using utensils

On their birthday I let them *use* spoons with their cake and they almost seemed to get it. I am totally not expecting them to get anything in their mouths but wondered when you started letting them practice?

Also, I rememeber when my brother was a baby they had these bowls with suction cups on the bottom. Do they still make those? I havent seen them. If I give my girls fishes or something in a bowl they just dump it.

Thank you.

 

For snacks, we bought the Snack Trap bowls with lids, they are awesome!!

I didn't start with utensils until about 16-17 months, mean mom I know, I was just avoiding the mess for as long as possible. We started with thicker yogurt and pudding at first to have them get the hang of it.

We have suction cup plates that I bought at BRU.

 

the suction cup bottom plates and bowls don't work for crap, totally not worth it! As for utensils, we just started always giving them a spoon and/or fork around 1 and slowly but surely they used them more and better. Now at almost 2 they are extremely proficient with forks and spoons..

 

Yes, they still make the suction cup bottoms but mine figured out how to pull them right up :angry:

I started giving mine utensils around 15 months. They do well with them now.

I second Michelle post about the snack traps. Once they figured out how to do, I love them. I can give them a snack in the car or in the family room and it doesnt end up all over the floor.

 

daycare started with utensils before we did ... I didn't even know it was time, until they told me to start! Probably somewhere around 15 months ... I'm with Michele ... makes a freaking mess, and I just hate dealing with it ... even now, they still tend to hold the fork in one hand, and eat with the other hand ... oh well ... they are getting better with spoons, but what a mess! They pick it up fine, but turn the spoon right before it gets to their mouths, and it ends up on their chin and their bib (if they haven't already pulled the bib off.)

ahhh ... utensils. Good times ahead!

 

I started giving them spoons to play with around a year, too, but they didn't really "take off" using them to get food into their mouths until 14 or 15 months. At first I'd put food in the spoon and then hand it to them pointing towards their mouth, then they insisted on putting the food on, and finally Tom now insists - at about 50% of meals - on scooping the food out of the bowl himself. Each stage took several weeks or more. Real forks have actually been the easiest for them to use, though I didn't give them those till they had enough control not to stick themselves in the eye.

And it's still incredibly messy, but Tom's pride is a joy to see and I don't mind paying the price of wiping up (more) yogurt...since I'm already down there on the floor wiping up anyway.

 

I gave my girls spoons around 10 months to keep their hands busy. They didn't use them for anything other than banging until maybe 13 months. They were pretty proficient by about 15 months. I gave them forks much later, thinking forks would be too difficult, but I wish I had started earlier. I think we started forks at 16 months and they understood the concept and used them perfectly on day one. FYI - I gave them small adult forks with the pointy tines rather than the typical blunt kid forks. Those seemed pretty useless.

 

I have the suction bowl/plates and they are okay until they learn how to pull them up so not sure it's really worth the money.

Started giving mine a spork around 15-16 months. We're getting better. We're not totally there but getting much more proficient. L does pretty well...J still likes to turn the spoon right before it gets to his mouth. Bibs were gone a long time ago in my house, so we strip down to a diaper and let them have at it. It does make for messes but how else will they learn?