what age do you encourage them to feed themselves

[shellybelly]

dd is approaching 11mths, she eats food off her tray but i'm not sure thats she is ready for spoons yet

my dd is 15 months and can eat almost anything except yojurt herself with her baby fork or spoon. she was eating with her hands from about 10 months til a couple of weeks ago when we bought her the cutlery, not through us wanting her to trust me, she insisted on it, wouldn't take food from a spoon at all most days.

every baby is differant though so why not just give her the spoon and see how she goes? she'll enjoy playing with it either way!

let her have a go with a spoon and something like fromage frais
she'll get more on the highchair than in her mouth but its all practice

i dont - you get more in if you do it yourslef!

DS2 never went in for being fed. So he's always done self-feeding.

DD is now 16 months and can fead herself quite well but she's been insisting on doing it herself (well attempting) since about a year old.

I tend to have 2 spoons (or spoon & plastic fork)at every meal so that she can practice but I have one I use to actually get most of the meal into her and not all over the kitchen.

I'd just let her try and see what happens.

DS is only 9 months and eats everything by hand but over the summer, when we get some nice weather, I'm going to pop the highchair in the back garden and let him have a shot with some yogurt and cutlery. That way there's less kitchen to clean.

I did the 2 spoons thing, means they get teh feel while you are still doing the feeding

Suzi I reckon the others over on our PN thread would appreciate that suggestion, I'm impressed!

today i give her a spoon whilst feeding her dinner, she did feed a little to herself and then chucked the spoon on the floor, got out a clean spoon and she did the same thing, will carry on letting her have one at mealtimes and she will probably get the jist of it

I still use those spoons you buy when you first start weaning, is there a next step set of cutlery anyone can recommend, also want plate/bowl that sticks to the try

boots have tonnes of cutlery and also those suction bowls.

I used the two-spoon method with all mine from about 6 months on.
Then the one chisel method on the high chair and floor
I never found a suction bowl that would stick reliably though.

dd2 is 16 months and eats everthing with one or both hands
shuns a spoon or fork at all costs
makes for v v messy mealtimes grrrrrrr

Shellybelly - forget specialist children's cutlery & go for plastic picnic sets that cost about 2 quid in supermarkets all summer !

DS is 14 months and feeds himself with his fingers; the only things he'll let me feed to him from a spoon are yoghurt and weetabix. I'd like him to learn how to use a spoon since I think he'll eat rice (and other food that he's not good at picking up) if he can feed it to himself. But I can't face giving him a spoon just yet. At the moment the food can only get as far as he can throw it. When he learns how to flick a spoon...

We too will be having breakfast in the garden over the summer!

My DD is 13 months and I use the two (or three or four) spoon method - she occasionally manages to get some in her mouth all by herself, but mostly dips the spoon in the food, waves it around then drops it on the floor.... I use a set of plastic kids picnic spoons I got from Woolworths. I wouldn't bother with those suction bowls, I just hold a normal bowl in front of her when giving her anything mushy. DD mostly eats finger food though, so I use a plastic kids plate from Ikea, they are great and only £1 for a pack of 6. HTH