What age do babies start feeding themselves?

[SamboM]

My dd is 12 months and obviously feeds herself finger food. She has recently started grabbing the spoon from me much more than she used to, but doesn't really understand about the getting food to your mouth bit yet, which usually results in a happy full dog and a hungry dd!

When do they start being able to feed themselves with a spoon? Should I just allow her to keep chucking it everywhere or should I keep feeding her myself for now?

I'd try to do a bit of both - perhaps give her finger food, like bread sticks, and something to dip it, or a little bowl of what she is eating to experiment with, whilst you feed her some with a spoon. I think dd was around 14 months when she got fed up waiting and fed herself breakfast with a spoon - I haven't been allowed near since.

DS2 is the same age and does the same....
I give him a spoon to hold, but still feed him.
If it's something 'sticky' like mashed potato, I press it onto his spoon and let him try to get it in his mouth - he's successful about 30% of the time.

My friend's baby who is 17 months is expert at feeding himself, so it must happen in the next 6 months or so! I'd encourage her....

I start at 12 months and shovel in half of it - mas/beans/pasta and then let them make a right old mess