1 year old still prefers to be spoon-fed

[Mumofamadam]

Hello! So my 1 year old little diva will still mainly only eat when spoon fed… she’ll have snacks such as her baby crisps & oat bars but not ‘proper’ food. Anyone else had this? If so when did it improve? I’m not overly worried as I’m just glad she does eat. ☺️

I don’t think it improves until they’re about 2.5! Just let them eat with their fingers where possible.

It goes on for a while. I found DD liked feeding herself for the beginning of a meal because 'yay fun spoon' but she had no concentration level so as soon as she reached the 'not starving anymore' bit of a meal she'd get distracted and I had to take over feeding her or she'd have been sat there all day.

Ahhh that’s good to hear! I probably wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t for her cousins just eating anything and everything feeding themselves & it frustrates me sometimes and I wonder if there’s anything I can do to motivate her. Funny how she picks and chooses what she likes to pickup and eat though lol

Eventually peer pressure will probably kick in when she sees preschool friends or cousins doing this….at this stage I think it’s still a bit young. They’re all different! :)

OP if her cousins are in any type of early years education and/or have an older sibling then like a PP said peer pressure kicks in.

I swear my DD only ended up doing stuff for herself because of early years education where she didn't want to be the baby anymore.

One of her cousins has an older brother so that makes sense! Perhaps I’ll do more meal times with them so she starts to join in :)

My youngest was like this, peer pressure of 3 siblings did not phase her one bit. She eventually began to entertain using a spoon herself if I also had one, and only to eat something highly interesting like a peppa pig yoghurt, I'd feed her and she would have a go, then we graduated to her doing most of the work and me just doing a bit. Now she would stab me with her fork if I went near her food. She is 2.5.

My youngest also doesn't like feeding herself! Total opposite to my other 3, as above, she hasn't given in to peer pressure yet either! She likes a wide variety of food though so I'm just going with it

My 22 month old granddaughter feeds herself perfectly well at home, but when she's here, for some reason grandad has to spoon feed her🤣🤣

My daughter was 3 when we stopped feeding her, she'd start well feeding herself, but was very lazy. We spent the last six months of 2 saying " When you are 3 you will feed yourself all the time " and she did.

So nice to hear! I don’t know anyone else in the same boat so that’s very reassuring. As you say namens, I’m just glad she likes most things!

I carried on feeding mine with a spoon way past 12 months. Maybe when she was 18 months she started trying to use the spoon herself? Though think she might have been doing it in nursery for some time already.

My 5 year old would quite happily still be spoon fed if I let him! Just have one spoon for you and another one for her, she'll get it when she's ready.

Is this 1 as in 13 months, or 23 months? BIG difference.

she’s 13 months!

My son has raised a loaded spoon to his mouth since 10 months. He only first started loading the spoon himself at almost 20 months! (this was a few weeks ago) He still gets frustrated and wants help.

At 1 year he began to feed himself the entire meal - all I did was load each spoon for him. We started with 5 bites each meal. After a few days, he had to do 10 bites. Then half the meal. Then most of the meal, and finally the whole thing

That’s a good idea! Perhaps I’m not patient enough and should let her try by herself a little more. When none of it goes in her mouth I end up taking it from her and doing it myself 😂although I do wish I could give her solids to feed herself (no spoon)

Oh yeah she just doesn't have the skills yet, you have to sit through the absolute mess and let them learn how to feed themselves. She's still so tiny too she will be fine!

If I didn't spoon-fed my daughter she would get about 5 calories a day from thr food she doesn't throw on the floor!