Many babies naturally begin to transition from using their fingers to using a spoon and fork to transport food to the mouth. However, these skills do not come readily to all children for a variety of reasons including disinterest in utensil use, decreased fine motor coordination, visual deficits, and sensory processing difficulties among other reasons preventing your child from using their spoon and fork.
At What Age Will My Child Feed Themselves With Utensils?
Once your child has a consistent pincer grasp (pinching with thumb and pointer together) when eating finger foods, is successfully getting food in their mouth, and can sit on their own, they are ready to be introduced to the spoon. Your child should begin using a spoon by the age of 13 to 15 months, however, will improve in precision around 15 months to 2 years. After mastery of the spoon, you can introduce the fork to your child, which tends to occur around 18 months to 3 years. However, every child progresses differently with self-feeding, which is why there is such an age range regarding utensil use development.
Why is Your Child Learning to Feed Themselves SO Important ?
For many children, they feel a sense of independence when they can feed themselves like a “big kid.” It gives them a sense of control and autonomy. They also develop crucial fine motor and visual motor (eye-hand coordination) skills when engaged in self-feeding.
Finger Feeding BEFORE Utensil Use
Finger feeding is one of the first ways that babies learn to use their fingers in a coordinated manner for a desired outcome. This allows them to develop precision, hand-eye coordination (visual motor skills), experience different textures, smells, and learn about body awareness or rather, where their body is in relation to the world around them. Think about your baby attempting to get that cheerio in their mouth. They rarely ever get it on the first try. However, through trial and error, they are able to develop this awareness and muscle memory in order to get closer the next time they attempt self-feeding with a cheerio.
As they are experimenting with using their fingers, they are slowly developing
How to Teach Finger Feeding
- Make them SUCCESSFUL: If this is too difficult for your baby to grasp food, hold the food out to
baby and let them grasp it from your fingers - Give your child TIME: Start by choosing one meal per day to allow your child more time during mealtime to practice this skill
- Make it FUN: If you have anxiety around your child self-feeding, they will sense it. Try to lighten the mood and decrease the pressure of
meal time by playing music in the background or making animal noises when your child successfully gets the food in their mouth - Introduce through PLAY: Have your child first practice this skills by pretending to feel their stuffed animal or feeding you!
Remember that self-feeding is MESSY but WORTH IT for your child’s development
How to Teach Baby to Feed Him or Herself with a Spoon or Fork
Getting your child to eat with utensils can be tricky. Children often don’t see the purpose at first. After all, it’s much quicker and takes less coordination to feed yourself with your hands versus a funny looking new contraption with pointy ends to do it.
Have Patience: It can be difficult to be patient when you want to see your child succeed with this skill. However, all child progress and develop at different paces, therefore be patient while your child practices this skill. They will master their utensils in time.
Practice, Practice, Practice: These skills can only develop through practice and experience. Make sure you give your child countless opportunities per day to practice this skill through play, their self-care routine, and of course, during meal time.
Modeling from the parent and siblings: Babies and toddlers LOVE doing what you do. When you, your partner, and other children are eating with
Allow your child to have some control: Present two food options to your child by holding them up to them and allowing them to point to which they prefer so that they have a degree of control in the situation
Breaking Down the Task: What part of the activity is difficult for my child?
1. Difficulty getting the utensil to their mouth:
Use utensils that work for them: It may be easier for your child to use bright colored utensils so that they can see them as they bring them to their mouth. You can also have them use utensils with a rotating handle so that they don’t have to turn their wrist as much to get the food into their mouth.
Difficulty grasping the utensil: If your child lacks the hand strength or has difficulty
2. Difficulty scooping the food:
Master thick textures: Make sure your child is successful with foods that stick to the spoon first such as pudding and yogurt in order to help them progress. Once they have mastered these foods and are able to get them into their mouth, they can try more difficult food such as mashed banana or apple sauce that require them to really make a scooping motion to attain the food.
Pre-load the spoon: Sometimes certain aspects of the task are difficult for your child. By pre-loading food onto the spoon or fork for your child, this allows them to focus on one aspect of the skill: bringing utensil to mouth. Once they have mastered this aspect, they can practice the scooping or stabbing component.
*Make sure to only load the spoon half-way. Too much food can be difficult for baby to manipulate and swallow successfully
3. Difficulty getting food off spoon:
Lip closure: You can help your child with lip closure around the spoon or fork by lightly pressing on the middle of their upper lip when taking a bite of food, engaging them in sucking food such as ice pops, lollipops, or straws, and using a vibrating toothbrush on their lips and tongue prior to meal time to improve awareness of their lips and mouth
*If your child has moderate to severe difficulty with lip closure, swallowing, manipulating food in their mouth, reflux, gagging during mealtime, please consult your child’s primary care doctor
PRACTICE DURING PLAY!
The best way to develop the skills required for self-feeding or any developmental skill is through PLAY!
- Clay or play-doh: Use clay or play-doh tools such as toy scissors, cookie cutters, and use hands to roll a ball, pinch and pull to develop strength and improved grasp patterns
- Build into other routines: A great way to build skills is to practice within
other day to day routines. During bathtime, have your child scoop and pour water and transfer between different sized cups in order to develophand eye coordination and fine motor skills - Pretend play: Have your child pretend to feed
doll or stuffed animal with spoon and fork or feed you with their utensil. This is also great to work on sharing and turntaking . Even having them feed kibble to the family dog with their spoon may be a funny experience for you and your child! - Playground Play: Practice these scooping and transferring skills by using shovels and buckets in the sandbox or dirt. This will also help improve coordination, hand/grasp strength, and
hand eye coordination.
