Self feeding - when?

[hiih]

DS is 1! He can self feed standard finger foods and fruits. Getting really good with his pincer grasp it’s amazing.

However his breakfast, weetabix or porridge, I spoon feed. His dinner - stews, curries, stir fry etc! I spoon feed to him

the nursery day this is what they do - let them feed themselves the usual stuff and this age they spoon feed the hot meal but do help with getting babies to self feed.

when should he be using a fork and spoon himself? If I have a yogurt I can dip it in and he puts it to his moutb he just doesn’t like dip and feed if that makes sense?

also at a major throwing stage! So the spoon feeding his hot meal has helped a bit with mess😂

Sounds very normal to me. I spoon fed until they were much less throwy or messy with food.

Some things that were less messy I'd let them do themselves.

My baby is one this week and I’ve just started giving her a fork and spoon and have been quite amazed at how well she’s managed. But, she’s not really in a throwing phase and if she was launching spoonfuls of yoghurt across the room I’d probably hold off a bit longer.

I'm following this as dd is 16m and the same. Though I let her feed herself the messy/hot foods as well 😆. She's just started to show a bit more interest in cutlery, so I make sure she has it available at every meal and she is giving it a go. I help by guiding her hand a bit or putting some on the spoon for her to lift up, and sometimes I just fed her. We have managed the odd spoonful where she's got it on and fed herself, but it's slow going!

Ah thanks so it’s just like different baby to baby!

I was worried but the spoon feeding stuff like chilli curry stews etc was more because the MESS😂😩 even when I do this sometimes he reaches in and grabs a tiny bit of rice or meat just to throw it and look at it land on the floor lol

Give him a spoon to practice with while you are also feeding him. Will soon get the hang of it, unfortunately there is not really any way past the messy stage he'll still need to go through it to learn to self feed. Better to just embrace it as early as possible & let him just master it.

My oldest could feed herself with a spoon at 13 months but now she is the messiest eating 6 year old I know. Don’t worry. He is still little.

I did proper blw with ds1 where I “pre loaded” the spoon when he was 6m and handed it to him and he managed fine and he could spoon feed well if a bit messily by 1 without much help. He’s a very good eater but still messy.

I’m not sure I can stand the mess with ds2 so will probably give him more help plus he’s less co-ordinated than his brother was at the same age. I’ll let him try with a spoon some of the time though as they learn pretty fast if given the opportunity.

I always gave a spoon to practice with from the start, let them feed themselves with spoon/hands, and some preloaded spoons.
My first wouldn’t tolerate anyone else putting food/spoon in his mouth. My second was a bit more easy going in that way and hungrier so didn’t mind being fed if we were in a bit of a rush but still mainly used the self feeding method from 6 months and could manage quite well by a year.

I recommend eating together and demonstrating how to eat with a spoon. Babies love to copy

I found that both of mine picked it up quite quickly once at nursery 4 days a week as there wasn't the one on one feeding so needs must!!

I think they should be able to use a spoon independently by age 2

Mine could lift the spoon of food to his mouth and eat at 10 months. Now 17 mo and he still won't try to load the spoon 🙄 Oh well we keep trying!

Mine has just turned one and can no way use a spoon to eat a full meal. I load the spoon or spoon feed dinners like cottage pie for example or he picks it up with his hands. He picks up fruit and other small food like omelette chopped up. He's never been a fan of spoon feeding so mainly he gets In a massive mess! He's started to try and scoop with the spoon though now so is grasping the concept. I've just started giving him a fork this week. He's having fun trying to stab food but usually misses 🤣. X