holding utensils and using plates>

whewn should they be doing this and how did you start? mine seem to throw the plates that stick and forks seem hard to use

 

We have been giving them forks since they were about 11 months, but they didnt care for them. I think I can say they started using them really good at about 14 months and now they are pros. Spoons, they do OK, we can do things that stick good like mashed potatoes, some thick yogurts, but thats about it, they try.

PLATES, ha, we try not to give them to them all the time, because they think its fun to watch them go flying!!!

I think all babies are different!

 

With throwing the plates, the kids had three chances and then meal time was over. I had a fork and spoon out for most of their meals and would show them how to use it. My two got a handle on the fork before the spoon. Even at age 3, they still eat with their hands about a third of the time.

 

We started giving them utensils around a year old or so. At almost 2, they are good with the fork and so-so with the spoon (okay with things that stick, but they still drop a lot of things that don't stick). And honestly, they just prefer their fingers most of the time because it's faster for them.

We rarely do plates - they cause more trouble than they are worth for me because they slide around, get thrown, etc., so we mostly just put the food on their trays or in bowls (for some weird reason, they don't throw the bowls, but they will throw the plates).

 

We started putting food on a plate when they were around 14 months. I prefer the sectioned plates because otherwise they just slide the food around too much. As for bowls, we have a few of these suction bowls and I really like them. It's true that if they want to pull the bowl up they can, but it helps keep the bowl in place when they just trying to scoop up food. Currently we have vinyl table mats that the suction bowls stick to pretty well (they wouldn't suction very well to our oak table). Also, when our boys first started using plates our nanny at the time taped the underside of their plates to the table with packaging tape, LOL. She said they did that in the daycare she used to work at, and I must admit it worked pretty good. Then they eventually got used to the plates so we stopped doing that.

 

We started to use plates around 13-14 months. The have been using forks and spoons since about Aug-Sept. They'll be 2 in a little over two weeks.

 

we just started plates about 2 months ago, right after their birthday & they are doing pretty good if i stay aware of when they're finished eating. i just started giving them utensils, but they don't use them much. one of them tries more than the other. i still spoon feed them yogurt and soup and other messy stuff.

 

My boys are 15 months and we don't use plates at all, and I hesitate to try bowls too but maybe we should. We've given them plates and bowls a couple of times but it just became a toy to play with. We have been giving them a fork for a couple of months, but not at every meal since it usually just turns into a toy too. They do better with a fork than a spoon and they do try to poke food with it, and are good at putting a bite in their mouths themselves if you help them get a bite on there. I've noticed a lot of improvement in their coordination with the forks in the last week or so.

 

We didn't start using utensils till they were around 17 months old. They really didn't care about them. Most of the time they just threw them. Starting at around 21 months, L got into using the fork and the spoon. He has become really motivated - he can use the fork pretty good and can even eat cereal with milk using a spoon. S has just recently become motivated (at 23 months) to use the fork and spoon, but he alternates with the utensils and his hands.

 

We started folks and plates at 12 months. Now at 19 months, they can use folks, spoons, bowls and plates very well. They used to throw everthimg on the floor. But not anymore. However some days they decide to eat with fingers only lol. I think you should give them more time to practice and be patient with them. They will master it. Gl