How long does your baby take to eat his meals?

Hi

Just wondering how long your baby takes to eat his meals? When we started solids at 5.5 months we LO used to sit there with his mouth opening waiting for me to spoon the food in - no sooner was a spoonful in before his mouth was open again. Now it takes longer and longer to feed him as he is soooo interested in everything else that is going on around him as well as being interested in eating. A meal will take about 30-40 minutes and I just wonder if this is a bit too long and I am trying to get him to take more than he really wants.

He starts off facing forward and opening his mouth to be fed but after a while likes hanging over the side of his high chair (laughing at the dog who begs underneath his chair) and will take spoonfuls of food that way. He also likes bouncing up and down with his mouth open and shouting when in the chair. Again is happy to be fed that way. Is he just trying to tell me that he has had enough or is this just the way he likes eating at the moment. When he doesn't want any more he just refuses to open his mouth but am just wondering am I trying to get him to take too much? I can't say exactly how much he is eating as the cube sizes differ but will have 4-5 cubes of a meal/veg combo or else veg and fruit combo. He will then eat about 3 large teaspoons of yogurt plus fruit or else between half to a full jar of apple custard. He has that twice a day and has 2-3 tablespoons of porridge plus fruit for brekkie.

How long do your 9 months old take to eat their meals? I just feel that at times the meals are a bit hard work. Im trying finger foods and he will take some and not others. He likes little cream cheese sandwiches, will eat pieces of chicken, cruscuits but only pokes at banana, pear and pieces of cheese .

Cheers

Sounds pretty normal to me. We do BLS, but DS is always in the high chair for at least 30 mins at each meal. From what I know the LO's are pretty good at letting us know when they're done, not opening the mouth is a good sign. I tend to think that as long as he's happy to take it, keep giving it. You'll probably find sooner or later that you'll have meals where he'll refuse to eat anything (now that is hardwork!).

Forever! Lol. I think it's normal for them to get distracted and take a long time to eat (even I am still a slow eater and when I was younger was often the last one left at the table and everyone else had long gone! Lol). They are easily distracted, so if he is still happy to have food put in his mouth then he probably still wants it, when he starts turning away or getting grumpy that's a pretty good indication they have had enough, or just throwing it all on the floor like DD (especially lovely when it is lasagne :rolleyes: )

try not to let meal times be hard work, at this age food is supposed to be fun, so don't worry too much about how much he is/isn't eating and how long it takes :)

I honestly couldn't tell you how long DS takes/took. He's done after 2-3 mouthfuls usually.
If I wanted him to eat any decent amount, it seriously drags out over much longer than your LO and it involves him out of the chair and coming back when he's ready for some more.
I know it's frustrating but their attention span is seriously about 20seconds, and we as adults have learned through social norms that we sit and eat our meal and eat everything on our plates, but they aren't yet bound by such things.
My little guy still wouldn't eat half that amount so all bubs are different. He sounds like he's telling you when he's done. WRT the fingerfood, that's a skill that takes a while and if you persist you will notice it improving and more going in that on the floor.