Learning to feed himself is a huge step in your baby’s physical and intellectual development, and you should encourage all attempts to do so. His manual dexterity and his hand-eye coordination will greatly improve with self-feeding, so let him experiment if he shows an interest and be prepared to cope with the mess. Food provides your baby with the perfect motivation for speeding up muscle coordination and balance.
It may be several months before your baby becomes proficient at feeding himself. You can help by giving him non-runny foods that will stick to the spoon, such as oatmeal, scrambled eggs, or thick purees. If he finds trying to use a spoon frustrating, let him try finger foods. Food will be a plaything, most of which will land on the floor rather than in your baby’s stomach. But there’s no cause for concern; at the time a baby starts to self-feed, the initial growth spurt is beginning to slacken off, so he needs less food.
The best way to ensure that your baby gets at least some food is for both of you to have a spoon. Use two spoons of the same color and type so that you can swap your full spoon for his empty one when he has difficulty scooping up the food.
Self-feeding
Allow your child to spoon-feed himself if he can. Choose foods that are not too runny, such as thick cereal.
Finger foods If your baby has difficulty using a spoon he will find finger foods easier to handle; even if the food is hard, he will suck it.
