Have you been wondering how to teach your baby to use utensils and when to start?
In this video I’m going to talk about the steps you can take to help your child learn
to eat independently using a spoon and fork.
If this is our first time meeting, I’m Dr. Belousov.
I’m a board certified pediatrician and I equip parents with knowledge, so they can
care for their children with confidence.
Did you know you can begin teaching your baby to use a spoon as soon as you start introducing
solids?
Most babies will be ready for solid food around six months and when they’re showing all
the signs of readiness to eat.
Since the baby will have a hard time with the long handled baby feeding spoon, you will
need to get a short-handled baby self feeding spoon for the baby to use.
I think the ezpz Tiny Spoon is the best one on the market.
It was designed by a feeding expert.
The short round handle makes it easy for the baby to hold.
There are sensory bumps that provide feedback for the baby to learn how far to put the spoon
into the mouth.
It’s also made of 100% food grade silicone, which is a softer material and won’t cause
injury to the baby’s gums and emerging teeth.
If you want to check it out, I have the link in the description below.
So the first step is to let the baby become familiar with the spoon.
Rather than waiting to introduce everything all at once on the first day of starting food,
I recommend you expose the baby to the feeding items, including the spoon, the weeks leading
up to starting solids.
Letting your baby become familiar with the items beforehand will make them less overwhelmed.
During mealtime, you can start off with sitting the baby into the feeding chair and putting
the baby self feeding spoon, like the ezpz Tiny Spoon, onto the feeding tray.
The baby will get to explore and become comfortable with it by picking the spoon up, putting it
into the mouth and banging it onto the surface.
Between 4 and 6 months of age, babies develop the ability to bring things to their mouths
with good precision.
Giving them the opportunity to practice, further strengthens their hand-eye-coordination.
In my video titled “How to Prepare Baby For Solid Food” I go into more detail on
how to do the pre-feeding activities in a stepwise manner the weeks leading up to starting
solids.
It’s linked up here if you’d like to check it out.
The second step is to offer the preloaded spoon for your baby to self feed.
There’s no reason to doubt your child’s ability to start self feeding as early as
6 months.
When offering a food in the consistency of a puree, you can preload it onto the spoon
and hand it to your baby.
Initially you may need to help guide the spoon towards the mouth.
And this is how I recommend that you do it.
While your baby is holding the preloaded spoon, come in from the side with your hand and gently
place it under your child’s hand and guide it towards the mouth.
But let your baby be the one putting the spoon into the mouth.
Since the ezpz Tiny Spoon comes as a two pack, while your baby is eating the puree off of
one spoon, you can preload the second spoon to have it available when your child’s ready.
As your baby gets good with bringing the spoon to the mouth, you can transition to placing
the preloaded spoon close by on the feeding surface and let your child practice picking
it up and bringing it to the mouth.
Or you can preload the spoon and leave it propped up against the wall of the bowl, with
the handle sticking out towards the baby.
Then let your baby practice grabbing the spoon handle and bringing the food to the mouth.
The ezpz Bowls work great for this, since the walls are not too tall, the majority of
the spoon handle is available for the baby to grab.
The more practice your baby gets with using the spoon, the quicker this skill-set will
get developed.
And remember, when babies are new to solids, they will only take a few spoons of puree
each meal.
Solids will just be complementary to the breastmilk or formula they are already taking.
Realistically it’s not until 8 to 9 months that most babies really take to solid food
and start eating more of it.
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The third step is to guide the baby in dipping and scooping the spoon.
It takes more coordination for the baby to be able to participate in learning to do this,
therefore around 7 to 8 months of age is a good time to start doing this step.
While your baby is holding the self feeding spoon, come in with your hand from the side
and gently place it under your child’s hand.
You may rest your thumb on top of the baby’s hand if you find that it makes it easier to
guide.
When you're just starting to train the baby to dip and scoop, it also works better if
you stabilize the baby’s elbow with your other hand.
Gently guide the baby to dip and scoop the puree, and then let your baby do the rest
of the work of bringing the spoon to the mouth.
It does take more practice for babies to get the hang of this movement.
So be patient and keep practicing.
With time, you will be able to decrease the amount of guidance that you’ll need to provide
and the baby will start doing more of the dipping and scooping motion with the spoon.
The fourth step is to demonstrate the dipping and scooping motion and let your baby practice
doing the movements without you using your hand to guide the baby’s hand.
Most babies will be ready to start learning this step around 9 to 10 months of age.
While holding one of the short handled spoons, model for your baby the motion of dipping
it into the bowl and then scooping the food up.
Give the baby an opportunity to practice doing the same with the other self feeding spoon.
It’s incredible to watch how quickly children start to imitate a movement they see modeled
for them.
Of course at first the baby might not hold the spoon correctly when doing it, but once
babies start doing the scooping motion, it's an indication that they’re grasping the
concept.
With practice it’s only a matter of time before the baby masters dipping and scooping
the spoon to self feed independently.
Now let’s talk about introducing a fork.
Learning to eat with a fork is more challenging.
That’s why first you should focus on teaching your child to master eating with a spoon.
From a developmental standpoint, most will only be ready to use a fork after 12 months
of age.
I really like the Mini Fork from ezpz.
It comes in a pack with the Mini Spoon.
These were designed for children 12 months and older and are a little bigger than the
ezpz Tiny Spoons.
After the baby has perfected the ability to dip and scoop the spoon and bring it to the
mouth, then you can start introducing the fork.
The difference when it comes to using the fork is that the baby needs to learn to pierce
the food with it before scooping it up.
This does take more precision and hand-eye-coordination.
If given the opportunity to practice, most children are able to master self feeding with
a spoon and fork by 18 months.
During the toddler years children have a desire to be more independent.
I find that equipping them with the right feeding tools and giving them the opportunity
to practice at every meal sets them up to become independent eaters.
If you’d like to check out all the items I mention in this video, they’re linked
in the description below.
In the comments section, let me know your takeaways.
See you in the next video