IMPATIENT Eater!

My daughter was like this. She got to where she was so demanding that I would give her bite sized finger foods before I would even attempt babyfood. This way she could be feeding herself while waiting for me to spoon her food if I wasn't fast enough. This passed once she realized that the food wasn't going to suddenly just end and she would be able to get full off of solids everyday. Good Luck!

First of all, I'm gonna tell you the best advice I've ever gotten, and I got it from my MIL. Take advice (even what I'm writing now) with a grain of salt, thank the person, and then do whatever you want to do and what feels right to you in the first place. If the person gets their feelings hurt, explain to them that it is YOUR child and you need to raise him/her the way you see fit. He's 7 1/2 mos, what does she think you're supposed to do about him being an excited eater? You can't really discipline a baby of that age. And why would you want to, my kids both did that same thing at that age, its perfectly NORMAL. Kids by nature are demanding and selfish, just go about your preparation, ignore his behavior, and one day (sooner than you think) he'll stop whining and throwing fits because he sees it does no good. I'm definatly not saying taking this approach when he gets older, however you can't give an infant a time out and he definatly wont understand you taking his stuff away. MIL's tend to butt in and so do our own mothers at times. You need to decide what you are willing to listen to, and sometimes you're gonna have to tell them to back off (even though its really hard). I got into a huge fight with my MIL and told her to back off. My kids are happy, healthy, and extremly well-behaved, so she has no reason to say anything about my parenting. Please trust your mommy instinct, you know better than anyone about your child. He's normal and sounds like a wonderful baby! Good luck!

My son was like that. He was always an enthusiastic eater; from nursing to solids. He would cry and act like it was killing him to have a three second delay in the food input! It was sort of funny but I remember feeling awkward in public. Your MIL is being silly; you are not spoiling him. I would give my son one of those baby cracker things (the kind that don't break off easily and last for a long time) and he could put that into his mouth in between bites. It didn't always help though. The good news - he out grew it. He was soooooo happy when he could finally feed himself.

Give him soft finger foods to keep him busy. Cheerios are great! Just something to put in his mouth to keep him busy.
C. B

We had that with all of our kids. I think it's a phase they go through. Something new and tasty and they want more of it. Just talk with him while you are feeding him and know that it'll pass.

I hear you! My son (now 15 months) was the same way. He loves food! I found that once he got teeth I could give him small finger foods to feed himself as I was feeding him the messy stuff! Bananas, bread, rice, etc. Anything soft or that melted easily.

my son's a bit like that. what we do is give him some finger foods he likes, or foods he can eat with his fingers: squash, carrots, bread, pieces of fruit... while he eats i give him bites of his "spoon food"

Most kids are like this, my son certainly was. It is important to teach him to slow down though, let him self feed whenever you can and only give him small portions at a time.
Do no worry about anyone else and what they think, if they have ever had kids I am sure they understand! And if they don't their problem not yours. Eating too fast fills him up quickly and will give him a belly ache for sure, not to mention not help with more solid things and he could choke. Have him slow down a bit, talk to him softly and feed him at a slower pace.
Think of giving him small healthy snacks in between meals too so he isn't too overly hungry, teething biscuits, yogurt, cubed cheese, diced eggs or anything portable like cheerios or something.
Do not worry, it is normal. Let him get upset, don't overly rush so he isn't totally running the show either. Teach him patience (hard job with babies) and he will be fine. Very normal!

A.,

My sister was like that. She earned the name "hornet" because of her impatient eating habits. My son had similar, but slightly milder habits.

The best solution that we found - I don't know if you can even get these anymore. It has been more than a few years and times have changed - was to get a feeder that looked like a big hypodermic needle with a bottle nipple on one end. We put the food into the tube, put on the end, and she could just suck the food out of the nipple without having to wait for us to spoon it into her mouth. We could even successfully feed her in church with this device.

I hope these are still available. I don't know how we would have survived Jennifer's "table manners" otherwise.

You might try giving him his own baby spoon (the short kind with a loop for a handle or one of the 'dippers' by Gerber). So he has something of a distraction and he can dip into his own bowl of food (just get a bowl that suctions to the high chair).

I have the same problem. Looking forward to hearing more responses on this topic. My son just acts like we never feed him and really freaks out if we don't feed him quickly enough. I haven't found anything he doesn't like. He is such a great eater if we feed him fast enough.

i have a 7 1/2 month baby girl that is the same way. i can't nurse her in public because she's so impatient that she gets so wound up and it makes it 100 times harder to even nurse her. my milk has a slow let down and it TICKS HER OFF! as for the solids, i just shovel it in as fast as i can... can't go faster than that!
yeah, i don't really know what to tell you... are they old enough for finger foods??? just know that there are others out there too with "starving, spoiled, whatever else" sweet babies.

my baby twins do this as well. I take it as them saying, "hey we're not through here!" They can't communicate (even though I am trying to teach them sign lang.) So this is just the babies way of saying they are hungry. If they aren't hungry any more they don't cry when I put the bowl down.

Have you tried giving him some finger foods while you are trying to feed him? He should be able to handle some banana's and avocados, diced up, if your real daring you can offer some cheerios, some parents are some aren't, but they disolve very quickly. Maybe he is hungry and bored. Just a thought!

I had this same issue with my first son. I decided boys just are not so great at communicating. The best book ever is the baby whisperer by a british gal, Tracy Hogg, I think. She explains how babies have little clues they give on when they are getting hungry. I realized eventually that sometimes my son would skip some of these cues and that I should not be waiting for him to be obviously hungry because in baby time by then they are starving! It may only be a difference of 5 min but I had to learn to anticipate early when my son was hungry and just how hungry because once he realized he was there was just no wait time it had to be now. No time to even warm a bottle or the mix the cereal. Don't worry though, he will grow out of it a little and later when you can toss him a few crackers to nibble on it gets easier.