When did your LO feed themselves with fork/spoon?

[edjo]

Hi,
Have been looking through this board but can not find anything to answer my question!
My 17 month old is still being spoon fed, she was slow with finger foods too and had a very strong gagging reflex but now is happy to eat lumps but the finger food prefers you to hold whatever it is while she takes a bite.
I really want to get her to start feeding herself, she shows no interest in doing this, doesnt grab spoons etc.
Any ideas with how I should try this?  I have a big plastic sheet for the floor!
Cheers,
Jo

[Jonahs Mom]

DS only started to really 'take care' of himself at 22mths. He still needs help sometimes, especially with spoons and liquid food like soup.
Some are faster, some longer. I have read both 2-3 years, and 3-4 years before they are good at feeding themselves.
I started with thick things, like yogurt. One spoon for ds, one for mummy. It didn't take long before he insisted on doing it himself.
I also would start to feed him, then walk away in the kitchen to "do something really quick", and he would take it upon himself to continue.
Good luck and be patient! 

[EmMUK74]

Rachel is 2.5 years old and CAN mostly feed herself but doesn't want to a lot of the time and almost always needs help finishing her meals.  I think it's an individual thing and I don't worry about it, I don't know any of her friends who can always feed themselves fully

[EllenS]

My lo is 13 months and has been doing finger foods in combination with purees since about 7 months (we are doing a modified Baby Led Weaning).

She used to grab the loaded spoon and put it in her own mouth, then about a month ago she was working on scooping the food from the bowl.

However, lately she refuses to have anything to do with the spoon and will only eat finger food and sometimes oatmeal or yogurt that I feed her.

[skatty]

Leorah got really interested in using a spoon and fork at 15/16 months and is very good with them now at about 17½ months though if it's something like yoghurt it will be dribbled off the spoon before she gets it to her  mouth a lot of the time. I believe she is quite early though and I think this is because we did purely BLW so she has always fed herself, at our mother group the other babies are the about the same age and have a mixture of finger foods and spoon fed.

To encourage her feeding herself I think it is best to just give her a spoon and fork to play with. If she does pick up the fork guide her hand to spearing something so she gets the idea. Do you eat a family meal? This is the best as you know what they say "monkey see, monkey do!" We also made a real fuss whenever she managed to get something in her mouth from the spoon or fork and now we still all have to drop our cutlery for a spontaneous round of applause every meal time

[linfran]

DS was feeding himself from 10mo.  He's a big guy, loves his grub and knew from a very early age where his mouth was!  But then, other stuff like speech has taken a while to get there...they all end up on a level playing field eventually!

[skibbit]

my son was eating with a fork since i cant remember when but hes 2 and hes pretty good at it untill he cant get food on the fork. he still dropps it all over himself but he pretty much takes care of himself now in that area. michael always wanted to eat by himself though. never really had that prob. you had. sorry im not much help

[ryan's mum]

DS was loading and spoon feeding himself at 14/15 months and didn't make much mess at all .Learning to use the fork was a little trickier and he would pick up the pieces and put them on his fork .

[carla_s]

DD is 17 months now and I'm finding that she really likes using a fork (and can poke it into most things, like peas, carrot "coins", banana chunks, toast pieces, etc.) but when I give her her bowl and spoon, she'll hand it back to me and say "mommy help?" Sometimes I can encourage her to "scoop" with her spoon (she loves saying the word "scoop" right now, so that helps!), but most of the time, if it is a spoon-related food, she just refuses to do it herself, and I find that I'm feeding her, or else she doesn't eat anything. 

When she does use her spoon, she is ok at scooping (if the food is fairly thick), and half the time she'll get the spoon into her mouth the right side up. The other half of the time, she turns the spoon upside down on the way to her mouth (which doesn't matter too much if what she's eating is thick and sticks to the spoon, but it gets frustrating for her with stuff like peas!). So, I wonder if she is frustrated with it and that is why she automatically asks me to help. ?? We work at the spoon thing at each meal, but we haven't seen any big surge in her desire to do it herself yet. Hoping it comes one day soon! (:

Carla

[em_here]

DD started feeding herself at 11 months, she is a food monster though, loves it and was and still is impatient so prefers to do it herself x

[lne]

DD was feeding herself quite early - at 14-15 months.  she did the fork first, but i must confess to having given her a "real" fork (actually, a dessert fork, small enough for her, but sharp points nonetheless).  I thought that the rounded tip forks were for the birds - even I can not spear anything with them!

that being said, DD had good hand control from a young age.  DS (now 8om) seems a bit more out of control, so we'll see if he is allowed sharp forks when the time comes for him.

DD was spooning her own cereal by 18 months and can handle almost everything now at 25 mos.

good luck !

[nona]

we have been using fork/spoon for quite some time now (age 18 mo). he asks for them but still will put food on it if necessary. he uses his fingers sometimes.

IMO, don't worry about. give her a fork/spoon and she'll be eating with them soon enough.