baby refusing to be fed with a spoon - Is it permanent?

[LucyG]

She's almost 14 months old and suddenly wants NOTHING to do with spoon feeding. She turns her head and screams when we offer a spoon (even if it has a favorite food on it). She mostly eats finger foods and table food anyway, but she has been eating quite a bit of yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, and applesauce from a spoon. Is this usually a phase they go through (toddler independence, I'm guessing), or should we just plan to give her a baby spoon and let her try on her own? And, how do you feed former "spoon foods" once they swear off being spoon-fed? I'm guessing mealtime is about to get a LOT messier . . .

[Rachels]

Yep. You're about to go through a finger-foods-only stage. After that, she'll get interested in utensils again but will NOT want help. Abigail shouts, "I do self!" before every bite. Oy.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[JElaineB]

Yes, mealtime will be a lot messier! Give her a spoon and help her figure out how to feed herself. I told DS to "dip and eat" and had him practice over and over. DS went through a period where we couldn't feed him anything from a spoon. Now that he is pretty good at it himself (when he wants to be) he does let us feed him some things from a spoon (for times I really don't feel like a major mess at the moment!) Welcome to toddlerhood!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[LucyG]

Great! I was fearing this! :-) Seriously, it's fun to see her budding opinions emerge. OK, so should we go ahead and give her a baby spoon (we have some of those "chunky" Gerber ones for self-feeding) and let her practice? Did you just let your babies dive in, or did you try to start with something kind of sticky, like mashed potatoes? In my mind, I have this image of her totally skipping the spoon and trying to eat yogurt with her fingers. What fun this will be!

[lisams]

We started with thick food - one word of caution though, hold the bowl yourself!! We kind of guided her hand to scoop and after a few tries she had the idea (still messy though!). DD was about 14 months when we first tried - she was also refusing the spoon from us.

Have fun!!
Lisa

[chrissyhowie]

One trick that sometimes helps us is using two spoons for the meal -- one for her and one for me. When she figures out that it is something she likes, she often will then allow me to use MY spoon to scoop bigger bites into her mouth in between her attempts.

I've also been mixing toasted wheat germ into the applesauce to make it thicker so it sticks to the spoon well. Much less messy! It tastes pretty good too (and has the added benefit of keeping her BMs really regular as well!).

HTH,

[suribear]

DS is one now, and he has let us spoon feed him maybe four times since he started eating solids! He's a finger foods guy all the way :) I know it's a pain at times, but there's nothing wrong with it.

Kris