the self-feeding business

my 9 month old has been pretty fussy the last few days with meals. at first i thought: illness, one of those cranky days, etc...


but i observed his behaviour today and i think he is frustrated that i am feeding him with the spoon and he is not participating. i am all for self-feeding and independence but he seems to want to use his hands, not the spoon!


for brekkie and lunch, we gave him another spoon and i had one for the real feeding. but he wasn't too keen. but he was really happy to pick up the little grape bits after breakfast.


afternoon snack, i put out a small plate of sliced cheddar and bananas - he loved feeding himself the cheese and he didn't protest when i used my hands to put some bananas in his mouth.


for dinner tonight, it was lentil veggie puree - usually a hit but he wasn't keen until i put the bowl on his high chair tray and he proceeded to put his hand in and self-feed....


ok sorry for the long story (just wanted to give you an idea of the situation), i really want to encourage this but overall the food really really gets in if i use a spoon...so how do i go about doing this while he gets a chance to self-feed? the last thing i want is for mealtimes to become a battle. believe me, his mouth zips up when he sees the spoon but ok when the food is in the hand! i mean, i can't feed this way forever, right??