What age did child use a spoon to eat a bowl of soup or cereal with NO help?

[holliam]

Trying to understand fine motor development...

Holli

[o_mom]

Define "eat"?

DS is 28 months and is eating a bowl of cereal with milk as I type. However, he is wearing a bib, which will be soaked with milk by the time he is done. He can get it on the spoon, get it to his mouth, but usually tips the spoon as he tries to get it in, so milk dribbles out. Watery soup is usually more of a problem.

[katerinasmom]

I voted for 18-24 months but I want to qualify my response - DD is 20 months and has been using a spoon to eat her cereal and yogurt on her own for about three weeks now. She does pretty well but her cereal is not that loose. We've been giving her the Gerber Cereals which absorb the milk very well so it is a little looser than oatmeal. So the cereal and yogurt stick to the spoon a bit. I don't think I would even attempt to let her eat soup on her own at this age.

[mmaimp]

DS was 17 months old when I gave him the spoon for pasta and soup. A large pocket bib is helpful. Now at 3 years old he still makes a mess. Thankfully he will still wear a bib.

[ctmom]

dd#2 eats her cereal, usually cheerios or mini wheats, with a spoon, without too big of a mess. The mess happens when, like this morning, she finishes the cereal and tries to pick up the bowl and drink the rest of the milk because she sees her older sister doing it!!!

dd#1 2/01
dd#2 12/03

[proggoddess]

DD can eat chicken and rice soup, yogurt, and applesauce from a bowl with a spoon. She dribbles quite a bit onto her bib, and she can't scrape the bowl clean. But I'd say 90% of it goes into her. She's been fairly proficient since maybe 19 months?

We haven't tried cereal and milk yet. I'm afraid it is more soupy than the chicken-rice soup and would make more of a mess!

[aliceinwonderland]

DS has been able to do this for a few months now, I voted the 15-18 option, but it *may* have even been before than, can't remember now.

It's interesting to me that he can do that well (as well as drink from an open cup very easily with no spilling) and yet he does not do puzzles and such. Strange kiddo, I have :)

NOTE: Because he can do it does not mean that I always let him, DS does not believe in bibs, and when I have reached my mess tolerance, I feed him and he feeds him and we have a 2 spoon action going. But yeah, if I had all the time in the world, we could eat a meal where he did everything by himself, cup and spoon.

[holliam]

Thank you, gals!

To clarify, I mean "eat" as in, no intervention from mom/dad and relatively little spilling. Keeping spoon level from bowl to mouth and chasing food around in bowl.

Holli

[mudder17]

These responses are very interesting, since I haven't actually given Kaya a bowl of milky cereal or soup yet! She prefers her cereal to be dry, and she hasn't been willing to try soup quite yet. But I think that may be changing as she recently did take a spoonful of our French Onion soup. Of course she developed hives from something in it, but at least it looks like we may be getting ready to start soupy things. She can spoon yogurt into her mouth by herself, but she's more willing for us to do it for her because we're faster and when she's hungry for yogurt, she knows it will get eaten faster that way! She can also spoon/fork pasta into her mouth, but you can tell that she gives up after awhile and just uses her fingers.


Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah
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http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png
Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[pittsburghgirl]

18-24 months here, but we haven't even tried soup. He does OK with cereal, though, but it's very messy!

Marilee
mommy to James
http://lilypie.com/baby2/040120/1/1/1/-5/.png

[Saartje]

I voted 15-18, but if you're talking yogurt, it wouldn't be later than 12-15. (Possibly up to 12, but it was so slow we didn't let him do it much.)

[kijip]

Toby was an insistent self feeder. Before 1 year he REFUSED to let anyone feed him. So until he could handle a spoon we were in mess central. Luckily, he started up pretty well with the spoon just past 1 year. I wouldn't say it was neat until age 2 but it was pretty decent.

Eri- Toby is a *total* puzzle dunce too but was handling an open glass and spoon early so I reckon we have similarly odd kids. ;)

[jbowman]

I voted b/t 15-18 months (for cereal with milk), although Ellie could feed herself yogurt earlier. That said, I haven't given her soup yet! That sounds like a nightmare to me, LOL!

[kath68]

Charlie is a wiz at puzzles (the wooden kind that have the pictures in the cutouts -- nothing really fancy) but can't figure out how to use a spoon neatly to save his life. He picks food up okay, but then tips it to face him on the way to his mouth. All the food slides right off. He then puts the empty spoon in his mouth. DUH!

We were at a Mexican restaurant tonight and the floor was littered with rice by the time we were done because of his spoon issues. We are big tippers because of the dang spoon thing.

[aliceinwonderland]

Eh, I am betting Toby, Charlie and Erik all end up in the same frat house and then they can learn each other's talents :)It's all good. LOL

[kijip]

Which by then might be teaching each other drinking games...