When to let baby feed himself?

Question

Before I get a flood of Baby Led Weaning mom's on here let me disclose I don't do that!
My baby will turn 9 months old 10/26. I started him on pureed veggies around 5 months old. At 8 months I introduced the infant meats and Puffs finger snacks along with sliced apples for him to teeth and suck on. 
My question is when can I let him have a bowl and spoon to practice feeding himself pureed food? He knows how to bring the spoon to his mouth and is good with finger food, but hasn't grasped scooping the food with his spoon and eating it.

Answer

I BLW & offered a spoon right away, but she didn’t really “get it” until 12 months or so. Now at 17 months she’s a master with spoon & fork, but often prefers her hands to shovel in the good faster. 😂
Also, the negativity towards BLW is uncalled for imo - has nothing to do with allowing your child to try utensils or not. 🙄

Answer

It's good that you've started some finger foods. You should start to move towards more mushy or solid foods around 8 or 9 months so baby can learn about other food textures. 
That said, baby can still have some purees or soft food. So to answer your question, you can give baby a spoon whenever you want if you don't mind the place getting a bit messy.

Answer

I did baby led weaning and didn’t get my son to even try a spoon til almost 1. It takes time. Just offer it to him, let him mirror you. And eventually they’ll figure it out.

Answer

You can offer a spoon but generally they don't use utensils till around 1 and even then they arent good at it.

Answer

I would start to offer him 'finger foods' so he can try if he's curious. I think he will figure out on his own after a while, but most likely will need a bit of patience..

Answer

I didn’t do blw. What we did was when we noticed her grabbing at the spoon, we’d let her take it, and sorta direct the spoon to the food and make sure she sees it, and she’d bring it to her face. That was about 6 months. Over time as your baby’s motor skills improve this will get easier and less messy. You can try some activities like feed the baby or ribbon pull to help work on it. Hope this helps and good luck!

Answer

My son is 18 months and still kind of struggles with the spoon. He will pick food up noodles, cereal, rice or whatever he’s eating with his hand and put it in the spoon and then bring it to his mouth lol but hey he’s trying. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I feel like with purées that will just be a disaster and mess lol to start out with. What about putting some dry snacks in a bowl like puffs or Cheerios something dissolvable and give him a spoon and let him practice like that. See how he handles it or what he does.

Answer

Spoons arent expected until 2-2.5. 
I dont understand the hate towards BLW, you are giving your kid finger foods already, might as well move to that anyway and get away from the purees. Pincer grasp is a motor skill that should be mastered before spoon / fork anyway

Answer

Why are you against BLW?

Answer

Be careful with the apples slices. Raw apples are a big clicking hazard until age 4. 
Otherwise, whenever you’re ready!

When to let baby feed himself?

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