Using a Spoon- when?

[Tigresswoods]

DS is 10 months and is very good at eating finger food now. I also feed him stuff off a spoon, yogurts, porridge, mashed meals I have made, jars etc.

He is very good at eating but... he is getting more and more frustrated with being fed. I have tried to maximise the things that he can feed himself but sometimes a spoon is necessary (in my opinion) yogurts & porridge for example.

So my query is, when can a baby/toddler feed themselves competently with a spoon and do you have any recommendations for a good one?

My 15 month old DS is finally getting the hang of the scooping movement. He does a pot of yoghurt reasonably well. Up to now I've had to load the spoons for him, and he did that thing of rotating them to put them in his mouth upside down (which only works with very sticky contents!)

He's also getting the hang of stabbing with forks too.

I'd presevere with offering him cutlery so he gets a chance to practice. To make sure he gets some in him though you'll have to help with the loading.

DC3 has had spoons in his hand from when I weaned him at 6 motnhs. He has one in his hand and I feed him with another.

By 12 months he could feed himself a yoghurt or pot of fruit puree. Admitedly quite a lot of it when down the front of him! But he has got better.

He is 19 months now and regularly uses a metal toddler folk and various spoons pretty competedly. I use whatever spoons are around, so whatever comes to hand in the drawer at home or if we are out a teaspoon does the job just as well.

Excellent. Actually giving him his own spoon with a little food on it does "buy me some time" I just wondered when they actually start using them. Your messages have heartened me and I will perserve to get him there... eventually.

Cheers.

I used loaded spoons from pretty early on as I did BLW. My DS is only just getting the hand of getting food on a spoon or fork himself (14 mths) but is fine at getting food into his nouth when a spoon is handed to him.

Prepare for mess though. It's quite hard to let them just get on with it sometimes as inevitably they will turn the spoon over, shake it round, out it on their head. All part of the fun though!

Full body bib- READY!

When my DS was weaned he totally didn't accept anything we tried to give him on a spoon, so we didn't bother with them at all and only did finger foods. But then when he went up to the toddler room at nursery (at about 14 months), they all feed themselves (mixture of spoons, forks and fingers!) and he now demands spoons every meal time. It happened quite suddenly.

I never let him have loaded spoons with yoghurt after he flung one across the room and covered his just-walked-in-the-door-from-work-wearing-best-suit-Dad in petit filous. But, Sainsburies do a pouch kids fromage frais, which he was able to suck the yoghurt out of with no mess (no porridge versions though!).

Also, you could just use teaspoons, or I'd buy packs of toddler spoon/fork/knife from supermarkets, mothercare etc. Then they'll continue to be useful for longer.

Brilliant. I hear you on the loaded spoons. He was doing really well on this yesterday, handing me the empty one (or just dropping it) and then taking the loaded one and putting it in his mouth.

Took 15 minutes to eat a Petit Filous but I figured it was a good developmental game so we went with it.

I haven't told his CMer though so hope she doesn't have any problems trying to feed him today. Slipped my mind at drop off... oops.

The pre-loading works v well here - DS (9.5 months) has been feeding himself with pre-loaded spoons since 6 months as part of BLW. We just use a regular teaspoon.