Feeding themselves

Just curious but when did your twins start feeding themselves and what did you do to teach them how?

 

Do you mean with utensils or without? ( I know that probably seems like a dumb question, I'm still half asleep :laughing
Without utensils, we started practicing with Gerber puffs and cheerios around 6 months. I would show them what to do and they got that concept pretty quickly.
I introduced utensils around 12 months and would offer them at every meal. DH and I would have them watch us eat with the utensils, then we'd do it for them and the next time we'd have them try. I would say that my two got the concept of a fork pretty easily and by 18 months they were pretty good with it. Spoons came a little later and even now, unless what they are eating is thick, they still can make a mess with spoons (and they are almost three).

 

Self-feeding started around 7 months. With utensils around 11-12 months.

 

We started giving them finger-foods at 8 or 9 months old (puffs, Cheerios, etc.), and gave them forks to practice with at about 1 year. We gave them spoons at about 18 months. Now we have forks for them at every meal, but half the time they play with them and still eat with their fingers! :lol:

As far as teaching, we would "fork" pieces of food for them and let them eat, and we'd also let them hold the fork and guide them into forking the food. We also started loading spoons for them and letting them eat off of them. Fairly quickly they started wanting to do it themselves.

 

we started giving finger foods around 8 months. by 10 months they refused to let me spoon feed them anything, so finger foods it was! i was glad of the transition though. feeding them was such a chore.

we started giving the girls utensils around 17 months when they kept trying to grab ours. we didn't do anything to teach them - just gave them opportunities to use them. we also try to eat together as a family as much as possible. they're pretty good with forks now, okay with spoons, but still tend to eat with their fingers more than anything, which is fine with me.

 

Yeah I meant eating with utensils, sorry I wasn't more descriptive with the question.

The boys just got into finger foods, I know a little late, and eat things like cheese sticks and crackers. I still spoon feed them myself when they eat yogurt and jarred purred foods since they are slowly working on their chewing techniques.

When they start to get full they start to grab at the spoon but when I direct it towards their mouths to show them what to do they just fling whatever is in the spoon all over themselves, their tray and the floor. I'm scared to give them full control because truth be told this type A personality Momma hates messes so I'm trying to limit the amount of food that lands all over everything...I know, probably impossible.

I was just curious around what age they started feeding themselves with utensils and how many teeth they had when they started doing that....so far we only have two front bottom teeth so things to chew have to be super duper soft and they do not do well with well cooked pastas, it makes them gag and throw up.

We haven't been able to switch to sippy cups yet or even self bottle feeds because they turn the bottle and sippy cup upside down and start sucking on the bottom of it and then throwing it across the room. With the sippy cups they just chew on them and put them upside down and try and get the liquid from the bottom of the cup.

What can I say, I guess I have lazy boys...lol

 

I'll give you a hint (that someone here on TS told me): give them forks first. They're a lot easier for small children to use, and there's a *lot* less mess, since most of the stuff they will be forking will be more solid than the stuff they would be spooning. :good:

Also, I did spoon-feed my guys (to top them up after meals) for a few months after they turned 1, and I would give them a fork or spoon to play with so they wouldn't mess with the one I was using!

 

[quote name='Nate and Jack's Mom' date='19 August 2010 - 01:58 PM' timestamp='1282240697' post='1683349']
I'll give you a hint (that someone here on TS told me): give them forks first. They're a lot easier for small children to use, and there's a *lot* less mess, since most of the stuff they will be forking will be more solid than the stuff they would be spooning. :good:

Also, I did spoon-feed my guys (to top them up after meals) for a few months after they turned 1, and I would give them a fork or spoon to play with so they wouldn't mess with the one I was using!
[/quote]


Like sporks right? That would be for things like mac n cheese and small pasta pieces right?? The boys aren't there yet. They gag and choke on pastas no matter how small you cut the noodles up. I've tried spoon feeding them spaghetti o's and they just gagged, chocked and threw up so their gag reflex is still a problem.

For actual meals it's still stage 2 pureed foods but I give them finger snack foods throughout the day and they take those well.

So get some sporks or forks for toddlers and let them hold those while I feed them?

 

I started my guys with the Take and Toss forks/spoons.

 

[quote name='Nate and Jack's Mom' date='19 August 2010 - 02:32 PM' timestamp='1282242768' post='1683394']
I started my guys with the Take and Toss forks/spoons.
[/quote]

At what age??

 

I did the same as Valerie, I started with the take and toss forks/spoons...I started around 12 months.

 

So when I am teaching them or showing them how should I use utensils and an empty bowl or some puffs to see what they do until they get the hang of it or do I put an actual meal in the bowl and have them explore it? Usually if they get a hold of whatever it is I am spoon feeding them it ends up with them throwing it to the floor or grabbing the spoon and flinging it right in my face or the wall. I'm sooooooooo Type A personality that dealing with this mess that I know is inevitable is freaking me out...lol. I feel like I should throw a tarp over anything to avoid having to clean food particles off the furniture, floor and walls, not to mention myself...lol

Thank you all so much for the advice!!

 

Just want to say "Thank You" for this topic and replies - I never considered giving them forks first (or even yet) - I guess I thought they'd stab themselves or something.

It makes so much sense and I just totally missed the boat!! That's why I come here and read all the topics!!

:thanks:

 

We started giving our guys the Take and Toss forks at about 12 months. Mostly they just played with them, but since they're not super sharp (just enough to stab a soft piece of food), I felt comfortable letting them have them when they were confined to their high chairs.

If the idea of the mess drives you nuts, you can start with softer non-messy foods like shreds of chicken, bits of ham, bits of bread; things that are easy to sweep up. I know your guys aren't into solids too much, but it never hurts to have them on their trays and let them explore the textures with their fingers (and forks and mouths) to get them used to it. Then you could "top them up" with baby food (carefully keeping it away from them!) while they play with the forks.

It's funny you say that because I totally thought spoons would be easier, but one of the wonderful members here on TS told me to try forks first. She was so right!!

The whole "transitioning to solid food" thing freaked me out so badly at first! But children usually start taking the lead and eventually it gets a lot easier.