Learning to use cutlery - when? how?

[Bumpsadaisie]

My DD has just turned 10 months and is a really good and enthusiastic eater. Nowadays I just put her food whole in her bowl and she uses her hands. (It's a terrible mess but I just try and take deep breath )

I still spoon in her porridge and yoghurt though if I load the spoon for her she usually gets it to her mouth. She knows that to re-load the spoon she needs to put it back in the bowl, but she just places it in the yoghurt after having fed herself a mouthful and then doesn't pick it up again. So she doesnt get the concept of reloading the spoon yet.

How do you get them using cutlery? And when do most babies master doing this? Should I give her knife and fork too?

Any tips/stories very welcome!

Thinking back to ds (now 3) he was still very hands on at this age. He could use a spoon but preferred the quickest/easiest method (for him at least ). He was self-feeding with a spoon at about 14 months and got the hang of a fork at about 2 from memory. Whether this is normal, though, I have no idea, it was just what he did.

At 10 months he'd get stuff onto the spoon but then miss his mouth as he tipped it. We expected cutlery to mean cleaner mealtimes but I've never found that to be the case!

But there really isn't any rush . IMO it's better that they enjoy the experience of eating. Ds still prefers hands, although we now insist on spoon and fork .

I gave a fork first and my lo's liked to 'stab' food with it - I gave cutlery from fairly early on and they were using it by around 1 year. They mastered the spoon after that