holding the spoon

[mckenzie]

any tips for how I can encourgae my 18 month old to use a spoon and/or fork?
He is a good eater and feeds himself most of the time with his fingers which is great but we have a bit of a problem with breakfast. He's recently started having a small tantrum at breakfast time and I think it might have something to do with the fact that he can't feed himself ready brek or whatever cereal it is because a spoon is required. I dont mind him getting in a mess so I always offer him a spoon but he usually just ignores it so i have to spoon feed him which he then gets the hump about. He doesn't drink a great amount of milk at breakfast tiem so I'm not too keen on giving him dried cereal every day although this morning I did give him a bowl of shreddies and he ate the lot, without milk, with his hands.
Any tips gratefully received.
Thanks one and all.

He's still young yet. My ds didn't start feeding himself till he was 19 months. There was a bit of frustration with some things which is inevitable in any learning process. My ds would only eat dry cereal and it is a lot tidier. You can always give him milk later in the day perhaps at bedtime.

Try to keep food fairly sticky so that he has success - things such as pasta and sauce, rice dishes, cottage pie etc. Also maybe later try a bigger spoon so he can get more onto it.

I don't know that he's too young - my 7 m.o. dd likes to grab a filled spoon from me and feed herself with it already (she hasn't a clue about the filling the spoon part though).

Forgive me if its obvious but have you tried breaking the task down into smaller parts? first fill the spoon and give it to him, then fill the spoon but leave it on the side of the plate, then help him to fill the spoon himself?

It might work. this comes from my experience as a sare assistant rather than a mother though but the principle is the same.

do specifially mention breakfast - is he better at the other meals. Only my twins are quite good with spoons (I suppose they had to learn early on to get on with it) but breakfast is my biggest challenge - they just can't be bothered. I think they feel as they have just woken up they want to play instead. So I have resorted to giving them banana and cereal which I feed them and they help themselves to toast. How about teaching him to stab bits of banana (my two always find the stabbing bit fun), whilst you carry on with the spoon.

Mckenzie- if it helps, my ds1 at 25mo still insists on mummy/daddy feeding him. He was just getting the hang of it at around 20mo, managing whole meals on his own, but the arrival of his brother put paid to that. Once ds2 was at the weaning stage, ds1 flatly refused to make any effort at all on feeding himself. Breakfast is still the worst meal. If I'm too busy with food prep or ds2 then he will begin his meal on his own at lunch and supper, but once I'm sitting down, forget it.

thanks to everyone for the replies. I think I'm going to do as suggested by Lucy123 and break it down into stages and for now I'll just fill the spoon for him and see if he'll put it in his mouth. And as he got a Bob the Builder cutlery set for christmas, we might have a bit more success.

Thanks again all.

just thought i'D post a brief up-date on the spoon holding saga. I did as Lucy 123 suggested and put the cereal on the spoon and then DS picked up the spoon and some of it went into his mouth. That was on saturday and we've carried on like that all week. This morning, I put the cereal and spoon in front of him and he grabbed the spoon, scooped up a huge spoonful of Weetabix and shoved it in his mouth. He did this for about 10 spoonfuls before getting bored and I had to do the rest but I am so pleased. Isn't it lovely how such trivial things can make us so proud of our little darlings?

Thanks again to all at Mum's Net without whom I wouldn't have got Lucy's advice.