How to Get Your Baby to Eat Finger Foods

I wouldn't worry too much. I'd just keep offering him finger foods. Try some soft fruit each time. My son loved finger foods but all babies are different. He's still pretty young. Just keep offering a variety of choices, he will eventually try it. Also, the more you push the less likely he'll be to take it. I don't know why that is, but my son is like that too. If I'm just casual about new things, he's more likely to try them. Good luck!

I wouldn't worry. Just keep offering a couple at each meal and let him explore. When he's ready he'll test them out and realize eating fingerfoods is fun. Some kids are really sensitive to different textures and it takes them a while to accept them.

I have the same problem. My son is 10 months old and only eats baby food. I have tried chherios, gerber puffs and chopped fruit. He just gags and spits it out. I just keep putting it in front of him and hope one day he will eat it.

hi J.!

my daughter is 8 months old and i started trying to give her parent's choice (walmart brand) puffs about 2 weeks ago. i guess they're sorta like cheerios. anyways, at first i tried giving one to her by hand and she made those faces like she bit into something really sour....soo cute! now she doesn't make the faces anymore and she puts them in her mouth (90% of the time) by herself.
the way i did it was to put a couple of them on her highchair tray and she'd grab them, but that's all she would do. so after i realized she wasn't going to put them in her mouth, i tried putting one on a spoon and feeding it to her and she ate it up, but she still made no attempt to put it in her mouth. i then tried to show her how i used my fingers to put it in my mouth and hers and she just stared and smiled. my final attempt came a couple of days ago when i just guided her little fist that clamped onto one of the puffs, into her mouth. i did that a couple of times with very little resistance from her and now she does it by herself....yay!!! she still sometimes has trouble actually getting the puff into her mouth, but like i said, 90% of the time she is successful.

i would give it some time and try not to stress it. i hope everything works out. good luck!

Just be patient and let him play with them for a while. I think the more you push him, the less likely he'll be to try them. Eventually he'll get curious and try tasting them and before too long, you'll be out of them faster than you can buy them (my son loved them once he got the hang of them :)

Don't worry too much about it. My son was the same way until about 10 1/2 months. I put some solid food out at each meal and attempted to get him to try it. Some foods that melt in the mouth fast are made by Gerber - you can check those out. I don't know the name of them - they weren't out when my son was that little. Also you could give him plain Alpha Bits - it has no sugar and it melts really fast. And they are letters, so Nicholas will be learning a little. You could also try bumpy teethers that will help improve his tolerance for textures.

My daughter is now 16 months and still there are days when she doesn't want to eat grown up food. Having gone through these phases I can only give you one advice, don't worry. When he is ready, your house, his clothes, your clothes, they all will be full of cheerios, veggie puffs and rice crispies and so will be his belly!

My son started off the same way with finger foods--after he played with them a few times, he started eating them pretty consistently. He's now 8 months old, and has a general idea of what the puffs are for...but he sure didn't start out that way!

Don't worry. Your son won't be eating baby food when he's a teenager. At some point he'll decide it's time to move on. Why rush him? :-)

J.,
It's probably a texture thing. When they try things with a thicker consistancy or it's crunchy or smooth or slippery. All of those things are new to them. Their first reaction is usually to gag or spit it out. For all they know your feeding them a furry spider. They will learn that it's food and it's yummy.Mine learned by watching us eat and now if she hears a bag russle she screams for food.(crackers,cheerios,rice crispies) Just give your baby time he's young. Playing with it is the first step anyway, then he may want to taste it.Don't rush him he has his whole life to eat solids. And once they start that's all they want to do! Have fun!

My son is 10 1/2 months old and it took him a little while to get used to eating more solid foods. I think it mainly had to do with the texture of these foods. But I just kept giving him different things to try and once he learned how to chew, he loved them!! Does your little one have any teeth? If not, that might be the problem. Try taking regular foods, like turkey dinner and putting it in a blender so that its sort of pureed, but still has some texture. Or fruits that are sweet and soft. If he still wont' eat them, thats okay, he can eat baby food, just wait and try again later. He will eventually get it!