forks, spoons and cups

[ButterCup17]

Hi just curious, what age are you supposed to introduce spoons and forks for los to feed with? My ds loves to eat and eats literally everything but he does it with his hands. He will be a year on valentines day. Also wondering about cups. He still breastfeeds but drinks water from a sippy cup. Is that what he should be using or should he be drinking from a cup with no lid? If not, what age should he do that? Tia!

 

[Hopefulk]

We introduced a doidy cup at six months and they're great! (No lid but slanted do they can see what they're doing and don't need to tip them as much)

We introduced cutlery at the same time (we did blw so never spoon fed her - she's always done it herself although we did ore load the spoon to start with)

She's now 25 months and eats with a spoon and fork (obv uses fingers too!) and has had a knife with her meals for possibly 2-3 months which she uses with varying success depending on the meal!xx

 

[ButterCup17]

Wow I just Googled that cup, that's the coolest idea! I've never seen anything like that before. I'll def be ordering some. Thanks!!

 

[SarahBear]

Hi just curious, what age are you supposed to introduce spoons and forks for los to feed with? My ds loves to eat and eats literally everything but he does it with his hands. He will be a year on valentines day. Also wondering about cups. He still breastfeeds but drinks water from a sippy cup. Is that what he should be using or should he be drinking from a cup with no lid? If not, what age should he do that? Tia!

You can certainly introduce utensils any time. Don't expect him to be proficient any time soon though. My 2 year old will use a fork or spoon, but more often than not, uses her hands, except when the meal really does require a spoon. As for cups, we never really used a sippy cup because the one we bought when Violet was a baby, wasn't really appropriate for babyhood. We tried another kind and it leaked. We didn't want to use plastic and didn't want to spend a bunch of money trying a bunch of different things, so we just started helping her sip from a cup. This started quite young and she could use a cup by 14 months. She then went a few months where she refused to drink from a cup (stayed hydrated by nursing). When she started being willing again at about 17 months, she was out of practice with a cup, but caught back on quickly. If you ONLY use sippy cups, it will be counter-productive in learning to use a cup, but if you sometimes or always use open cups, your son will get it relatively early. I'm not sure if there's an age at which he "should" use a cup, but it's more convenient if he can use a cup because then you don't have to carry a sippy cup around with you all the time and he can use cups at restaurants and when you're at other people's houses. I guess it's also fewer dishes because you don't have to wash lids. In addition, it means not having to buy an item that you're just going to get rid of in a couple years.

 

[MindUtopia]

I think it's completely different for every child, but we started doing some spoon loading around maybe 10 months. We did BLW so everything up to that point was eaten with hands, but I started to introduce some yogurt and porridge that I could load up on a spoon and she could feed herself. She wasn't really feeding herself with a spoon independent of any help from me until just after a year, maybe 13 months? We introduced a fork with some meals shortly after that, which actually was easier than a spoon with certain things. I think as soon as your LO has the hand strength and coordination to attempt to hold a spoon or fork and explore eating with it, give it a go. In reality, they will still eat partially with their hands for awhile. My daughter is almost 2 now and though she had a fork or spoon for every meal (unless it's like a sandwich or finger food anyway), she still eats partly with her hands, sometimes hands help with getting food on the fork, sometimes they pick up things that have fallen, sometimes she shovels food in with both at once.

If your LO is already drinking from a sippy cup with a lid, then certainly you can start to introduce a regular cup with some help from you. I don't think there's an age when they should drink from a normal cup as there are plenty of 4 year olds who drink from sippy cups as they can run around with them and they don't spill (think of it the way we might think of using a water bottle when out or doing some activities). But if your LO is happy to try to drink from an open cup, then certainly give it a go. We started to use a doidy cup and then just a normal open cup with handles (or sometimes not) maybe around 14 months? Turns out she didn't really like sippy cups as she couldn't drink fast enough from them. So actually a normal cup was much easier. We haven't used a sippy cup regularly (unless I need it for in the car or other travel) since maybe 16 months? Probably next time I'll skip the sippy cup altogether and go straight to using a doidy cup.

 

[ButterCup17]

Yeah he has drank from regular cups before since as young as 4 months with help. Once in a while I five him a small cup at meal times but he usually juts dumps it unless I help him lol. I'm def gonna get that doidy cup and try some utensils tho. Thanks ladies!

 

[ClairAye]

Mine had spoons for ages before they could feed themselves (DD still cannot feed herself though) to get them used to them, DS started using his to feed himself at 18 months and a couple/few months later started using a fork and was drinking from a cup around 20 or 21 months.