Silverware

When did you start teaching/showing your kids how to use silverware? We have always either fed our kids or let them pick it up themselves. My MIL had the kids Friday night and Saturday and apparently, she was trying to teach them how to use silverware themselves. Now DS won't feed himself and won't let us feed him. The only way I can get him to eat today is if I put something on the fork and then he picks it up and feeds himself. Are they too young for silverware or is this a good thing? My MIL is always pushing them to do stuff way before they are ready (she wanted to start sippy cups at around 4 months, she has started suggesting potty training because DS does to the bathroom door when someone is in there, etc) and I am curious if this is another one of those instances or if they might be ready for this step. Thanks.

 

I feel like it might have been around 18 mos. or just before 2! I suppose it won't hurt for HER to try it now. Doesn't mean you have to. If she teaches them something - great! I doubt they'll do it that well right now, but it can't hurt them.

 

My girls have held a spoon while I fed them for months and just today (yes, really) started taking the spoon into the applesauce or yogurt and getting it into their mouths (and hair and nose and eyes). The love it! And yes, we do also have to put food on a fork, give them the fork, they eat it, then give us back the fork for more. So, it is more work again, but I think it is a good thing.

I went and bought the fork and spoon set from Sassy - with the curved, short handles - and they do well with those.

I don't think this is one of those things that will hurt them if they try it "too" soon - just more of a mess for you to clean up!

 

I was chicken because I wasn't looking forward to the mess. We started introducing them around 18 months and around 20 started showing them how to do them, knowing that once we did that all spoon feeding on our end would stop. They have been doing it for several weeks now, one of them has it down the other still has a lot to learn.

 

My girls have started taking the spoon away from me that I am feeding them with. They want to do it themselves-so I have been helping them scoop food on the spoon/spork. Takes forever and it is a big mess, but they love it.

 

15 - 18 months I started to give them a spoon to hold while feeding them .. then they just started feeding themselves using the spoon .. it helps that they dont like to get their hands dirty though !

 

I've been offering a fork the last couple of days when I serve something "stabbable". They think it's fun although I'm sure it will take quite some time for them to actually get the hang of it. A spoon is not realistic for my boys at this point - just messy. Evan and James are about 15 months.

 

becca always liked to help with the spoon, but sometime around 16 months we started letting her do it herself. i also noticed that they like to eat off plates, so we started that around 17 months. Something else interesting, i was eating breakfast with them, they had a plate and i had a bowl.. becca wanted a bowl, so i gave her yogurt and cheerios she loved it

yes it's a mess, but they do learn it. Agree with pps about spooning on the food first. Also thicker foods are less messy because they stay on the spoon.

It's part of asserting their independence. If they aren't ready, they won't do it (jake prefers to be fed more than becca)..so i would just go with the flow on this one.

 

with fork we started at the age of 1year but with spoon later ( I guess 2 and a half) when I was sure they can manage it. I was too lazy to clean the whole highchair and the carpet and to wash them after every simple meal

 

I think we started at a little over a year when they were on all table food. My son right now still usually just holds the spoon or fork in his hand and eats with the other but occasionally with stab his food with his fork to eat it. I think it really depends if you think your kids are ready. My son can feed himself his own yogurt and does a good job at it too (he still makes a mess but gets most of it in his mouth) and has been doing good since he was about 15/16mths old.

 

I was going to ask if any of you do silverware because my twins' can't really grasp w/spoon or fork yet. I tried over and over and they prefer to use their hands. However, my son is improving with putting his food onto a spoon and put it in his mouth. But 90% of the time they just play with it and not eat whatever on the plate. I tried to helping them but just not there yet.

My twins' is 20 mos and when do they actually start show improvement or understand what it is for?
D, w/Rianna and Justin

 

We started with "silverware" at about that age. I bought those awesome plastic kids utensils at the grocery store (for the life of me I can't remember the name of them right now!!) but they have the animal shaped handles. They are wonderful. The kids think they are super cool and they loved to use them to scoop and stab their food. The kids are almost 3 and will still use fingers or ask us to help them but they really love trying themselves with their animal forks and spoons.