utensils...& food eating

I am so far behind on this. I have been letting them hold their spoons and occassionally forks.
when should i just throw in the towel and totally let them feed themselves?

I'm still stuck on those expensive Gerber Toddler dinners...my homecooking is very spiced & hard to tone down. Also Nathaniel isn't one for pasta...he loves picking at it & throwing it overboard. And unfortunately that is frequently what we eat!

 

i wouldn't worry too much about them not getting utensils yet. that takes a long time to master. but learning to feed themselves finger foods they will only learn if you let them do it. the more practice they get, the better they'll get at it. and just think - you'll be able to serve them food & just relax! okay, i may be exaggerating about the relaxing, but i know i really appreciated not having to spoon every bite into their mouths myself.

have you tried offering them the spicy food as is? they may like it, you never know.

as for throwing food on the floor, that's kind of par for the course. how you deal with it really depends on how much it bothers you. my girls have two different kinds of throwing - the first is usually accidental (they're swinging their arms around & something gets knocked off the table) or they're discarding something they don't want to eat (they pick it up, taste it, don't like it & drop it - sometimes it ends up on the table, sometimes it ends up on the floor) the second is intentional & usually means they're bored and done (this version usually involves picking up the whole plate/bowl & tossing it on the floor). for the first kind, i usually just ignore the behaviour & clean up after. for the second kind, meal time ends immediately & they don't eat again until the next snack/meal time. HTH!

 

My guys self-feed with their fingers while we eat, and sometimes we feed them some yogurt or veggies by spoon afterward. They're getting to the point where they don't want us to feed them any more, so soon they will be 100% self-fed.

We give them forks during the meal, but they mainly play with them and occasionally spear a piece of food and get it to their mouths. I figure for most of the second year utensils will be for "practice". We gave them each a bowl of yogurt and a couple of spoons the other night and it was a disaster! They enjoyed it, but it's a good thing I have a good sense of humor.

I almost always offer what we are eating to the boys, even if I don't think they will like it. (Exceptions are things like salad and my 4-alarm chili.) Sometimes they surprise me! They love fish of any kind and even tried Hoppin' John at New Year (black-eyed peas and greens). But it really does take several times of offering things for them to start eating them. It literally took 20 times or more of offering pancakes before they would eat them.

Go ahead and try offering them some of your food, and just make sure you have something else at the table that you know they will eat. That way there's no pressure, and they can feel free to eat it or not.

Good luck!

 

Thanks everyone!

update: they ate my meatloaf & mashed potatoes!!! yea!! and pointed for more :banana:

 

Sweeeeeet!! My boys :wub: meatloaf, but I never make it for them. I HATE meatloaf so the only time they get it is on the occasional weekend when we do the "kids eat free" deal at Boston Market.

Glad they enjoyed their meal!

 

Mine just started wanting to eat with utensils about one month ago. DD is more insistent on eating with them because she already thinks she's a grown up!