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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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If your child is reluctant to use the fork, just give her some time. And refrain from continuing to feed her yourself, making sure there is always a spoon or fork available to use on her own.

"Your child will take a few years to completely master feeding with a spoon or fork," Speigel says. "Practice is what teaches them. Let them do it in their own way for short amounts of time and then go back to using their hands."

Louise Knott Ahern's 13-month-old daughter just recently used a fork for the first time, though from the very first day Alice had rice cereal, she held her own spoon while eating. "At first, she just shook it and threw food around," says the mom from Santa Clarita, Calif. "But it was a great distraction so that I could actually get food into her mouth without having her fight to grab my spoon. Eventually, she began to pound it on her tray, put it in her mouth, and mimic what I was doing with my fork while eating. [One morning] it was like a light bulb suddenly went off over her head. She ate her entire breakfast with her baby fork."

The Road to Independence
Remember as you begin this process that a child feeding herself is going to take longer to finish a meal than she does with you feeding her. Patience is a must. Just remember the payoff for all this effort is a child who is self-sufficient and more confident.

Stocking up on plastic mats and large bibs is also going to be very important through this training period. The aim of toddlers trying to get food from the spoon or fork into their mouths is less than ideal.

"Pick and choose the times it really matters for your child to be messy," Rogers says. "As long as you allow the baby to be a baby, it's all good."

Speigel agrees that messes are inevitable. "Time, practice, mess and patience will eventually lead to kids who can eat with forks and spoons and even chopsticks," she says.

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