1 yo - how do I encourage him to start to feed himself?

[bluesmile10]

DS is 1 and likes to hold a spoon and wave it round. How do I move this forward to feeding himself. He does have a tendency to just wave it round even with food on it, much to our dog's delight!!!

Also he wont hold his bottle himself or doidy cup - how do I work on those too?

Me again!

I'm following you around on here. Have just replied about my DD's sleep.

Have you tried not giving him a spoon and letting him use his hands?

And this site is very helpful :)

Seconded - DS didn't manage a spoon properly until recently and he's 19 months. Cut his food into chunks he can pick up and self feed with. Also eat with him and let him take stuff from your plate so he learns that way too.

Also with the cup etc, let him watch you and he's likely to copy! Be prepared for mess

Just offer it and try not to stress about the mess. He'll move on from waving the spoon around to putting it in his mouth in his own time.

The same with the doidy cup. Put just a little bit of water in the bottom so it doesn't matter too much if he spills it.

My DS is the same age, I tend to let him hand feed most things, but sticky stuff that's got more chance of making it to his mouth I'll pre-load on to a spoon for him, e.g. baked potato and cheese \ tuna mayo, he does get the odd spoonful in. Also youghurts held almost under his chin so there's only a short distance for the spoon to go!

Have you tried a fork? I'll spear bits of pasta \ omlette \ scrambled egg etc for him and he'll take the fork from me and generally gets it in his mouth - there's less stuff flying around that way. Most food is still eaten with hands though but at least he's getting a bit of practice.

Hope that helps.

Thank you, will try the fork. Do try and encourage using hands, although sometimes he's a little funny about touching some things!!!!