what age should knife and fork be used?

[ilovetochat]

DD is 16 months and finger feeds and can eat yoghurt with a spoon but gets it in her hair and often turns the spoon upside down before it reaches her mouth. Should she be starting with other cutlery yet?

ds1 sorted out spoons by 2, forks at 2.5 and at 3.4 is now mostly able to decide when to use knife to help with a meal. no idea if this is standard stuff, look forward to other answers

(and till gets food in his hair)

still

normally she is a finger feeded, if she can't pick it up she doesn't want it, porridge is fun

Depends on the child and the food you give them... My 4.8 year old still hardly ever uses a knife and fork, because most of his food is more easily eaten with a spoon and fork (pasta dishes, rice with fairly small chunks of food mixed in, etc.). He's used a spoon and fork together since he was about 2. When he does use a knife and fork, I despair at the ridiculous blunt knives made for children - how are they supposed to learn to cut food up with something even an adult can't use properly??? Especially when they have extreme hypermobility in their finger joints, as my son does, making cutting with anything blunt an even more remote possibility than it would be with other children...

So, if anyone wants to get a bit sidetracked and also give advice on where you can get a knife for children that actually cuts, that would be most welcome!!! In the meantime, my view would be that children's knives are a waste of space and you should let the poor things have a spoon instead most of the time.

Dd1 trys to use a kniffe and fork but struggles. She's 4.

Dd2 (ASD) is doing well with a kniffe and fork (she's 2.8)

I bought [[http://www.welch.co.uk/products.asp?instanceid=13709 these] for DS (he's 2) and really they are just small versions of the adult cutlery and therefore fairly useful for cutting. He has got fairly proficient, but we still need to cut things for him, but he does get half way there!

these

they look quite good ll