At what age did you stop feeding your children yourself?

[eenybeeny]

I dont mean stop providing them with food! LOL I mean using your hand to hold the fork to put the food in the mouth. DS is 22 months and still prefers to be fed SOMETIMES not all the time. Is that normal? He will eat his breakfast toast himself but lunch and dinner usually involve feeding him at least part of the meal.

Normal. At least, it was for me - dd was very inefficient with a spoon and needed help until she was well over 2.

Don't sweat the small stuff - you won't still be spoon-feeding him when he goes to school!

my ds is 2 in July and still needs a wee hand in the evening especially with messy stuff like rice.

I stopped feeding dd at 3.3 when I needed to start feeding ds1. It wasn't that she couldn't do it, just that she ate so much more and so much more quickly if I "helped".

Ds1 never let me start feeding him - he's a spoon refusnik.

I don't know which I'm hoping for with ds2 - feeding them is quicker and less messy. But it is nice just to put the food in front of them and then eat my own food!

About 8 months, she refused to be spoon fed so had to use finger foods. Now at 20 months she can use a spoon / fork herself for all meals although needs it cut up for bite size portions.

I spoon fed ds till he was nearer 3 when i realised he really should be doing it himself. He's now 5 and I still load the spoon from time to time and amn't going to worry too mauch about that!

Dd is 2o months and does most of it herself - I get to help with the last bit of a yogurt or weetabix but otherwise she does her own thing.

DOn't worry about it! Sounds like he's doing great. Have you tried with 2 spoons - one for him to attempt with and one for you to sneak a few in with?

Damn. Wanted to post: yup mine forage in bins most days now. But I see the OP headed off that pass first...

haha wilfsell I KNEW someone would cotton on to that!! LOL Next time I post I will try to leave the field open for you.

Yes I dont really mind feeding him to be honest - I know what you mean about not sweating the small stuff. I just wanted to make sure I wasnt doing him a disservice of some sort by not trying harder to make him do it himself!

My DS1 is 27 months now. He can feed himself but makes a bit of a mess and takes ages. He feeds himself at nursery but I nearly always help him at home unless it is all finger type food. Sometimes he says "no I do it" but he can't scrape round the edges properly so never manages to get it all.

I never started, but she's asking me for more help now since she got more proficient with cutlery as I think she can't get it in as fast as she is used to.

15 months - wouldn't let me after that. Grateful that it's like that because we've all eaten together since about 18 months and it's literally meant we can all eat our own meals at the same time. He's 2 tomorrow and he'd go crazy if I tried to spoon feed him.

my 2.7 year old charge was getting worse and worse at feeding himself.... he could just wouldnt

so aged 2 and 5 months we had had enough so i gave him his food and fork / spoon and said do it yourself.

i did not touch it at all and for a few meals he didnt eat much.... then he realised that if he didnt feed himself he would be hungry...

since then he has fed himself no problems!

My DC generally feed themselves but DS at nearly 4 still sometimes asks for help when he's tired. Don't worry about it as long as your DS is feeding himself most of the time.

Hiya Eeny! Ds was about 12 months old when he refused to let us spoon feed him but think it was so he could have control over what goes into his mouth but the downside is he has become a very fussy eater.
I'd much prefer to be feeding him good hearty warm food than to have him just eat yoghurt, cereal, fruit and toast which is his diet at moment.

Hi BHM! I keep meaning to look for an August thread do you still post on it?

Alex's diet was pretty good til he got very sick over the bank holiday weekend now I cant get him to eat anything but crap so am trying very hard to get him to eat decent food again.

Hope he's better now? Jackson is banana mad, he wont eat veg except sweetcorn and only meat he will eat is a bit of sausage and thats onyl if he feels like it? Most time he refuses.

Yes still post on Aug thread although its a bit quiet lately.

Hope you and Sal are well too x

thank you!! I have been crazy busy lately and my time on the computer is so short but I really will look for the august thread ASAP! DS loves nanas too!!! have you tried giving Jackson corn on the cob? I am giving Alex some tonight for the first time.

riven