Good Eats

Perhaps some (a lot!) of you are growing weary of my posts about Finn's eating. Indulge me anyway!

Feeding has been one of the two major, stress-inducing issues we've had with Finn (the second being speech/communication, which really, compared to feeding, has been a far smaller concern thus far). Feeding has been an issue for a very, very long time. Long before he was even a year old, I was concerned and stressed out over his apparent inability to handle anything beyond purees (and even getting him on purees in the first place was an ordeal). This is why whenever he makes strides in the area of feeding, I am inclined to shout it from the rooftops!

Feeding seems to be following a typical pattern with Finn with regard to mastering any new skill: just when I finally feel hopeless, he suddenly takes a step forward, as if to say, "Geez, Mommy, have some patience, will ya? I'll get there when I'm ready."

So over the last several weeks, Finn has made great strides with foods in the way of showing a definite interest in foods other than his usual fare of jarred baby food, pestering me for food when we sit down as a family for dinner, allowing me to feed him a variety of things from my plate with a fork, and signing "more." He has become very proficient at self-feeding things like pretzels, crackers, Cheerios, and Veggie Straws. It's now time to put the two together: encouraging him to self-feed regular table food. Behold:



This was a HUGE first: he sat down with the family and had for his dinner exactly what we all had for dinner (penne pasta with marinara and meatballs, cut up into bite-size pieces), and he fed himself. He did put a little too much in his mouth at one point, which caused him to gag and spit it out, but he got right back on the horse, so to speak. And he finished that entire bowl of pasta and meatballs.


Way to go, big boy!