Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Much Food Flinging Ensues

Paul is fast approaching his first birthday. That first year is amazing. One of my favorite aspects of the first year, is the introduction of first foods. I am a foody after all, and I don't like to limit kids to standard kid fare - even as babies.

I was also amazed at how quickly both of my kids wanted to feed themselves with a spoon. I think they were both only about 9 months old when my babies grabbed the spoon from me and attempted to maneuver the spoon to the mouth.

Fiona at least let me help her guide the spoon, but not Paul. He pulls the spoon away from me, resulting in much food flinging. Then he becomes more interested in playing with the spoon than eating.

He seems to be consuming less and less food from the jars, and insists on finger foods.  As a result I have been throwing out more half eaten jars of baby food. I would be OK with just finger foods, except I have jars of baby food to use, and he should learn to eat with a spoon anyway.

I've tried starting out with just half a jar, and giving him the jar before the formula and finger food, and have found a little more success, meaning he'll eat about 75-90% of the half jar, but I still end up throwing out some food. And since he used to consume an entire jar, I'm concerned he's not eating enough.

He seems perfectly content to play with the spoon. I try to take the spoon away and put some food on it, and he will tightly clench the spoon, forcing me to prey it from his little fingers. He will get very irritated, and start wailing. I'll give the spoon back and often he will manage to get the food in his mouth. Other times he just flings it.

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