Eating with utensils

[Anonymous]

When did your child start eating with utensils?

[Anonymous]

We started around 12 +/- months with a spoon, allowing DS to help and added fork soon after - now at 17 months he is pretty good. We have a spoon and fork we bought in Europe which has a curved end and that helps get the food to the mouth before kids have the radial deviation in their wrist.

[Anonymous]

We gave her a spoon as soon as she wanted to hold one.

[Anonymous]

DD is 15 months old. We sometimes gave her a spoon to play with earlier, but only really started trying to encourage spoons recently. DH was out of town a few weeks ago and DD and I had lots of fun playing with the spoon. I gave her a low bowl with yogurt and helped guide her hand into the bowl and back into her mouth. We practiced over and over and then she would do it herself. Beware, it is VERY messy, but your baby will get the hang of it. She now loves to play wtih the spoon and feeding herself. Sometimes the spoon ends up upside down or she gets frustrated and plunges her hands right into the food, but we keep trying and she seems to be getting better

[Anonymous]

My DS started using them at 1 yr old

[Anonymous]

yup, here too, right aroun 1yr

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the responses. My son is turning one year at the end of this month. He has not shown interest in feeding himself yet. But, then again, I haven't really encouraged it. I'll begin encouraging him to self feed and see what happens!

[Anonymous]

Mine started to eat with a spoon first, around a year

[Anonymous]

THanks for posting this question -- my DD is 15 months old and I have not encouraged this yet because I am anal and don't want to deal with the mess. This post has been a wake up call for me that I need to get on the stick with teaching her and just deal with the mess while she learns. Anyone else out there with a child as old as mine that hasn't started this yet, or am I the only ridiculous one?

[dgahagan]

DS is 14 mos. and feeding himself but not with utensils-his hands. He makes a huge mess. How do you introduce using utensils?

[Anonymous]

I'm the 19:40 poster. I should have mentioned that DD feeds herself everything using her hands (except things like yogurt and applesauce that I feed her with a spoon). She makes a mess using her hands by squishing food when she's full and just wants to play. It's messy, but not too bad. I'm just dreading cleaning up stuff like yogurt and oatmeal off the floor, high chair, etc... and having to wipe her down or give her a bath and change her clothes after every meal while she's still learning. Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter also started with a spoon at around the 12-month mark. We tried to limit the mess by only giving a bit of food at a time (i.e. not more than I wanted to clean up off the floor). Let them start practicing with the less messy options until they get the hang of it. There are few things that are universally true in life, e.g. death, taxes, and a toddler's flying food. That said, there are accidents, experiments (hmmm, where will the first pea land? and the second? and the third?), and just plain willfull messiness. Accidents are overlooked (though she can help clean up them now - she is 3.5yo), experimenting is contained (not at the formal dining table, and once the "science lesson" is over it is over), and willfullness is the end of the meal (which she definitely has to help clean up).

Re clothes, if it was something messy that could not be contained with a large bib, then she went topless (only at home, of course)...have to admit that we still do that occasionally (e.g. spaghetti with tomato sauce).

[Anonymous]

Start right away! We started at about 7 months, as she always wanted to do it herself. She was a pro by the time she was 14-15 months. Practice makes perfect!

[Meconbear]

I spear food with a toddler fork and hand it to my 15 m.o. He likes being able to "feed himself"and most of the stuff makes it to his mouth. Sometimes he tries to scoop food himself (a little lazily) I try to make that something that the dog would like to clean up b/c it inevitiably ends up on the floor! We've only started this in the past month or so. B/f that, he would just pick things up with his fingers.