At what age could your baby/toddler use a spoon/fork?

[MyBreadIsEggy]

My DD is 13mo.
She's always been a good eater - will eat things with her hands from her tray BLW-style and will allow me to feed her from a spoon things like yoghurt/porridge etc. She's now taking an interest in the spoon. Last night she had pasta bake, so I put the pasta on her tray in front of her, but she also wanted to hold her little plastic fork. She was picking up the pasta with her hand and trying to put it on the fork - she's now doing the same thing with milk-soaked Cheerios and a plastic spoon.
At what age did your kids figure out how to actually scoop food onto the spoon and put it in their mouth?

[starpatch]

Mine was 12 months but that was the one thing he was early at that's why I remember! Things that are easy to keep on a spoon are good, like those small pasta shapes in a sauce, purees etc I got one of those ridged self feeding spoons (sorry can't remember the make now) did help slightly as didn't really matter if they got it upside down. I think up to 2 years is very normal.

[Dizzydodo]

Dd is 16 months, she can feed herself yoghurt with a spoon because it stays on the spoon quite well, anything mushy she can scoop but it falls off before it gets to her mouth, she's not quite there with a fork, just chases food around her plate!

[winchester1]

12-18 months but started the same as yours, although the almost 3 yr old has regressed by copying little sis!

[FreeButtonBee]

I've done loaded spoons since 7mo. Ds is 9mo and pretty adept at picking it from the tray. Forks, from memory I introduced at about 10/11mo from memory from the older ones.

I start by spearing stuff for them and putting it on the tray. Metal forks/spoons are much better from about 12mo - boots do nice ones with a small head. They are easier to pick up stuff with than plastic spoons/forks.

[TeaBelle]

Did is 18 months. She is pretty good with a fork but still struggles with a spoon. She hates wet food though

[skankingpiglet]

We gave DD a spoon to use from 6mo, and a fork from around 10mo. She got the hang of them at 9mo and 12mo ish respectively, although took a few more months with each to get reliably competent. She's 24mo now and will always start with the cutlery, but does fall back to using her hands on occasion particularly if she's really hungry and the meal is something chunky. We tried her on a knife a couple of months ago but she was intent on using it to stab only like a fork so we're holding off for a bit.
The thing I found made the biggest difference for her was using cutlery with metal ends, and in particular that fork prongs were sharp. DD would get incredibly frustrated trying to spear food with what was a good aim, only for the food not to be really securely fixed to the fork and fall off either half way to her mouth or as it went in. Ikea do a range called 'Dragon' that have a miniature s, f & k set which is great, plus the knife has a bit of a serrated blade which gives them half a bloody chance of actually cutting something with it (unlike the pointless butter knives that come in most sets!) when they move onto them.

[MyBreadIsEggy]

Thanks all
Sounds like she's at the right age to be getting the idea then!

[jessplussomeonenew]

One of the challenges with learning to scoop up food is keeping the bowl still, so encouraging them to hold the bowl with the other hand can really help them get less frustrated. Greek yoghurt is good as it stays on the spoon nicely and is easy to push the spoon through. Yes to metal cutlery - much easier!

[DailyMailYobos]

Around 13 months. It is going to be messy. Practice makes perfect