10 Month Old Eating Habits

I posted a similar question last week. My 10 mo (as of today!) does the same thing. She'll pick up food, put it in her fist, but won't feed herself. Sometimes she'll rub it around the highchair, sometimes she sticks her hand over the chair for the dogs :). I've never had her sit with finger food solely waiting for her to eat. I give her the option of picking up the food and feeding her at the same time. I don't know if that's a good way to train, but at the rate she's at now, we'd still be eating last night's dinner. Other moms have told me it's all about practice. She is also at daycare, and the teacher told me that when she moves up in age to another room (which is in a couple weeks), once she sees other kids, she'll learn by watching them as well.

I've tried a couple different sippy cups - the one that she actually sucks on is a cheap one from the grocery store - I have a Baby Einstein cup with handles and everything, but I think that might be too hard for her to suck on right now. Guess we both just need to keep on trying!

I also recently started giving her 'biter biscuits' - now THOSE she understand that she can eat them herself and goes to town on them.

Trust me, it will happen when they are ready - don't sweat it. There is nothing wrong with your child!
Take it easy, liz

He will decide he wants it one day. He may not pick it up now because he knows you will do it for him. THe sippy cup will come around to. My daughter chews on her's as well but when she gets the sippy instead of a bottle, she suddenly knows what to do with it.

A. (and Rebecca),

That is the EXACT same issue I'm having with my 10 month old; he'll play with finger foods but not pick them up & he'll chew on sippy cups. I'm just being patient about it all. Every toy he picks up goes in his mouth so eventually he'll pick up food & put it in his mouth too. As for the sippy cup, if he could figure out a bottle, he can figure it out too.

My son is now 14 months and I was convinced he would never drink out of a sippy cup. The first cup he would use consistently was the plastic first years brand from Target. Very inexpensive. We slowly switched certain feedings to his cup, like with his meals. We also used a little juice mixed with water in the cup, instead of milk or formula. He will now use whatever we put in front of him. He also went through phases when he wouldn't put the food into his mouth himself at some meals. We tried different types of food when we noticed he was particular about the texture of the food (like sometimes bananas weirded him out) then around 12 months he simply did not want to be fed at all, he wanted to do it himself. We also took him out of the highchair, and got a little table and chairs. He's a big boy now at his table, so he eats like a big boy. It just took time.
Hope this helps, and good luck.

Hi A.,
Sometimes it just takes time. It will happen so try not to worry. They will do things when they are ready.
They do have these sippy cups at Walmart whos tops are somewhere in between the hard sippy cups and a bottle so the kids get used to the sucking/sipping. I have used them with all of my babies (I have an inhome daycare) when I've introduced sippy cups. They seem to work really well.