Do you spoon feed your 1 year old anything?

[Katerpillar]

Just wondering how people feed their LOs things like porridge or yoghurt?
My LO feeds herself her finger food but I still spoon feed these things as if she's left to her own devices not a great deal ends up in her mouth!

I give her a spoon to hold and she 'helps'

Is this ok or should I be encouraging her to feed herself?

 

[chezababy]

Have you tried giving things that don't require a spoon. I wouldn't expect a 1 year old to spoon feed themselves but my 10 month old is never spoon fed because I always give her finger food. For breakfast she has shreddies or mini weetabix etc which she can feed herself.

 

[HKateH]

I'm not sure my answer is much help as we BLW so I never spoon fed BUT when I feed my LO porridge, I make it thick (like wallpaper paste) and he picks up handfuls. Sometimes I give him a spoon to mess about with or pre load spoons for him to eat himself. I don't feed yoghurt often but he either feeds himself with preloaded spoons or I mix it with chunks of fruit for him to pick up.

 

[_jellybean_]

No...we don't. We mostly let her go for it, which is VERY messy, lol.

What DH does at lunch if he doesn't want her all....food everywhere, is he puts the (let's say it's) applesause in a spoon. He gives her that spoon, she eats it, he fills up another spoon, gives it to her, takes the other one back, etc. So basically he uses two-three spoons and keeps putting applesause in them, and she feeds herself that with the spoon. Goodness, I hope that made sense!

 

[Heramys]

I would let her try herself but as most will end up not in her mouth, spoon feed her the amount you'd like her to eat in between her own attempts.

 

[PoppyPainting]

My 13month old loves to feed herself with a spoon. She's fairly accurate.I let her feed herself and also help her by pre loading the spoon and spoon feeding herself. Whatever works at each mealtime and dpending on her mood ::

 

[lozzy21]

Only if I'm in a rush

 

[Bevziibubble]

At that age I would spoon things like oatmeal as she had no desire to hold the spoon herself. She's still not great with a spoon now but I try to encourage her.

 

[Lou1234]

My LO is going through a stage of only taking a few spoonfuls from me then she'll have some more with me loading the spoon with her holding it then I help her guide it to her mouth (I tried letting her find her mouth with the spoon but she wasn't great!). Then she just refuses any more.

For the last week or so I have been giving her food she can just feed herself using her fingers.

She'll quite happily eat yogurt or a fruit puree from the spoon though!

 

[Katerpillar]

Ok, thanks all. We do offer different things for breakfast such as toast, fruit, mini weetabix....all of which she feeds herself and when we do have porridge or yoghurt she does have a spoon but her aim leaves a lot to be desired so I end up feeding her most of it. But I might try more preloaded spoons and see where we go from there.

 

[lhancock90]

I did BLW so i literally never fed them a thing! Fun for them, easy for me

 

[sequeena]

My son couldn't use a spoon at that age so anything that needed a spoon I did it

 

[MindUtopia]

We've done BLW and I never spoonfed anything from the start (but we also didn't do porridge or yogurt). Now that my daughter started nursery, they do spoonfeed her yogurt if that's what they're having that day (otherwise she feeds herself). At home, it's about 50-50. I do offer her yogurt and porridge now that she will feed them to herself and accept eating them off a spoon, when she was smaller, she'd do neither. Really it mostly depends on how much of a hurry I'm in! If we need to get out of the door to get her to nursery on time, it can be faster to feed her and sometimes she gets grumpy if I don't, points at the spoon and refuses to feed herself, but is happy again if I feed her. This is especially when she's sick or teething. Otherwise, I do try to let her feed herself with her hands or with spoonloading (doesn't actually use the spoon on her own well yet). As I have a good sense of when she wants food and when she doesn't and she will put her hand up and stop the spoon when she's done, it still feels like we're being very baby-led and respecting her wishes. I don't feed her anything else with a spoon and never had, but sometimes it just works out easier. My impression from all my friends who have also done BLW is that this is what most people do and it eventually moves into them self-feeding, especially if you encourage it with spoonloading.

 

[jd83]

yes, at that age I did spoon feed thinner things like yogurt that would be too difficult for him to use hands for. Now, I am working on preloading the spoon and having him try to get the spoon to his mouth himself. Works sometimes, others he spills it all over...lol. But he's learning.

 

[BabyDragon]

We do mostly BLW, and lately DD insists on using utensils by herself. Which consists of her holding a spoon in one hand, and shoving food in her mouth with the other.

I wish she would let me spoon feed her.... She makes a mess of EVERYTHING.

 

[scoobydrlp]

We did BLW and I have always pre-loaded spoonfuls for her and then handed her the spoon and she has done great getting it into her mouth. Over the past few weeks she is starting to get the hang of doing the whole process on her own, although I do have to guide her hand a little to get the food out of the bowl and onto her spoon for her. I do not however set a bowl or plate of anything in front of her and leave her to her own devices because the whole thing will end up directly on the floor. Not sure how we're going to get past that!

 

[Snow Owl]

We mainly do finger food but things like porridge, cereal (with milk) we can't. So we spoon feed him this

 

[dozydormouse]

My 11 month LO is mostly spoonfed, but can handle snacks like banana, rice cakes, toast, breadsticks, fine. Any other fruit or food items I try handing to her or put in front of her to pick up ends up on the floor almost immediately, often without even beig licked. I also have to be very quick getting the spoon back if I risk letting her put it in her own mouth with stuff on it, as soon as it's empty it gets thrown!