18 month old, refuses food unless she does it herself .....?

[mummytowillow]

My 18 month old daughter used to be really good with food, she would eat almost everything I gave her, but now she won't eat a morsel unless she is putting it in her own mouth!!

I know this is normal and I'm happy for her to do it herself, BUT what can I do to get it to stay on the spoon, she turns the spoon and it all goes down the front of her, she then looks at the spoon and has this amazed look on her face (its quite funny)!!

She will eat veggies and finger food, but casseroles, spag bol etc is a nightmare!! Can you get special spoons for when they want to start feeding themselves? I've got the little kids one's but there not working!!

In the end she gets so frustrated she just gives up, I then try and she just keeps saying no! Should I just throw it all on the tray and hope for the best!!

DD was the same. Will she use a little fork ? or a normal dessert spoon ? It probably won't be very long until she either gets the co-ordination sorted or allows you to help her a bit

forks are definitely better than spoons, imo. little metal ones, or the plastic from ikea.

but yes, as a blwer, i must say i just threw it all on the tray and hoped for the best from 6 months on.

we have also been chucking it on the tray from 6m

but dd (18m) developed her spoon skills with greek yoghurt, which stays on the spoon pretty well even upside down.
Other sticky things like risotto etc are also good, then once she's got the hang of it she'll be better at non-sticky things

the best spoons we found were these (expensive but they were a present) as the handles are short enough that dd can get the food in her mouth while keeping it horizontal. Longer ones (eg Ikea) end up with everything slipping off down the handle.

These are brilliant, although ludicrously expensive. Doesn't solve the upside-down spoon thing (so frustrating to watch) but DS finds it a lot easier to eat with these.

they figure it out pretty quickly with a bit of practice i'd agree with having spoon and fork available, often if they've got a spoon themselves they don't mind you helping out (i.e. actually getting it in their mouth) with another.

lol, dd turned the spoon upside-down just at the last second for EVER. can't think when she got the hang of that, but it seemed like an age...

we liked the wee tommee tippee knife and fork set, or the (identical but a quid cheaper) tesco one. mrs b is right, i think we went onto the ikea ones a bit later now that i'm remembering.