starting cutlery - aaaaaagh!

[belindarose]

My previously happily finger feeding nearly 12 mo old has decided she MUST use cutlery. And, of course, she MUST use it entirely by herself with no help from me whatsoever. This has meant her hardly managing to eat anything, while complaining loudly because she wants to. Her favoured method this morning was to hold three spoons in one hand while poking them at her bowl. Yesterday she tolerated me loading the occasional spoon for her, while giving me venomous looks. Any tips to make this process easier, or reassurance that it'll only last a few days....?

Spoons are actually pretty hard to master - you might find it easier to give her a fork which is pointy enough for her to be able to spear soft foods with. The advantage of a fork is that it works just as well either way up.

I can't give any advice from experience, though, I'm afraid.

No advice, other than to wait it out - but your post is wonderful, and had me crying with laughter. Sorry.

How about aiming a camera at her and making a little video memento for her 18th birthday?

we are having exactly the same cutlery experience with our exactly the same aged son. I bought a couple of baby forks, all seem terrifyingly sharp except one blunt bamboo one which just doesn't work, and he waves them around, spears stuff, and points at our forks (sometimes I give in and give him mine, his record is 3 forks at once). He's got fairly good at getting the food in, and he does sometimes take a break and start shovelling food into his mouth with the non-cutlery-holding fist.

He's also starting to get very particular about a lot of things. Has it coincided with walking for you? because that's what DS has started to do in the last month. Bye bye baby hello toddler I think...

Yes, coincided with walking (almost) and signing (lots). Yep, the little baby has definitely gone! Watching her spend hours trying to put clothes on is hilarious. Yesterday she did manage a velcro bib (backwards, like a cape) and was VERY pleased with herself! She appears to have gone off the spoons and is happily tucking in with hands again (if she feels like bothering to eat at all on any given occasion - fickle creature!).