How Can I Get My 13 Month Old Daughter To Start Feeding Herself?
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Feb 13th, 2010 |
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She happily eats crackers, raw carrots, basically anything that she can hold but when it comes to proper meals she just chucks her bowl or plate on the floor without even attempting to do it herself. But when I feed her she is always trying to take to spoon from me.
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When my oldest daughter first started feeding herself “real meals” (like canned spaghetti), I would put a plastic tablecloth underneath her high chair and let her go to it. Yes, she made an unholy mess at times, and any of the real food that got in her mouth was usually conveyed there by her fingers, but she had a great time doing it by “herself”.
For cleanup, I would just pop her out of her sleeper, drop that on the tablecloth, and carry her off for her bath. Then do the cleanup of the tablecloth and other surfaces after I had her playing happily in her playpen afterwards.
As long as you don’t make feeding time a chore, and let them learn to do it themselves (if they are hungry enough of the food will go in their mouths), feeding times will always be a pleasure for them. If it involves a little more cleanup for Mom, so what?
Give her a baby spoon and experiment. Don’t worry abotu the mess. It’s how they learn!
My son is almost 2 and he still has a hard time with a spoon. So, I give him a fork. It’s much easier for a tyke to stab a piece of cheese and get it to his mouth than to keep a spoon upright and full until it gets into the mouth. And most people use a spoon maybe once a day, for crereal or for coffee, right? So try letting her use a toddler fork on some soft chunky foods, like macaroni, hot dogs, and canned fruit. You’ll be surprised at what she accomplishes with a little practice. And it’s less messy that way, too!
By the way, dinner is an act of play until about 3 1/2 to 4 yrs, and the finger and thumb will remain the utensils of choice until then, so you might as well get used to it…
SHE WILL GET USE TO IT. YOU JUST HAVE TO KEEP LETTING HER TRY. THERE WILL DEFINITELY BE A MESS. JUST REMEMBER THAT SHE IS STILL A BABY AND AT THAT AGE THEY LOVE TO THROW THINGS.
Give her a spoon or little dipper (gerber) of her own and let her help you. As she gets better and better at feeding herself you can do less and less. Don’t bother with plates or bowls if possible, and if you have to use them, get ones with suction cups on the bottom to stop her from tossing everything.
They have plates with suctions on them, or you could just put it directly on the high chair tray to avoid her chucking the food,
then just acrry on at the dinner table eating, she’ll eat when she sees you are not feeding her and she has good food in front of her face she could eat!
GOOD LUCK!
If you want her to feed herself, then be prepared for mess. Also, accept that she may not quite have the motor skills to do it quite right yet. My daughter is 18 months old, and CAN feed herself, but when it comes to things like soups or anything else that is messy, I still feed her. I dont have all day to sit around and watch her fingerpaint her tray with food and only have 1/10 of it end up in her mouth. Dont be in such a hurry, soon enough she will be miss independant and she wont LET you do anything for her, and you will long for her baby days.
This is part of the learning process.
Give her a spoon to use. She won’t, she’ll make an unholy mess, and maybe get a little food in her mouth by accident, at the same time, “sneak” bites into her mouth when she is distracted by her efforts.
Sit with her, hold onto the plate and feed her from it while she is trying to toss it on the floor, or trying to use the spoon.
Good Luck