TW, Finger food - eating vs throwing!

[ZoMo]

My LO is 6 months old. We are TW. She eats purees quite happily and I am introducing lumps slowly by thickening porridge and adding crumbled weetabix, crumbling rusks into fruit pots, offering small pieces of finger food - fruit, chicken, mushed up jacket potato etc. She will eat a whole rusk by sucking it but always ends up taking in too large a piece and gagging, once so much that she brought it and her entire dinner up in one go all over the cafe floor. That quite frightened me if I am honest! She will eat puree with ease but normally gag on any finger food offered but I am trying to relax and just watch her rather than jump up panicking, knowing she only has a little piece so it (in theory) cant do her much damage!

Very little finger food actually makes it to her mouth and stays in there. It goes everywhere else. I just wondered when your TW babies actually started to eat their solid food rather than just play with it? I am maybe expecting a bit too much from her too early, she has been weaning with purees for a month and has been offered finger food (on and off) for a couple of weeks.

Will she ramp up the finger food intake a bit when she gets onto stage 2 type lumpy food as standard meals?

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[StranjeGirl]

No advice. Mine started at 6 months and loves purees and barely tolerates mashed. I tried to give her a big chunk of banana and she had a fit. She cried every time I put it on her tray. Unlike every object that goes straight to her mouth, this went straight to the floor. SHe wouldn't eat it mashed either but seemed to be ok with it pureed. Anyway, I will be stalking this thread!!

 

[lozzy21]

If she's only been having purrees it's going to take her a while to get used to moving the lumps round her mouth. What size are the things your giving her and are you eating the same things at the same time? If it's something she has never had before then she's not going to know that it's food and not a toy unless she can see you eating it.

 

[ZoMo]

Today she gagged on mashed banana and threw it and all her porridge up in one go. But a bit later on we had superb success with toast! She seems to love toast and had no problem with eating strips of it by herself. She also tentatively ate some mashed up baked potato with cheese (although I had to feed it to her). I think we are getting there, she watches us eat but I guess is very used to being fed so I will try her with more things like toast, perhaps she is struggling with the stuff I have been mashing or cutting up small as she cant grip it very well and so whilst her hand makes it to her mouth, the food stays inside her fist - with the toast she can eat it well by herself. We are learning together!!

 

[lozzy21]

Cutting food up like chips seems to be the easiest for them, long strips are easier to pick up.

 

[mistyscott]

We BLW but LO wasn't actually consuming much until 8mths or so - it's still early days for your LO and food is more of a plaything at that age I'm afraid!
My LO has just started lobbing his food off the tray....and boy can he throw far!

 

[Lauki]

It took Soph quite a while before she figured it out well. She'd eat bananas whole, but that was about it.

We did TW in the beginning too. But from about I would say 8-9 months fingerfoods would actually make it in her mouth and tummy! It's a very slow process, but it will happen! She has been completely feeding herself now since about 11 months, but still plays with food quite often, just because it's fun!