Anyone who DIDN'T do BLW...

[mmmerangue]

When did you first let your wee one loose with their own spoon...?

When he wanted it. Was VERY messy though.

For what it's worth, I weaned early (about 5 months) on advice of HV so BLW wasn't really appropriate.

Interestingly, DS now prefers eating with his hands... only using utensils for really hot stuff.

Thanks.. My son is 14mo (started weaning about 5 months too) and has never really wanted the spoon but has now taken to dropping his finger foods (eg toast/fruit which he used to scoff the lot) on the floor rather than eating any of it which makes me think he is frustrated...

I just gave him the spoon to eat his cornflakes and he stirred them a bit and then ate (most of) the cornflakes with his fingers. If that's normal I'll leave him to it! Thank god for laminate floor...

Oh yes! Laminate is a god send as is an e-cloth mop (wet head in hot water, wipe, rinse and all done. Throw in machine on 90 degree wash when too filthy!).

Floor dropping for mine was normal - gravity is funny don't ya know! I stopped reacting when DS did it and it tailed off - just left the mess and cleared up when he was out of sight so it wasnt a bit deal.

I try not to make a fuss if he drops stuff - usually just pick it up and give it back to him if the floors not too bad haha! tried again to let him do his own fromage frais but he was jsut waving it around so in the end I took over :/ Think maybe i should wait a few months more?

I don't want him to be 3, 4, 5 and still wanting me to feed him

I came across some info on babycentre which suggests babies wrist bones don't harden enough to give them great coordination with a spoon til around 18 months old so I wouldn't worry about it. My son is 19 months and is only just learning to get food on his spoon in the bowl and transfer it to his mouth without it all falling off.

(We did BLW by default as he refused a spoon from me entirely at the beginning so he came to cutlery later than yours I expect)

Thanks Pascha, i did wonder if i was just a bit soon to let him do the digging himself! Good to have an age to aim for, i may try again in between but 18 months doesn't sound too long away :)

Oh let him dig or not, just put a spoon in the bowl to play with and use another to shovel food in . Much easier for him if he's used to the cutlery when he's physically ready to do it himself.

Interesting about the 18mo. The BLW does say forks are easier than spoons for babies. My DD is 12mo, and what I found is that she clearly knows what a spoon or fork is for, but she hasn't got any coordination to actually load food onto them. With a fork, if I stab a piece of food onto it, she either pulls the piece of food into her mouth directly, or removes it from the fork with her hands. With a loaded spoon, she knows which end is which and can lick the yoghurt off it. However, she just bangs the spoon into her bowl, without any scooping, if I let her get on with it herself. With the fork (and no bowl), she moves the food around the tray with the fork, never manage to pick anything up.

:) Just the same as mine OneLittle!

Like the idea of giving him a spoon to play with while i feed him with another, may give that a go!

Second time I fed him (six months) he fed himself with a spoon. He's got a 95% hit rate and no mess at all, so I figured why not just stick with traditional weaning. It's obvious when he wants to take a break and when he wants more (bang, bang, bang with his fist, "UGH!") so I just re-load the spoon and off he goes. He developed his pincer grasp at seven months, so we do finger foods of an evening.