holding spoons?

at what age do they start holding spoons?? and how?

 

I started letting my boys just play with them around 11-12 months. We started actually showing them how to use them around 13-14 months, but they still aren't very good with them. Most of what they manage to get on the spoon gets flung, in their hair, etc. They are getting decent with forks - they can use them when they choose to, but they still resort to fingers a lot.

 

I gave my boys spoons before they started solids. If they were sitting in their high chairs while we ate dinner, I'd give them a plastic spoon to chew on for practise. I did baby led weaning so I let them feed themselves from 6 months. It was messy, but they got good at it pretty quickly. They were feeding themselves yogurt by the time they were about 8 or 9 months.

 

I only started giving them to them around 12 months and they are just now actually able to feed themselves fairly decently (15 months)...it's still a big mess though and probably will be for a while .

 

We started around 9 or 10 months and they perfected it by about 18 mos. But there will be a mess for a long time - even though they can eat clean that really isn't interesting or fun for exploring.