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Home › Articles › Development › Teach Your Toddler to Feed Himself

Teach Your Toddler to Feed Himself

Tools That Toddlers Must Tackle

By Shannon McKelden

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We can't hand-feed our kids forever. There comes a time when toddlers need to graduate to more grownup ways of getting their nutrition. Usually after the bottle or breast comes the sippy cup, then the spoon and finally the fork. Aside from the obvious benefit to parents of freeing up their hands for eating their own meals, learning these fine motor skills is also a milestone for toddlers.

But how do you know when your little one is ready for these items? What's the best way to introduce them? And what if they don't want them?

Hello Sippy Cup

"Some moms like to introduce sippy cups as soon as their babies are able to independently grasp objects with both hands and move them to their mouths – at around 5 to 6 months," says Laurie LeComer, mother of three and author of A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays: Recognizing and Coping with Missed Milestones in Speech, Movement, Learning and Other Areas (Perigee, 2006).

LeComer says many babies begin to use sippy cups between 7 and 11 months, and 1-year-olds get the hang of it quickly. "Though a 1-year-old, out of preference, may not want to make the switch from a cup, bottle or breast," she says.

Sometimes modeling how to use the sippy cup, by actually drinking from it yourself, is motivating enough to get your baby interested. They see you enjoying it and want to give it a try themselves. But it isn't always that easy.

Shannon Rosenberg's pediatrician suggested that she start weaning her twin daughters from bottles to sippy cups around 11 months old. She started with cups with valves to prevent spills. "However, the girls couldn't figure out how to get the milk past [the valves]," says the Wesley Hills, N.Y., mom. "So for about a week I didn't put valves in. Then I got sippy cups ... that have the soft flexible valves." Those proved easier for the girls to get used to.

Joyce Anthony of Erie, Pa., utilized a two-step program to get her son to take the sippy cup. "Step one: regular milk [went] in bottle, flavored milk (he loved strawberry) in the sippy cup, [then] he got to choose," she says. "Step two: once he chose flavored milk regularly, water went in bottle and regular milk in sippy cup, with a 'surprise' flavored one here and there." With these steps, Anthony's son gave up the bottle by the age of 13 months.

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