letting twins feed themselves?

I am so confused on the self feeding. When do you let them try for themselves? We are just beginning the food throwing thing and it's driving me crazy. So far they have not been very receptive to spoon feeding since they begin picking up things with their fingers. I also have not found any sucion bowls that they haven't been able to pull off in about 2 seconds. Any suggestions?

 

We first had those chairs with the trays. We would just put their food on those and let the kiddoes have at it. We did that from about 10-15 months. From 15 until now (20 months) the kids sit at the table. They feed themselves, with forks and sometimes their fingers too. They are so good. I couldnt have asked for better eaters. There are only some things that I wont let them eat by themselves because it is so messy, spaghetti, eggs, things like that.

I think that you just need to give it time. Maybe place a little bit on their plate/tray at a time and as they finish it just reload them. Eventually, I am sure that yours will get like mine.

 

If you haven't switched to a booster-type feeding chair, then I would recommend that first. Offer a few small items to experiment with by placing it on their tray (Cheerios, black beans, crumbled cheese, blueberries, grapes, etc.). You don't even need to use bowls yet. They will just want to play with the bowls, so keep it simple. You have plenty of time to introduce forks and spoons, so just let them use their fingers right now.

Let them feed themselves first. Then when they have had awhile to experiment, go ahead and feed them yourself with a spoon or fork. It will go more smoothly, because they have already had a chance to "play."

Lastly buy a good Dust Buster, and keep it in your kitchen. You will need to use it after every meal!!

 

We essentially started giving our two bits to eat/play with right away when we started solids at 8 months. By 14-15 months they were proficient with a fork and spoon. I think if you've not let them feed themselves much, then forgoing the plate may be necessary to not give them too many new things to be distracted by at once! I used a small strainer a lot so I could drain excess liquid for different things we were eating - soups, etc. There was almost nothing that we were eating that we could not figure out a way for them to self-feed. Good luck and get ready to do lots of cleaning up!

 

We have the booster seats for the chairs, we never go regular high chairs so this is all we've ever used, and mine feed themselves every meal we just put their stuff on the tray. This is what we used for our oldest DD too. They are great, you don't need to worry about plates, bowls etc. I do still spoon feed them oatmeal for breakfast, but they also get toast or a pancake with it, and yogurt at lunch. But other than that they feed themselves everything!!! This has made my life so much easier. However, meals do take a little longer, but every time they do it is practice and they are pretty good at it now. I would say they just started feeding themselves everything about the time they turned 1 in February. Up until then we were doing a mixture of table food and baby food. We started small around 9 months, they would feed themselves cheerios and puffs then we would do the baby food. But as we progressed to more table food they fed themselves more. The more they do it the better they get at it.

 

We started with spoons/forks/bowls around 18 months. It was futile. All the food ended up on the trays (we have always used boosters with trays too). Now in the past few months they are finally learning to keep the bowls on the trays and the food in the bowls. They CAN use forks, spoons well, but do not always want too. If they are really hungry fingers are just faster. And at this age, I am fine with that. We have not had a lot of food throwing amazingly so with TWO BOYS. but I have always been consistent about if they do throw food, cup, spoon etc. one warning then they are DONE.

I could not even TELL you what we did with dd. Five years is a LONG time for this mommy brain to dust off and remember

 

We keep a sheet under their high chairs are shake it out after feeding. Mine are just starting to eat with a spoon sucessfully and love yogurt and pudding. It takes time. I just offer a spoon at every feeding. Mine get their food straight on their trays(except yogurt which goes in measuring cups).

 

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Originally posted by TwinxesMom:
Mine get their food straight on their trays(except yogurt which goes in measuring cups).


What a clever idea, TabbiSue! Like a mini-bowl with a great handle! I love it and will totally be stealing this maneuver when the boys are ready to tackle self-feeding w/a spoon.

 

I let them start feeding themselves as soon as they were able (9 months) and they were getting almost all of their solids by self-feed at 10 months. They wanted to do it and ate better if I let them have the control.

As for the mess, well, we have a dog. I pick up any big pieces and let him get the small stuff. The floor under their chairs gets mopped daily. It's really not too bad now because they don't lose anything unless it is intentionally thrown and only one of mine throws food and not every time. We're working on not throwing at all but he has to be reminded sometimes.

 

We did not give utensils until about 19 months. Up till that point we did as many pp have mentioned. Their food would go on their tray and they would use their fingers. If it wasn't something that they could eat this way then I would feed them.

 

One thing we did early on to help them learn was to break down things into more managable tasks - I'd have the bowl of oatmeal and three spoons. I'd load a spoon for one babe, hand it to him or her. Repeat for the other babe. If the spoons they had were either being played with or they weren't relinquishing them, I had a third spoon to scoot a bite in while they weren't paying attention. I feel like this gave them practice navigating the spoon to the mouth without having to worry about scooping too.

I also thickened yogurt A LOT by stirring in baby rice/oat cereal. It worked well as I could get it to the texture of wallpaper paste (yummy...) and it wouldn't fall off the spoon.

 

Thanks for all the good advice. We have always used boosters as well and they have been feeding themselves for about 6 months with their fingers. I was wondering when to introduce spoons and forks. They will let me feed them again with a spoon but only just recently. they went through a faze where they would not eat anything if I tried to feed them.

