh my gosh, love the pic!! First of all, that's great he has interest in the spoon, even if it proves messy. I've tried giving Ainsleigh a spoon, and she really couldn't care less. She's all about the hands and fingers. If you can give him one spoon, and feed him with another, that would probably be good.

If you're worried about messes, have you seen the Bumkins sleeved bib? I've seen them for sale on line (www.kellyscloset.com has them with free shipping), and they look like a good idea for the baby who gets food ALL over. Here's what they look like...

http://www.bumkins.com/pages/catalog_of_products.asp?Header=Products-WPB&ItemLine=Waterproof+Bibs&HeaderID=2

Have fun - even though the extra laundry most certainly is NOT :).

[nigele]

What do you think is happening here; while I feed Tom he constantly grabs for his spoon. He gets really irrate if I don't let him have it. When he grabs it, he gets his hands (arms, chest, neck, face) covered in baby food. He does shove it in his mouth, he turns it upside down before it gets there and half of the food ends dripping down his chin. He likes to chew on the spoon and I wonder if he is trying to feed himself or just wants it to chew. I do use two spoons to feed him but as soon as he sees the next spoon heading towards his mouth, he drops the first one and grabs for the second. This creates a huge mess, which I am ready to accept but I really would like to know what the heck he is thinking! Also, half of the time, as he is chewing on it, he growls like he is really p**ssed off. He never drops the spoon and waits for more food or opens his mouth anticipating the next bite.

I have a friend who has "trained" her baby not to grab the spoon and his clothes do not get nearly as messy as Tom's. Right now, I change his clothes three times a day because of all the food on them after his meals! But I wonder if that is a good thing to do - I would have thought you would want the baby to have an interest in self-feeding. (If this is what he's doing!)

I hope somebody has some words of wisdom here as I'm lost!

I've attached a pic as well...