Psychologists believe that it is the mother who decides when her child can eat with a spoon. All other decisions about upbringing are made by her. Some babies can eat with a spoon from birth, while a child of an anxious mother cannot eat alone at two years. It all depends on whether parents allow their child try to eat at the table. The earlier the child is allowed to try eating at the table, the better.
The parental task is to encourage their childs enjoyment of eating.
Most children want to eat with a spoon from 9-11 months. If parents encourage this independence, then by 1,5 years, the most persistent children will be able wielding a spoon without any assistance.
At 6 months, a baby tries to eat independently by holding a cookie or cracker in each hand. At 8 months old, when your baby is able to sit comfortably, you can place him in a childs chair and give him a spoon. Sometimes, a baby will grab a spoon from his mothers hand and eat it by himself if you dont do it in time. Mothers can either miss the opportunity or ignore it during meals. If this happens, you can give the spoon to your baby and keep another one. The goal is to maintain a babys enjoyment while they eat with .
Here are some useful tips
Hand washing is required before each spoon-feeding. First, just like an adult, a baby must wash his hands before eating. This will allow a baby to eat.
Its better to purchase unbreakable crockery that has brightly colored images for your baby. Place your babys food on a separate plate. You should not place all the food on the table at once. This will distract your baby and cause him to start requesting only what you have.
Your baby may smear food after you give him a spoon. Then he will start to flail the plate and table with a spoon. Put a small apron over your baby and cover the floor with a bogy-oilcloth.
Do not rail at a baby who throws a spoon onto the ground, while trying to eat with his fingers. He may want to eat alone, but a mate spoon is a food wrecker for him. It fails to bring food to his mouth, throws food away, or smears food on the walls. In such cases, it is much easier to eat a meal with a spoon. Your baby will eventually try to tame his disobedient spoon by looking at his father for several days.
It is not enough for a child to just pick up a spoon. He will need to be able to scoop food, and then he will need to learn how to get food into his mouth. The baby will eventually tire of all this hard work and start to play with food. You should remove everything from the table and leave only a few pieces of meat on a plate for your baby to play with.
Even if a child attempts to eat with spoons, he will still end up contaminating himself and others. You can stop your child from pursuing such destructive impulses. He will never be able learn for long. It is better to be able to rely on your unbreakable crockery and patience, and then youll be pleasantly surprised at the new skills and abilities of your baby. You can also make your babys intellectual growth more productive if you dont put restrictions on it.
Practical parenting work
Paul, our son, loved eating well. He took a spoon from my hand once before we went for a walk. First, I was angry at him. But, after I gave the spoon to my sonny, and then took another for myself, I realized that our 1,5-year-old. Paul attempted to make a puree by himself using a spoon. After several unsuccessful attempts, our baby was a bit upset and we were able to spoon-feed him again. We allowed Paul to continue spoon-feeding independently for a time, then I stopped spoon-feeding alone. As he ate more, his freedom decreased, and he ate less.
He ate the holiday dinner on his second birthday by himself!