when did you have your kid feed themselves with the training silverware?

[SAHMIL]

When did you have yoru kids start using the baby forks and spoons by themselves when you weren't feeding them? Just curious. DS feeds himself good with his hands. When do I move to the plastic forks and spoons by themselves?

[Piglet]

It depends - my DS1 would probably still let me spoon feed him. DD is already refusing to let me feed her. I don't know if it is a personality thing or just because daycare is willing to let her try it and I am not, but I was shocked that DD was already spoon-feeding herself at a year. I am a bit of a dirt-a-phobe, so I prefer to be in control of the spoon. Some kids put up with it and others don't.

[klwa]

Once DS got pretty good at feeding himself the chunks, I started keeping a baby spoon by his plate. Sometimes he'd "try" it, sometimes not. I didn't give him a fork until he got a little more consistant with the spoon. (Nto sticking himself in the eye, etc.) :) Even now at almost 3 he still gets frustrated with his spoon and uses his hands sometimes, I just ignore it.

[new_mommy25]

I started giving both my kids a fork around 10 months.

[egoldber]

It depends on the kid. Sarah didn't feed herself until she was 3+. Seriously.

Amy has been using an ADULT fork with great dexterity since 17 months. She grabed one out of my hands and started using it. She can even spear peas with a fork.

I wouldn't bother with plastic forks. They are worthless and only cause frustration. I would use metal ones that are sharp enough to actually pick up something!

[boolady]

I wouldn't bother with plastic forks. They are worthless and only cause frustration. I would use metal ones that are sharp enough to actually pick up something!

ITA. DD had the plastic Take and Toss flatware, and would get very easily frustrated and refuse to use it. We were visiting my parents and my mom had bought a set of metal toddler flatware, and I was amazed at DD's agility with the fork and spoon, as well as her increased patience with the process. The plastic stuff was, for us, too, just too frustration-inducing.

[buddyleebaby]

I wouldn't bother with plastic forks. They are worthless and only cause frustration. I would use metal ones that are sharp enough to actually pick up something!

:yeahthat:
We really didn't do baby food, other than a couple bites of mashed banana or sweet potato. I gave them teeny tiny pieces of soft fruit (banana, melon, etc) and cheerios to start and then went right on to whatever we were eating. Once they were being served regular food, they got regular silverware. DD1 was not interested until almost a year. DD2 was trying at nine or ten months, and actively using a spoon or fork at 14 or 15 months.

My mom bought the training silverware for her house and neither of them would touch it.

[hez]

I'm with Angie-- DS had utensils pretty early. Mostly because if his hands were occupied he wouldn't bat the utensil away when it was our turn to feed him.

[lablover]

I agree that it depends on the personality of the child. DS would probably still let me feed him if I tried. But he's been the same way with other things, like dressing himself - it was a major struggle to get him to do it himself. DD, OTOH, wants to do everything herself and has been using forks/spoons since I started laying them on her tray - probably around 11/12 months. If she sees me coming with a bowl of food and thinks I'm going to try and put the spoon in her mouth she pitches a fit until I lay the bowl down for her to do it herself. I also do not like the plastic utensils and just bought a great metal spoon set from IKEA last week that I found existed due when I searched old posts. They are coffee spoons from an adult set and were only $5 for 6 spoons. The forks I got are a little too big so I'm looking for something smaller.

[elephantmeg]

DS is 2 and we still aren't anywhere with silverware. We do a lot of finger foods. He can use a spoon with thicker stuff (oatmeal, applesauce etc) but mostly uses his fingers. He can also use a fork some but I think it slows him down and he's too hungry! I've been wondering the same thing. We've offered them from a year on and always done regular-desert forks and teaspoons

[maestramommy]

I think for Dora I started around 14 months? I cut up her food in pieces, but instead of letting her self-feed with her hands I used a fork to get it, then handed her the fork. I did this for a few months and then one day I suggested that she "stick" the fork in the food, and she got it very quickly. Spoon, that's another story. That took a lot longer, meaning I fed her spooned foods myself for a lot longer, and occasionally gave her a chance to do it herself. It's only within the last couple of months that she's gotten pretty good at it. Course, it's sometimes still messy, like with soup or yogurt, but for the most part she gets it and she doesn't want my help anymore anyway.

ETA: and I totally agree about using metal silverware. The take n toss forks are useless. She only uses them to eat mac n cheese, and fried rice. My mom gave me a small metal fork she got somewhere, and my cousin gave me a very nice silverware set from Germany. The fork and spoon are awesome, and just the right size for smaller hands. But Dora can also use the smaller forks in our silverware set.