Learning to use Spoons & Forks

tonight as I sat at the table eating dinner with the LOs they were very amused in my fork. I give them spoons all the time but this is the first fork interest they've shown. They are excellent self finger feeders.

I put food on the baby fork and DD ate the food off just like your supposed to. She couldnt figure out how to stab the food with the fork though. So I would take the fork and put food on it, then she would put it in her mouth. She got bloody mad everytime I took the fork to put the food on it, but was happy once it was there and she could eat it off.

When do they learn how to put the food on the utensile themselves?????? and then put it in their mouths? Alot of time they eat empty spoons LOL

 

They'll get the hang of it soon enough. You could try mushy/sticky food to make them scooping with spoons easier, and soft food in chunks which don't move on a plate, for the forks.

 

I think we started giving them utensils a little after a year and over the next couple of months they really got the concept of using them. But even now if something is particularly good and they want to eat right away they hold the fork, while scooping the food into their mouths with their hands!

 

Mine do the same. They often hold the fork/spoon in one hand and scoop food into the mouth with the other. They are getting better and try harder each day. It will happen.

 

At 16 months my two are still nowhere near having it down. I try about two or three times a week but it gets so messy I'm chicken to try everyday. DD gets the spoon to mouth concept but not the scooping one and DS gets the scooping concept but not the spoon to mouth. So between them they've got it down, just not seperately yet.

 

It just takes practice on the LO's side and patience on the momma's side .. but the more they practice the better they get at it.

 

I'm in the spoon stage right now. One thing that helped us is to really thicken baby food with rice cereal, so that it just glops right onto the spoon. That way it still stays on, even if they turn the spoon upside down. And work on keeping it right side up from there. The first time I didn't do that, and it just flew all over the kitchen. I mean ALL over the kitchen.

And I usually do it with them just in their diapers. We do practice in the mornings, so I take them out of their PJs and get them dressed in their real clothes afterwards.

 

I found the Baby Bjorn spoons to be the best. The scoop is really deep and holds the food in well. The handles are thick too so the kiddos can hold easily.

Baby oatmeal mixed extra thick with fruit was our first try. It sticks well to the spoon.

We started about 10 months I think. Lots of practice.

Have fun!

 

I also used rice cereal as a thinkener, only for yogurt. It really made it stick to the spoon and I think that helped, like the pp said, even if the spoon was upside down it stuck to it. They will all get it on their own time, I gave them spoons and rounded prong forks from a really early age, while I was still spoon feeding them. They started like 1% self feeding, 99% me feeding them and we moved down to me not feeding them at all at their own pace. Try not to measure your kids against others' successes or failures, but give them pleanty of chances to suceed themselves.

 

We started giving them forks/spoons with every meal starting at 1 year old. They are now pretty darn good with both. The spoon came first (thickening stuff helps, as PP's have mentioned). They didn't get the "stab" fork concept until relatively recently, probly right around 18 mos. But boy are they proud of themselves when they do it! They even say "STAB!" as they stab each piece of food.

 

QUOTE(Leighann @ Jan 25 2009, 08:09 AM) [snapback]1161179[/snapback]
I think we started giving them utensils a little after a year and over the next couple of months they really got the concept of using them. But even now if something is particularly good and they want to eat right away they hold the fork, while scooping the food into their mouths with their hands!


One of my 3 year olds still does this if we're having something really good (and messy) like spaghetti!

 

My boys were a bit late on the utensils... they started using them routinely at about 17.5 months. They caught on quickly, though, and now demand "pooms!" - their term for spoons.

 

I cant even get mine to not dump the plate I put in front of them...I think I have a while before they use a fork!
I have a 4yo and dont remember when she started but she does great so I know it happens! lol

 

I started relatively recently with my girls. Probably around 17 months old. They do pretty well now at 18 1/2 months ... I started with putting some whipped cream in a bowl for them to try the spoon. It doesn't fall off like yogurt and applesauce ... and it isn't hard to get on the spoon like ice cream and I figured they need the dairy anyway =) Now they eat beans, yogurt ... things like this off a spoon. Still wouldn't do well with something runnier like applesauce. As for the fork, I started about the same time and they do pretty well. It is cute to watch them master this ... the intense concentration and the joy when they get food in their mouths! Almost makes up for the ten tantrums it took to even get them in the highchair

 

Mine are 21 months and we still dont use them all that often.. I really dont feed them much food that needs them. I guess when the time is right they will use them more. They know how we just never need them much. Beau will eat with his hands and just hold the spoon. LOL