Getting a BLW child to use cutlery

[saltnpepashere]

I did BLW with DS and it was just brilliant, so easy and at 12 months he is a great eater.

However, I was wondering about introducing cutlery. Is it too soon to do it yet or should he be going onto cutlery? I gave him yoghurt in a bowl the other day and a spoon (normally I load the spoon from a bowl out of his reach and give him the spoon) but he just stuck his hands in it and joyfully licked it off his fingers!

I am guessing I dont need to worry about it yet but realised that I have no idea how to make the transition. As he gets older will he understand to copy us a bit more? I just dont want him to still eating with his hands at 5 years old!

I did blw with dd2 (dc3) and she's just 1 year old now - we give her a spoon and she will dip it in food to copy the rest of us but she soon decides her hands are more efficient! I'm just going to keep offering the spoon and go with the flow!

we started offering spoon and fork at about a year, DS is now 20 months and has pretty much 'got it'. I do feel like it's a bit of a step backwards almost, now everything has to be cut up small so he can spoon it/stab it on his fork... anyway, took a while but now DS will rarely eat with his fingers unless he sees us doing it.

I started giving DD cutlery about 14mo. Forks and spoons depending on what meal she's having. I'm taking the BLW approach with cutlery. Just making it available, and let her play with it, and she'll work out how to use it by copying us. FWIW, at 17mo, she mainly still bangs the cutlery on the table. She can aim the fork/spoon at her mouth, but is very bad at loading them. She can dip the spoon for yoghurt. Otherwise, she mainly load them by picking up the food, then stabbing it through or putting it on the spoon.

DD2 is 14 months and we've been giving her cutlery for some time- mainly because it's DD1's job to set the table. She is doing very well and loves using her fork to stab things. What she hasn't yet learned is when it's best to use her hands. So the other day she very carefully (and slowly!) ate a handful of blueberries with a fork, stabbing them individually! She also occasionally tries to use a spoon to eat toast, or similar.

At around a year old, DD started insisting on being given her own cutlery. She is now 14 months and will have a good try at yoghurt, curry/rice etc with a spoon and does quite well, but also uses her hands too. She is better with a fork, although still uses her hands a bit and we also still do some pre-loading/stabbing.

We had lunch out today and the ladies at the next table were very impressed by DD's fork use. No one has ever noticed before and I was all proud...