Is this normal with toddler learning to feed herself with spoon and fork

[MrsWolf2]

She’s great at loading up the food, great at getting it to her mouth without spilling anything, then right before she gets it in her mouth she turns the spoon upside down so unless it’s something super sticky it just gets spilled.

I have tried lots of things to help but she just doesn’t seem to get it. It’s so frustrating for both of us!

Is this normal and do I just need to wait it out and let her keep practising until she figures it out for herself? How long might that be?

It just all goes so well and then it’s like she adds this extra unnecessary step of turning the spoon upside down. I often have to take deep breaths and remind myself she’s not deliberately sabotaging, it just looks exactly like she is!

Yep normal.

Eat with her
Or guide her hand

Yep, totally normal. How old?

Yes, it’s such a normal developmental stage that it is listed on the small steps EYS profile the professionals use for our twins (they are both very delayed). We use hand over hand support to try and guide them to keep it the right way up and they’re starting to get it now but still won’t scoop unaided.

How old is she? Ds is just turned 2 and can just about feed himself soup with a spoon now, he still spills bits though, and he still dips his fingers in because it's easier. It takes practice.

Yes normal, my 12 month old does this.

So glad it’s normal!

She’s 14 months.

For teatime she decided the best way to use a spoon was to load the handle. She didn’t turn it before it got to her mouth which was amazing except all the food had fallen off by the time it got to her mouth anyway.

Babies and toddlers

Totally normal. Also pushing the food up their nose because they misjudge the distance from spoon to mouth

If she's frustrated you can get bent spoons that make it a little easier to spoonfeed yourself, or, if she's happy trying to work it out for herself, you can just wait out the stage.

Recommend a pelican bib

I think (could be mistaken) it’s in the 8-20 months skills range so right on track. Won’t be long before she gets the hang of it especially if you give some hand over hand support (we never used to do this with anything until we had portage visits for the twins - because they didn’t mimic us they’d never learn new things physically other than trial and error. Almost everything they’ve learnt in the last 18 months has been via hand over hand support, from playing to signing and other things).

Haha funnily enough mine decided to use the handle for his chicken, carrots, broccoli and mash this evening. Only the mash made it to his mouth.

I think at 14 months DS was doing exactly that. He's 18 months now and can eat a bowl of cheerios with a spoon without dropping one. It's one of those skills that you think they'll never get until they just... do!