Factors That May Be Limiting Your Child's Utensil Use
Core strength and stability: Children are not ready to feed themself until they are able to sit stably and comfortably on their own in their chair. Often, if a child feels that they are not able to hold themself upright and are continually seeking support due to decreased core strength, they will not be ready to engage in self-feeding.
Fine Motor Skills: When your child attempts to scoop food onto a spoon or stab a piece of food with a fork in a coordinated way, this is requiring a great deal of fine motor manipulation, control, and hand strength. Make sure that your child can first engage in finger feeding with a pincer grasp on their food and engage in activities to promote fine motor skills development such as scribbling with crayons and manipulating play-doh.
Hand Eye Coordination: If your child is having difficulty with bringing the spoon from bowl to mouth or scooping/stabbing food accurately, they may be having difficulty with the hand eye coordination required for this skill. Help them by guiding their hand from bowl to mouth slowly and engaging in play skills to help their hand eye coordination develop such as throwing a ball, stringing large beads or stacking large blocks.
Vision: Make sure you get your child’s eyes checked regularly. Be aware of any misalignment of their eyes or difficulty with visual tracking (following objects with their eyes). This can affect their ability to engage in self-feeding especially when using utensils.
Behavioral Difficultie: Child desire control in their lives. They often have very little control during meal time and may act out by throwing food, dumping their plate, or not eating. Be sure to offer them choices to give them a sense of control during meal time.
Sensory Processing: If you suspect that your child has difficulty with self-feeding due to sensory concerns such as a limited diet variety and exhibit adverse reactions to certain textured foods, smells and tastes. Ask your doctor to refer your child for an occupational therapy evaluation.
Give your child opportunities throughout their day to be independent in self-care including taking off their own socks and shoes, removing their coat, and helping undress themselves
Please Consult Your Doctor if Your Child Displays Any of These Signs When Using Utensils
- Has extreme difficulty moving food around in their mouth
- Has difficulty chewing or swallowing foods
- Is unable to eat without gagging or choking on food
Look out for signs of allergic reactions including:
- Rashes
- Hives
- Wheezing
- Runny nose
- Swollen lips
What are the best foods to help my child practice utensil use?
We want our child to be successful and not become discouraged. Therefore, it is best to start with foods they can successfully spoon and fork into their mouth such as:
- Spoon foods: mashed potatoes, pudding, yogurt, mashed banana, apple sauce
- Fork foods: pasta, cooked vegetables, cubed cheese, scrambled eggs
How should I spoon feed my infant?
You do not want to scrape the food off the spoon by using the roof of your child’s mouth. Instead, present the food by placing on top of their tongue, wait for them to close their lips around the spoon, manipulate the food off the spoon, and then pull the spoon out straight.
TIPS:
- Make sure your child is secure in their high chair with an upright posture
- Make sure their chin is in a neutral position (not tilted upwards)
- DO NOT feed your child in a car seat, bouncy chair, or any type of incline as this puts them at risk of choking
When will my child use a sippy cup?
In order to encourage this skill: let your child play with small, non-breakable cups, guide your child through it by using hand over hand to help them use both hands together, use only a small amount of liquid to prevent choking and reduce spillage, and have their siblings model for your child how to complete this skill.
When should my child use a knife and fork?
At the age of 5 years old, your child should be learning how to spread condiments on bread and cut soft foods with a knife. However, most children are not independent with using a knife and fork together in order to cut up food due to this being a difficult bilateral hand skill to master. Once this skill is mastered, they can be considered independent with self-feeding.
In order to help your child be more independent, use these tips:
- Make sure that they are seated with an upright posture, supported at the table. You can help improve their stability by using a stack of books to support their feet or a pillow behind their back.
- Have them practice spreading and cutting by having them make their sandwich for school
- Have your child practice cutting during play such as using plastic utensils to cut food for their dolls or friend or cutting play-doh to serve you a pretend meal
- Utensil Adaptations:
- Use knives and forks with textured or grippy handles to help them grasp both simultaneously and more easily
- Use plated that have a lip or a raised edge to prevent food from falling off the plate while they are cutting
- Use a non-slip mat or contact paper under their plate to prevent the dish from moving while they cut their food to help them be more successful
Please ask your child’s doctor about them receiving a feeding evaluation if your child displays any of these red flags:
- Oral motor concerns: difficulty chewing and manipulating their food, extreme food and liquid spillage from the mouth
- Swallowing concerns: the presence of choking, coughing, or gagging on food when swallowing, difficulty managing saliva
- Transitioning concerns: difficulty transitioning to pureed foods by 10 months and solids by 12 months, difficulty transitioning from baby foods and from breast/bottle at 16 months of age
- Nutritional/sensory concerns: frequent food refusals especially for certain textures and food groups, food range of
less than 20 foods by 2 years of age
What is a pediatric feeding disorder?
A pediatric (child) feeding disorder can be defined as a condition in which a baby, infant, or child, is not eating enough or a variety of foods necessary for them to gain sufficient weight and develop typically. This may stem from the child having limited exposure to self-feeding, have difficulty eating due to swallowing or oral motor concerns, or simply refuses to eat.
Best,
Sarah