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I am not sure of the "trend" behind it :) but my 8 month old has been off "baby food" for at least a month - she only wants table foods (chunks of cooked vegies, fruits, meat etc). she LOVES to drink out of a sippy cup and is progressing to having more liquid that way vs from a bottle. she is thrilled to self feed, and will take things like yogurt from me as well. And of course, anything off my plate is better than what is on her high chair.
One word of advice -- ITS MESSY!!!
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She only has 2 teeth, and yes gums everything but seems to have no problem eating either. Its messy - but not just her clothes (hair, face, legs etc) but also the walls, floor, high chair etc :) My dogs LOVE her!
But with 6 kids, I think she got tired of waiting for me to run and "do" something in between feeding her bites of baby food so she experimented iwth things on her tray and loved it. To be clear, I have had a WIDE range of kids who eat at various times -- and one son who still (at 12 years old) HATES to have his fingers dirty. If I was waiting for him to "self feed" he would have starved to death. He wanted to be fed until he could eat with a fork NEATLY ... and he was 22 months or so when that happened. Its just who he was ... Babykins loves to explore and be messy so we let her :)
I do not think its something you can "force" at all.