Learning to Self Feed

Its been almost 4 months now that we started with solid foods for Anvesha. So far she had been eating pureed fruits and veggies.Over the time I gradually thickened up the consistency of her baby food giving it more of a chunkier look.

Usually the babies let us know they are ready for finger foods by grabbing the spoon they are being fed with and/ or snatching food from your plate. These days Anvesha does exactly that. So, we are slowly introducing her to finger foods. Any food that a baby can pick up qualifies for a finger food. Not only is it fun for babies to eat finger food, it is also a first step towards independence. I know it does get messy and my carpet is full of stains of her baby food, but I let her enjoy this "hands on experience" :)

At first Anvesha would simply play around with the food, hold it with both her hands and try to bring it to her mouth.Slowly she is getting to a point what is called as the pincer grasp ( using thumb and forefinger to pick up food).  As for me, Iam learning to get more patient by letting her get messy with the food. But I can't bring  myself to let her have the spoon and waste the food that I have taken so much effort to prepare :( All I can do is LAUGH as she looks pretty cute with all that baby food attached to her chin and it makes for great blackmail photos when she turns 16 !!!! 

So let me get public with these great photo memories of her meal time fun :)