Finger Feeding
Ever since Moxie pointed me to this Dutch study on baby self-feeding, I’ve been hugely in love with the idea of introducing Pickle to finger foods. I never imagined that the hard part would be getting him interested.
Pickle loves his solid purees - avocado and butternut squash are his favorites, but he also enjoys pears or bananas at breakfast, and the occasional peas&carrots for dinner. (Cereals have been temporarily banned after a recent bout of rather painful constipation. Hummous is offered only for his parents’ amusement, as the Pickle finds the flavors objectionably strong.)
He also eagerly and relentlessly puts things in his mouth. Blocks, soft toys, my fingers, his fingers, clothing, blankets, and anything else he can get his increasingly dexterous little hands around.
Anything, it seems, except food.
When presented with soft-cooked chunks of any of his favorite foods, spread out in front of him on his high-chair tray, the Pickle has some vague interest in picking them up, but none at all in putting them anywhere near his mouth. The texture of these strange objects, it seems, does not require that kind of exploration. Even when Mommy demonstrates by picking up a slice of banana and taking a small bite herself, the Pickle has no interest in imitating this apparently useless behavior.
And so after a reasonable amount of coaxing, Mommy ends up scooping everything into the blender and spoon-feeding it as a puree, just the way he likes it.
Oh well. We’ll try again next week.