I'm working on taking away a bottle or two throughout the day and looking for suggestions on how to wean away from the bottle. I have started feeding more table food. Also, have one that does not pick up finger foods. Any suggestions on how to help him learn to self feed? Thanks!

Either take all the bottles away, or just start with taking one away. I tried twice, and the second time one of my daughters went an entire month without drinking anything (except I did still give her a bedtime bottle, because I didn't want to cut her off completely). I gave up. She does though drink out of the sippy, or at least play with it, when we're out. So you could try getting them accustomed to it by filling it with water and giving them that in between meals.

As for finger foods, I would suggest starting with large chunks of very soft foods - something big enough for her to grab in her palm, but soft enough that it's unlikely she'll choke on it. One of my daughters (the sippie cup reject) still doesn't have a pincer grasp, and it took her awhile to get the self-feeding. At first she'd miss a lot, then she'd just kind of squeeze the food in her fist and it'd ooze out between her fingers. Eventually they will get it.

Amy

Mom to Julia, ^Caitlin^ & Gabrielle



http://onealaskanmom.wordpress.com

We introduced the sippy cup - later switched to straw cups - somewhere between 10-12 months. I can't remember exactly, sorry. We just had water in the cups and looked at it as practice. At that point they were still getting four bottles of milk. Once they were good at the straw cups I started replacing the bottle with milk or water in the cup. It seemed natural to make those kinds of changes when their schedule was changing in other ways, when possible.

I think for your little guy that doesn't pick up food, just keep offering it to him. Make sure you're giving him enough of the food he will eat (purees or whatever), but offer the finger foods first when he's hungry and then spoon feed him afterward. If he'll let you, put the finger food in his mouth yourself so he makes the connection that those bits on his tray are food. Eventually he should get it. The average number of times a food needs to be offered before a baby will eat it is something like 15, so I always just kind of keep that in mind for other food-related skills, too. That it won't happen overnight but just keep trying and eventually things will click.

Mom to GBG born in July 2009 at 30w6d: 3#10oz, 3#12oz, 3#2oz