Teaching ds to feed himself - how?!

[skirmish]

Ds is 20mths and has no inclination to feed himself using cutlery. Will eat finger foods ect no problems, but when it comes to dinner will just sit there, mouth open and say 'more please'...

please don't say i just have to leave the bowl and fork there and let him do it himself - i've tried that and he gets fed up and uses his hands...

any useful tips?

thanks

one thing that worked for me by accident was letting DS play with uncooked pasta, some spoons and different bowls. He loved just spooning them into each other. Just a few days later he wanted to feed himself.. worth a try?

nope! my DS sarting using fork very early I think as my maes boy is 3 and only just got to using one.. look on bright, at least you can get him to eat quicker!

Let him get on with it, how he wants to. It may make life easier for you if you serve foods that can be eaten with the fingers (eg not soups or yogurts). It could be that he likes your reaction. Or it could be thta he really doesn't see the point of cutlery.

My dd was like that. AFter being desparate to use cutlery, and only finally getting the hang of it at 15m, she suddenly rebelled against cutler. We insisted that she use a spoon for her cereal, which resulted in her eating it dry (with her fingers). But apart from that, I more-or-less backed off.

When she started school, I insisted that she have school dinners, and it paid off, because peer pressure led to her using cutlery. The TAs were happy to help her until she got the hang of it. She still likes to use her fingers, but has learnt to do so in a fairly mannerly way.

thats true bekka - feeding times are quite quick and hardly messy!

will give that a tru gem - though imagine my entire house will be covered in raw pasta and i'll be forever finding it in new places!

thanks PC - i think he understands why it is used (he seems quite bright) but also, what is the point of doing it if someone else does it for him...i find he always looks for the easiest way to do things - like the shape sorter, why bother putting the shapes in the correct holes when you could just open the lid and chuck them all in!!

Yup, dd did that too!

yes, that's the prob with pasta, make sure it's big bits!