Ditching high chairs, last bottle and when to start training with a plate?

My twins are 16 months old and still in high chairs--when did ya'll transition to a booster?

Also, when did you cut out the bottle before bed? Mine still take it, but thinking it's time to offer a sippy.

And 1 more thing...when did ya'll start training using plates and utensils? I shutter in fear thing about the mess this will cause!!

Thanks!

 

My girls are 18 months old, and we just transitioned from the highchair to chairs that attach to our table (Inglesina Fast table chairs). I can't say enough good things about them. Wish I had never bought highchairs and had only used these. We also started using plates, bowls, and utensils within the last month. Big mess but lots of fun to watch. On spaghetti night, I recommend spreading a towel or something else that is easily washed under each baby. My girls still have a bottle before bed but I hope to stop that practice very soon.

 

We have space saver high chairs and we push those up to the table for dinner when we all eat together. We just started this within the last month. We have been offering silverware since 12 months, but they just started getting it within the last 6 weeks. I have been offering bowls for about 8 weeks but just started with plates in the last 3 weeks. I haven't found that it causes more of a mess because they only throw the bowls/plates on the floor when they are done and I don't let them down fast enough and they would throw their food on the floor before they had plates.

 

I dropped the last bottle around 14 months, so you are probably fine to do that anytime now. And we switched to boosters around 16 months, because we were travelling to my parents place in canada and not hauling highchairs! :lol: They did great and love sitting right at the table with us! And we also started on plates/spoons at that same time too. Yep, it's messy, but now they are pro's at feeding themselves, although they do still do lots of supplementing with their hands still

 

I switched from high chairs to boosters around 18 months.
The night time bottle was dropped at 15 months and they got a sippy of milk after dinner.
I started utensil practice at 12-13 months, it took them several months to get the hang of it and they got forks faster then they got spoons. Good luck! I would say with spoons to try out thicker foods (mashed potatoes, oatmeal) to minimize the mess.

 

Spencer's still in a high chair. He's 19 mo. I like that it keeps him contained during dinner. He can eat, kneeling, at the table, and does sometimes for lunch. But mostly, I put him in the high chair. He hasn't had a bottle in months (maybe around a year?), and can drink really well out of a cup. But I still usually give him a sippy because of the inevitable messes from accidentally knocking over a cup. The only time he has a regular cup is if I'm right there watching him. But I'm also still nursing him occasionally, which would take the place of a bottle. Oh, and he uses a plate or bowl along with a fork or spoon. He does pretty well now. There are still some messes, but not too bad. I waited on using them, until I thought he had decent motor control. Didn't seem a reason to push it. He's been using them for about a month, and got the hang of it very quickly... much faster than I think I remember my older kids.

 

My boys are 20 months and still in high chairs. They just do not want to sit still. They are very busy with life. I am thinking about transitioning them at 2 years.

We started utensils at 1 year and we also stopped all bottles at 1 year. We have bowls with suction on the bottom so they cannot throw their food. It sure helps keep the food on their tray!

Its inevitable, its going to be messy!

Good luck and have fun!
Jenn

 

I threw the high chairs out in a hulk style rage at about 8 months and bought booster chairs. Never looked back! The high chairs we had were hand-me-downs and were impossible to keep clean. The boosters are great! We have fisher price ones, and they clean up really well and they're very portable

We started with utensils at about 14-15 months. Mostly they just played with them at first, but by 16 months or so they could eat with them pretty well. I think we caught them at the right age where they just want to mimic everything we do.

 

Technically, we don't have a high chair. And I've never owned one for any of my 6 kids. I have the boosters that strap to a chair and have a tray that snaps on. So it works like a high chair, but takes up much less room and can come off if we need the extra chair. So I call it a high chair, but it's really a booster that Spencer is in.

 

I just switched to booster seat a few days ago. We dropped the last bottle about a month or so ago. We've been practicing with spoon/fork but it'll take a while, but we are far from eating out of a plate...

 

Mine have been in boosters since about 12 months. Last bottle, 13 months and we've given them a plate or bowl consistently since about 15 months. Spoons and forks are also given at each meal since 12 months and they are now getting the hang of using them.

 

We ditched the last night-time bottle (for Jack, I was nursing Nate) at 13 months and moved to warmed sippies of milk. We still do this at night before they brush their teeth.

We switched our guys from high chairs to boosters when they turned 2. We had their high chairs pushed up to the table, so it wasn't a huge change, but they were getting too big for them, and really liked boosters when we went on vacation on their birthday. We gave them plates (non-breakable) when they moved to boosters.

We started utensils at 12 months, but they really only played with them for the first several months. ITA with PPs who say that forks are easier to learn that spoons; we started with forks first. :good: Occasionally we would help them "fork" food and let them put it in their mouths, and eventually they started doing it themselves. I have to say though, that even though my guys are good at both forks and spoons now, they still prefer to use their fingers 90% of the time.

 

I didn't read the other replies but yeah, get out those plates and utensils and start going for it mama! And it WILL be messy so take a deep breath.

We have used booster seats since about 14 months. Easily slide under the table out of sight!

 

we switched to boosters - can't remember when, but it was a welcome change! the hard plastic boosters that strap to the chairs and have straps to keep the kids in are wonderful! we have the $14 Babies R Us brand. I love that the clean up is so easy instead of the high chairs with the vinyl covers and cracks & crevices. anyway, get the boosters that can go up or down in height so that you can get it to the right height for your table/chair combination.

as for plates & such... go for it. I have heard that between 12 & 24 months the kids really like to see how the food drops or plates drop... anyway, I noticed a lot of improvement after 2 yrs with the food staying on the plates and on the table. Now at over 2.5 yrs I've actually served a few meals on our regular ceramic plates with no thrown dishes.