I love the thicking of the yogurt! I guess I will just put somethings on their tray and give them a spoon to try it.

Oh, we have two boxers so they have been eating well!!

 

My little guys (16 mo.) feed themselves from their trays too! I just cut up stuff and put it there. I feed very little to them with a spoon. (yogurt & cereal) They love to feed themselves. I have been wondering as well how to get them to use utensils. When I have tried a couple of times in the past the suction bowls ended up on the floor as fast as they could get them undone and food was everywhere (hair, clothes etc.) YIKES! They don't make that kind of mess self feeding with finger foods. Good Luck. I'm also interested in others' responses! ~Mary~

 

quote:
I was wondering when to introduce spoons and forks


Mine learned the fork first. I didn't bother until almost 15 months and then I gave a demo of both spoon and fork. They immediately fell in love with the concept of stabbing their food and have done pretty well with a fork from the get-go. They are still working on mastering the spoon. I'm sure they'll get it eventually.

When I was in BRU, they had Gerber sets with a spoon, fork, and butter knife that have stainless steel tips and rubbery plastic coated handles. They were about $4 a set and they work great!

 

quote:
Originally posted by SweetpeaG:
What a clever idea, TabbiSue! Like a mini-bowl with a great handle! I love it and will totally be stealing this maneuver when the boys are ready to tackle self-feeding w/a spoon.


Gerber bowls are so big and I didn't want them to have to chase their yogurt(we like the fruit and cereal yobaby yogurt w/ DHA{I've seen apple and strawberry banana and rasberry pear}) all over the bowl! I was actually thinking of getting them some baby cereal because oatmeal is really to chunky for Jessy's taste. How I taught them to use a spoon is I'd give them cream cheese jammin' swirl strawberry(or peanut butter if your doing that) on their spoon and eventually they figured out to stick it in their mouth and suck it off. Then we gave them spoons at every meal and to play with out of the high chairs and when they started acting like they were spooning things and feeding themselves we gave them real food in thier bowls. Mine now eat yogurt and oatmeal all by themselves. Note: They still get quite a bit down the front of them as they get too much on their spoons.

 

We just have booster seats, no high chairs. We put the food straight on their trays. At around 12 months I started letting them have a spoon -- mostly because they were getting them at daycare (though not really using them yet) and I figured I might as well let them practice at home too. I was surprised to find that Sarah could actually feed herself yogurt with a spoon at that age!

Now, at 15 months, anything I think they can eat with a spoon (yogurt, sweet potatoes, really soft pasta) I give them in their own little dish with a spoon. I just use single-serving tupperware dishes (not special baby dishes), since (so far) we haven't had a problem with them throwing food. They seem to really like having their own dishes. I still wind up spoon-feeding them fairly often though -- they ask for it and I'm a softie.

Anything that's finger food just goes straight on the trays. I would like to get some Stokke chairs (my ILs are paying for them, score!) soon and move them over to eating at the table with us, but I don't think they're quite ready to deal with a plate yet.

When they do throw/drop food, I pretty much ignore it. I'll even give them more (or pick the food up, brush it off, and give it back) once or twice -- then I just say "If you're dropping food on the floor, then you must be done." and get them down.

HTH!

 

I took kind fo a different approach. I didn't start them on any solids until 6 months. At that time I gave them a spoon to hold while I spoon fed them. They ate in their double jogger rolled up next to the table at that point. I always included them in our meals, and they ate at other times as well. I think around 9 months we bought the kind of high chairs that pull up to the table. Up untill that point they ate in their stroller. Like I said they were always included in our meals. They've never through a plate or bowl. But we have plenty of spoons and forks for them and there was a time when they dropped 4 or 5 of those on the floor during a meal. By the time they were a year old they feed themselves 90% of their food, it went kind of gradule from me feeding most of their food (with a spoon for me) and they feeding most of their food with their own spoon. I think having them pulled up to the table with us (and no older kids to egg them on) really helped them see that we just don't throw food. When they start playing with it instead of eating I assume they are no longer hungry and take it away. We also have dogs to clean the floor and eat left overs. If it looks like they are done, I threaten to give it to Lola (the dog) and if they are still hungry, they say no, and eat some more. If they are truely no longer hungry they agree to give the rest to Lola.

 

My girls refused to allow us to feed them starting at 9-10 months old. It was really frustrating, but we just fed them all finger food for a couple of months. At around 12 months, we started giving spoons and forks with meals. Many of the meals, they would hold the spoon or fork, but eat with their hands. By about 15 months, they could eat some things with the spoon or fork -- yogurt, applesauce with a spoon, carrots with a fork. Recently, they have learned how to eat cereal and milk with a spoon and they are great with a fork. It is frustrating at times to let them feed themselves because they are so messy, but it takes practice for them to become proficient. We just dealt with the mess and waited for them to learn.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Minette:
I would like to get some Stokke chairs (my ILs are paying for them, score!)



Huge score! We have them and love them. You know Kinderzeats are no longer being made and are on severe clearance most places - they're replacing it with the Tripp Trapp which can be used for a younger child. We got our first Kinderzeat at 12 months and they were fine sitting in it.