Get That Spoon Away From Me

Now that the baby is nine months we have begun giving him some bite size snacks that he can pick up with his fingers.  This however, has created a situation that I was not anticipating. He now doesn't want to be spoon fed pureed food.  What to do? I heard that this can happen around 8-10 months of age and is completely normal.  I read that the baby may eat the food if you put the bowl and spoon in front of him and he feeds himself.  Well, I tried that today.  What a mess!  He had food in his hair, in his ears, all over his clothes and highchair and still he didn't eat.  Twice he brought the spoon close to his mouth (although it had no food on it) and I praised him.  At one point he scooped up some food and I praised him when this happened as well.  I tried giving him a little bit of steamed fruit (steamed so it was more tender) cut up so he could grasp it and he didn't have much interest in it.  I will continue to try this method with fruits and veggies.  I also hear that cheese and soft noodles are ok at this age so I guess I will begin to provide him with more variety of foods. I have been hesitant to do so only because the baby has such a sensitive digestive system but he needs to expand his food intake at some point. 

There was one thing that I found worked well today.  I had frozen cubes of peaches and I broke the cube up so that it fit in a fresh food feeder.  The baby enjoyed holding and sucking on the feeder.  Peaches worked well.  I tried the same thing with green beans (not really hoping for much) and the baby didn't want to have anything to do with it.  No big surprise there. One out of two isn't bad, right?