Author Topic: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon  (Read 2267 times)

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Offline scruffymax

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Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« on: January 29, 2013, 05:04:29 am »
Hi there, I was wondering when other parents have "taught" their LO to feed themselves with spoon/fork etc, and how they did it.  LO is 1 tomorrow (yay!) and it's getting harder to spoon feed her - we're needing lots of toys and distractions.  She loves finger food but still gets bored with each type of food pretty quickly and throws it on the ground.  I'd like to keep feeding her things that require cutlery eg breakfast cereal, casseroles.  She's started wanting to take the spoon off me.  This morning we each had a spoon and I held the bowl on the highchair tray.  She couldn't really scoop the food up with the spoon but she was trying - at least it also kept her distracted so I could feed her!  I'm also trying to feed her when we're eating too so that means now having breakfast at WU and milk later - nice in theory but I can no longer enjoy eating my own breakfast ;-)



Offline TracyP21

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2013, 08:16:50 am »

No advice because I am wondering this myself - happy birthday for your girl - my boy is also one tomorrow!

Offline Hedgehog17

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2013, 10:09:03 am »
You're doing exactly the right thing by giving her a spoon and letting her practise while you feed her with another spoon  :)

She will get there, but it's a difficult thing to master and it takes them a lot of practice  ;)

I still don't get to eat my meals hot, as I have to feed DS because he's too lazy to feed himself unless it's something he really wants, like fish fingers  ::) We got the whole self feeding thing totally wrong as DH can't deal with the mess so DS never got much opportunity to practice  :(

Keep up the good work  :-*

Offline Katet

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2013, 10:17:56 am »
She's started wanting to take the spoon off me.  This morning we each had a spoon and I held the bowl on the highchair tray.  She couldn't really scoop the food up with the spoon but she was trying - at least it also kept her distracted so I could feed her! 

Now is the time to let her, be prepared for the mess. Secondary to the eating issue, the more you let her work out how to eat (mess included) the more you are helping her with her co-ordination &  fine motor skills & there IS a correlation between the ability to do fine motor things (like writing) & learning to eat. So the earlier you do it the better on many accounts.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline becj86

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2013, 10:21:18 am »
I have heard scooping up the food is actually really tricky at this age as the bones of the forearm aren't usually long enough to rotate around each other properly til about 18 months. Worth giving her a go at it, as Kate points out. Just expect it to be messy for a while yet :) maybe a bent spoon will help...
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 11:28:06 am by becj86 »

Offline jessmum46

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2013, 10:35:45 am »
I started by loading the spoon for her then letting her get the loaded spoon into her mouth.  I think it's helped her to understand that's what the spoon is for, so hopefully she'll get the hang of scooping food up next :)

Offline creations

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2013, 23:24:43 pm »
I have heard scooping up the food is actually really tricky at this age
this
It's much easier for them if you load the spoon as the wrist doesn't need to rotate, they can grip the spoon in the right direction to get it to their mouth.

I gave DS a loaded fork, introduced at 6 months.  i then used a plastic fork and although I wasn't feeding him I kind of kept hold a little as a 6 month old doesn’t have full control and I didn't want him to poke his eye out (the fork was plastic and not overly sharp).  He's always self fed (BLW) and self fed from loaded forks and sometimes spoons.  He mastered use of the fork himself a long time before the spoon because it is easier, food doesn't fall off a fork the same as it does with a spoon.  He's great with a fork although will sometimes choose to use fingers or ask for help if something is hard to stab.  he can use a spoon now too but again will sometimes ask for help (peas still go on the floor because of that twisting action that is needed after scooping to get it to the mouth the right way around).  He also knows how to use a knife and has a knife at his table setting but can only cut food if I do 'hand over hand' with him which i do at the beginning of a meal so that I can eat my own meal.  He's just turned 2yrs.
One, thing I'd suggest if you decide to offer a fork instead is to look for a stainless steal set like adult cutlery but smaller rather than the big chunky kids cutlery. The prongs need to be functional to stab the food which chunky plastic is not so good at.  My DS also loves that he has the 'same' as us although e realises they are small for his smaller hands.
Ours are something like this
http://thecookskitchen.com/browse_15508


Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2013, 23:33:42 pm »
My kids wouldn't let me feed them past 8 months or so...so they tried the spoon and mostly ate with their hands...even pasta/casseroles/rice and the like.
Heidi




Offline scruffymax

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Re: Teaching LO to feed self with spoon
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2013, 02:29:26 am »
Thanks for the advice and suggestions.  LO has been really keen to have her own spoon so I've been giving her one and holding the bowl on the highchair tray.  Mainly she just stirs the food with her spoon (and splatters it all over herself, myself and the house!) but in the last day or two has actually scooped some food onto the spoon and brought it to her mouth.  I gave her lots of praise and got excited when she did this.  I'm getting so tired of feeding her as it's becoming more and more of a battle so I can't wait until she can feed herself!!  I remember my Mum saying she hated the stage of teaching kids to feed themselves (mother of 4 who was also close to full time carer for one of the grandchildren) - I guess she would know.